u/Pete1885

I did not purposely start out buying so-called birth-year typewriters but I ended up with two (2) of them in my collection of way-to-many machines.

I am 72 years old, having a birth-year of 1954.

I bought these two machines based on condition and did not know their manufacture date until I had them in-hand.

My 1954-made Underwood Quiet Tab Deluxe was the 2nd. machine in my collection.

And my 1954-made Princess-Matic was the 61st. machine in my collection. This one is a re-badge of the Princess 300, issued as part of the Will Scheidegger typing school home-study course. I brought this one in from the UK to the States for $ 108 USD all-in including shipping costs. The Princess 300 seem to be sold here in the States for obscene prices of $ 300, 400, or more. I call in my poor-man's Princess 300.

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Just in case you are in need of a case...

Once in a while I will buy a machine that is missing its case. Usually because the machine is in excellent condition and hard to pass up.

With time, I found perfect-fit cases for my orphan machines.

First machine is my Torpedo 18s which fits perfectly in a spare Underwood-Olivetti 21 case.

Second machine is my Halda P in a Sears electric typewriter case (made in Japan).

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Took me a few years to put together my little collection of Facit (and Addo) typewriters.

All are manuals with the exception of the electric shown in the last photo.

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Love my 1960-made AMC manual typewriter, which is a re-badge of the Alpina AK-24 model.

It is a big and heavy portable with a CR lever made of nylon and which rotates 90-degrees for storage in its case. My case was pretty trashed so I restored it and gave it some new colours. It was originally all grey in colour.

This machine was purchased new by a high school senior student. It followed him to college, then to the seminary, and all throughout is career as a pastor. He even used it in his retirement on a daily basis until his passing around 2001.

His HS senior photo is shown as the last photo, attached below.

I bought the machine from his surviving daughter 10 years later when she realized it had not come out of the closet since her father's passing.

I have a standing agreement with her family that should they ever want the machine back in their family, they can have it for the same $$'s I spent to add it to my home. Figured a grand-child or great grand-child might want it in the future.

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I find myself enjoying the hobby of restoring typewriter cases as much (or maybe even more) than getting typewriters back to 100% working.

Here are some I have done for some of the machines in my collection.

Wonders what some cans of spray-paint and time/patience can accomplish.

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Had a case come with its leather closure-strap torn off the case body. Case is for my Imperial Good Companion 5.

I did a bit of some "out-of-the-box" thinking and came up with this solution that did not involve any sewing.

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Got a Remington Deluxe 5 portable in and found out the carriage return arm spring was broken and missing pieces.

Rather than trying to find the right sized torsional spring, I just used a linear spring. Repair took less than 5 minutes.

I also like how the new spring gives the machine a bit of a steam-punk look.

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Another one of my Olympia Travellers from 1979,

Done up in "Purple Iris" just for fun.

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Another Olympia Traveller...done up by me in "Sweet Mango" colour scheme.

The real surprise is when the machine turned out to be cursive script and it only cost me $ 95 all-in to bring it into the States from the UK.

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Another addition of colours to a different Olympia Traveller.

This Traveller was made after the transfer to Yugoslavia and it is a machine with fixed-stops Tabulator function.

This one is Coral pink...

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Love adding some colour touches to my Olympia Travellers. Here is one in Poppy Red.

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I brought this 1977 Olympia Monica-S from the UK to my home in the States for a total of $ 80 USA,,,all in.

This was before all the Tariffs started coming into play.

These were made in the UK (Belfast No. Ireland) in their older adding machine factory.

There was a basic Monica with no Tabluator, the Monica-S with manually step Tab stops along its back panel, and the Monica Deluxe with a key-board Tab set/clear lever plus touch control.

I went with the Moinca-S for the simplicity of its manually-set Tabulator.

For 1977 with its all plastic body cowlings, it is still a very competent and enjoyable manual typewriter. And its styling is still very sexy.

I did add a bit of colour splash to its Tab key-top (see in last photo).

My wife even made a nice dust-cover for it. The machine did come with a plastic-lid which is not very attractive.

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Here is my Olympia SKM manual typewriter made in 1976.

Think of it as a SM9 stretched out into a wide-carriage with new body cowlings. But without that "odd" look of a typical wide-carriage.

I added some new colour to my SKM.

I also think the SKM was Olympia getting ready for their "Report Electric" model, which was also known as the SKE model.

Here is my SKM and my SKE in the last photo...so you can see the styling similarities in my last photo.

As much as I hate to do it, sometimes it takes 2 machines to make 1 whole machine.

This is my 1972 Hermes 3000 (3rd. generation made in France). Made whole with parts and plastic cowlings from a non-working parts machine.

Combined, I ended up spending about $ 140 for the two of them including shipping of the parts machine.

I actually like typing on this French-made machine a lot more than on my 1964 Hermes 3000 (1ist. generation),

My 1st. gen. has a vagueness to the action of the key-levers...like a layer of Jello is involved.

My French-made machine is very tactile and direct-feeling.

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Got this wonderful 1961-made Aztec 600 which was a re-badge of a Rheinmettal KsT machine made in East Germany.

If has nifty features like a very easy carriage removal to aid in deep cleaning and an easy way to remove individual type-slug levers.

It types as well as my Olympia SM3 and SM4 machines.

I did not like the use of way too, too much "Soviet green" in its colour scheme. So I added some ivory-cream colour in a satin finish.

Before and after photos, follow...

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The "Americana" version of the Royal Futura 800 was a great addition to my collection.

I took a all-blue Royal Parade and made it into a little brother for my Americana. I call it Americana Junior.

Before and after photos...

Won this 1963 Royal Parade for cheap on Shop Goodwill.

When I got it home, I discovered most of the linkages for Tab clear/set were removed inside the machine.

I removed what was left and just set Tab stops manually every 8 spaces across the platen. I then epoxy-glued those Tab stop in place. Thereby making my Parade with a fixed-stop Tabulator.

I also jazzed up the Parade with a new colour scheme.

I also added peel & stick felt to the underside of the ribbon cover and along 2/3 of the bottom panel to help town-down the typing noise.

This is a sturdy machine, with cast alum. alloy cowlings and is a very competent typewriter.

Here are Before and After photos of my efforts.

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Got this very good Smith-Corona "Pacemaker" standard typewriter on Shop Goodwill for only $ 48 all-in.

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/Had a bit too much seafoam green colour to my liking so I add some splashes of paint to break-up the green some. Did a full service on it as well and a new B/R silk ribbon, too.

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Before and After photos, below :

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