I also did a restoration of a platen with shrinking rubber tubes, but by removing the whole original rubber and doing 4 layers of the shrinking tubes to achieve the needer diameter. After that I wanted to confirm that the new rubber is softer than the old/hard one and used a Durometer Type A for that. Desired hardness would be 85-90 Shore A but the shrinking tubes was 93-96 Shore A, so not that soft as one would wish. And other old platen also were around 95 Shore A. Only some really old platen (from 1930s machines) were harder than that.
If the platen has worn evenly, not a lot. The sanding does remove material evenly if applied evenly but a mic is needed. I do use a lathe these days just to avoid this potential variant.
This really helped me! I have tons of electronic repair stuff and I found an old typewriter I want to restore and now I finally can repair that platen. Do you happen to know what grit sandpaper you used? Or the lower the better?
@@typewritermusedid you think about just standing with high grit the original platn and thats all. Or that and then a layer of a somehow "gummy" material, then the sleeve?
@@typewritermuse Thank you. I probably will some day. Im not sure card holder is the right term, but there is an actual mechanism inside the platen. a lever on the right of the platen makes two hooks come out
This was not boring at all! In fact, for a viewer not knowing what was going to happen next, it was quite suspenseful and fascinating at the same time! Snacks and tea on hand, bonus! Loved the "errgh erh errgh erh" example at the end too! 😅
Thank's for sharing this. I've just recovered the platens on a 1939 Empire baby and a 1950 Empire Aristocrat (a.k.a. Hermes Baby and Hermes Rocket) using this method and it appears to have worked well. They look like new and type well. I did the sanding in the garden on a windy day. It is messy!
A good example of what you don't know wont hurt you. platen diameters must be within specified tolerances for both feed roll contact and typeface impressions of the full character. Unfortunately there will always be those who "know better than the original manufacturers
trial and errors. That's the game nowadays. The old rubber hardened like concrete. This method though not ideal, but it can protect the type slugs from smashing on concrete. None of us claims to know better than the manufacturers or the engineering at all (& NONE of them exist anymore) so we have to Mcguyver these things. Again, not ideal, but it's a way to use these machines again without breaking the type slugs (or the bank). By the way, 1-2 mm difference in diameter make ABSOLUTELY no difference at all in the typing action, imprints, or feed rolling action. I've done 70+ of these so I can definitely say we can do this without hurting the machine. Cheers.
tHERE ONE OR TWO OF US LEFT WHO KNOW WHAT TO DO. DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU GET THE IDEA 1 OR 2 MILLIMETERS MAKES NO DIFERENCE, IF YOU'RE GOING TO SET YOURSELF UP AS SOME KIND OF TYPEWRITER EXPERT AT LEAST GEAR UP FOR IT, WOOD TURNING LATHES ARE NOT EXPENSIVE AND CAN BE EASILY MODIFIED TO SKIM PLATENS, FOR ACCURACY CALIPERS ARE ALSO INEXPENSIVE. tYPING ACTIONS AND IMPRESSIONS ARE TWO ENTIRELY DIFFEFERENT FUNCTIOND@@studiobuda
