u/uglybassface

Everything is pretty much straight forward, the only additions I’d like to make is:

1. The price is just a range, I’m not firm on that by any measure.
2. I LIVE in SWFL, but I’d be willing to drive anywhere in the state
3. Preference would be time buy; however, a trade isn’t off the table. I’ve got nearly 70 machines and would be willing to list them off in a DM to any interested parties.
4. Although I’d MUCH prefer a Gen 1, I’d also be willing to go for a Gen 2 in the right condition for the right price.

• Photo is taken from Erik Bruchez’s collection on TWDB for reference only •

My H3K has a little issue when printing in the blue setting on a two-tone ribbon. The very bottoms of characters with descenders will get contaminated with the bottom color. I’ve searched for a fix/adjustment and looked around on the machine and there isn’t anything obvious poking out at me. Is there a fix any of y’all have figured out for this issue? (Short of using a solid colored ribbon lol) TIA!

p.s. Photos can be provided upon request but it seems pretty self explanatory.

Hello fellow typewriter enthusiasts and (more specifically) Hermes 3000 lovers!

I recently acquired my first Hermes 3000 and, even though it was recently serviced, whoever did it set the on-feet incorrectly (and the card holder as well). My type was printing too high on the platen—too dark on the bottom and too light on the top.

One thing I saw recommended to adjust the motion stops (circled in blue) to bring both cases down; however, through trial and error, I found that this is the incorrect method of approach and incredibly tedious (also, if yours is out like mine and printing too high, chances are the motions stops don’t have enough space to adjust it out anyways). I decided to tackle the adjustment via a bracket on the bottom of the segment with an adjusting screw held tight with a jam nut (circled in red).

In short, loosen the jam nut while holding the screw from turning, loosen the two screws that retain that bracket to the segment itself, and then adjust it in full turn increments at first. Loosening the screw brings the segment down while the inverse brings it up. Adjust and test. If yours is only a little bit out and still halfway typing ok, then one full turn will probably be enough to take you from too high to too low or vice versa. Then it’s just a matter of doing smaller increments (I did quarter turns) back in the opposite direction until you have it zeroed in.

While making your adjustments, when you loosen the two screws holding the bracket, your segment will plop down, as that’s all that holds it vertically. You don’t have to worry about it though, that little adjusting screw holds where you had it last so once you turn the screw however much is appropriate, all you have to do is pull the segment up and tight with the bracket and screw by these two protuberances on each side that make up the bearing rail (circled in green) then tighten everything down. Once you’re happy with the setting, hold the screw and retighten the jam nut. Replace the bottom AND HAPPY TYPING MY FRIENDS! 😁

(Also, on the type test pic, you can see where all of a sudden shifted characters were printing too high, this happened because I didn’t tighten the bracket correctly. I was trying to have too much finesse with it.. just pull the segment as hard as you can into the set screw and tighten that sucker in)

Well, thanks to u/cicada_shell, who was kind enough to sell me his 1st gen Hermes 3000, I’ve finally gotten one in my collection! I know that there’re A LOT of folks who claim these machines are overly hyped up due to Tom Hanks’ appearance in California Typewriter and that many are disappointed after finally getting one.. I must say that this thing is just as phenomenal as I was expecting!

I generally have a rule that I won’t spend over $20 for a typewriter. Given that, every machine I’ve gotten has either needed a lot of cleaning and adjustment or has just needed to be pulled completely apart for a rebuild. Although I broke my rule, it was for a machine that was totally serviced recently and there isn’t even a spec of dust in this darn thing. The only issue I could find with it was that the on-feed adjustment was a little out of spec—making the characters print very darkly on the bottom and too faint on the top. With the loosening of one jam nut and a screw though, it’s already fixed.

When we parted, he sent me off with, “I hope you enjoy the machine and that it brings you a lot of happiness” and, I must say - I already know that will be the case!

What typewriter did you get that was a disappointment to you? Or your experience with the Hermes 3000

So, I sent the platen off to JJ Short for recovering and I figured I’d capitalize on the 3 weeks of down time for a full teardown and restore!

One thing I saw that piqued my curiosity is that, in Corona’s manual there’s a page for lube points… they recommend the segment?? I think I’m going to keep it dry and see how she works. If there’s a problem, I’ll add a tiny bit of oil.

This has been a fun machine to work on thus far. I’ll see if my opinion changes when the time comes for dialing everything in that I took apart 😅

Got our little 7 m/o smacking the keys this morning!
Interesting update on my trash-found Corona 3, I discovered that 1” x 1.25” rubber/vinyl tubing will make the platen work MUCH better. A blow dryer assists with installation. (THIS IS TEMPORARY just to make due for now!! I’ve begun the process of emailing Peter at JJ Short to get it properly recovered - while it’s there, I’m going to take advantage of the down-time and do a full tear down and resto on her!)