This page will center on repairs to machines. There will be tig welding of frames and carriages, platen revival and so forth.



This experiment in restoring a bad platen was on a parts machine. The platen was hard as a rock and faded gray. I tried scruffing the platen up with 320 grit
sand paper to no avail. 

I then applied "Flex Seal" (yes, as seen on TV) via a small paint brush and let it cure for 24 hours. It shined to a glossy black finish and appears to be a hard finish..

I reinstalled the platen and tested it. This was my second attempt at platen restoration. The first machine I sprayed the "Flex Seal" on via their spray can. The platen came out a bit rough, and I had to turn it down on my lathe via sandpaper. It worked fine in  the Underwood portable, drawing the paper in nicely.

Back to the latest test. The platen drew the paper in as good as a new platen. It typed well with very little indentations from the type slugs. Time will tell how the platen stands up to the hammering. Two sheets of paper would be a good caution measure I suppose, but I'm going to run the test with one sheet.

I posted a youtube.com video of the latest test on the Corona 3. I hope this helps folks who don't want to spent the money for a new platen. This may be a good alternative for you.

Here is a Royal Barlock I bought on ebay. It was advertised as broken in previous shipment. I bought it knowing this hoping I could weld the frame back together. The frame was in four pieces as you can see.

It was a tough weld job, but I got it done. With some filler material to be applied, it should look pretty good after the finish work. I'll address the workings of the machine at a later date when I get time.

Below are the photos.
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Here are some tips I've learned fixing my own machines prior to putting them on the shelf, hopefully they can help you out as well

Olympia SM 3 tab function works while upper case engaged, but not lower case.


Loosen the screw on the rod, rotate the clamp downward a bit while the rod stays still, them tighten the screw and test. One shot took care of this issue for me.