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Saturday, 30 August 2014

The Naked Underwood

The last of the booty typewriters I've tackled is this Underwood, which, apart from having been badly neglected, had a snapped paper bail, a broken drawband and several missing keytops, including a shift key. The typebasket was totally jammed up. I took the machine apart completely and stripped every trace of dirty grey paint off it before reassembling it. I'm experimenting with a number of different products to get a nice, smooth and even shine all over. One thing I found worked well in cleaning up the segment and typebars was oven cleaner. I've jury rigged a paper bail from an earlier model, a spare parts machine, and used the drawband off that to get this one working again. Still plenty to do yet, including finding some keytops, but I like the way it's looking. Better naked, I say, than in shabby clothes:
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6 comments:

  1. Richard P31 August 2014 at 00:04

    Wow, that looks amazing. It gives the machine a whole different feel, an H.R. Geiger sort of look.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard P31 August 2014 at 00:05

    I mean Giger.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Robert Messenger31 August 2014 at 00:42

    Thanks Richard, I take your point. Maybe I should call it the Giger Underwood!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Erik31 August 2014 at 02:14

    Maybe you can emboss a spine and some segmented legs in the sheet metal ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ted31 August 2014 at 03:15

    and rig it up so if you make too many mistakes, it shoots a Facehugger at you! :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous17 September 2014 at 09:01

    Hi Robert. I've acquired a 1935 Underwood portable that's in very good condition but not quite operational. Do you know anyone in Brisbane who might be able to repair it?

    ReplyDelete

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