Some up-close shots of the Monarch I picked up from the online auction, and which may have a future in front of the business end of a can of spray paint.
It's a problem child for sure, but beneath the cosmetic flaws, it's got good bones. The above was typed with the machine held up at an angle -- a gravity-assist carriage.
That unexpected bit of fishing line is the drawband. No, it's not supposed to look like that. But I'm digging the light green color. "Celery" if you're interior-design inclined.
This is the part of the repair job that concerns me the most: I need to remove the silver plate from the back of the drum, seen here from the top. The drawband is fastened inside somehow. There is no convenient knot-hole in which to slip a replacement cord. I am hoping the experience is not like opening one of those trick cans of peanut brittle with the toy snakes inside.
The ribbon is hopelessly twisted and bunched on the spools, with ragged, torn portions. A loss, sadly, but it had enough life near the end to type just a bit.
The king of typewriters? That might be stretching it a bit, but my experience with 1960s Remingtons is that they're snappy, crisp machines.
6 comments:
That's weird, my Remington Star-tab, which is really a Monarch, died yesterday.
Freaky! Perhaps they're conspiring...
What a pretty machine though. I hope you get it fixed soon!
If anyone can fix it, you can.
Oh, and at least you managed to avoid the whole "keep calm and carry on" meme.
consult the oracles on Yahoo!
Sounds like quite a project! All the best with it; you have the knowledge and experience to pull it off.
I found a same-generation Remington this weekend: orange Riviera with the exact same keytops. The carriage-shift and general plastic-ness didn't appeal to me, though.
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