1927 Royal Model P (Aligator Green)

Poor lighting :(

This machine, the first generation of the Royal Portable Typewriter was introduced in 1926. Generally known as the OT mode, some of them bear the P label as well, and technically these had no model names. They were the Royal Portable. This machine revolutionized portable typewriters, it was quite a bit larger than most of the time, but featured nearly every major amenity of full sized standards. Eventually other manufacturers followed suit, but this was the machine that paved the way to mid-sized marvels. I prefer the post 1930 model with the gull wing ribbon colors, but this was way too sweet to pass up.

I picked this machine up off of ebay for around 100$. It came with a matching green case and a lot of issues, including a snapped carriage release leaver. I had initially planned on selling the machine, after giving it all new rubber and a full clean, but the Model P line up is my absolute favorite and I just couldn't see this one going anytime soon. I'll be replacing the platen some time in the near future, as well as the one on my red 1930 machine.

Better Light!! :)

There weren't too many issues with this one, just a lot of corrosion and grime, a seriously bent escapement and carriage rails, and that broken leaver. I was very surprised to see that all the feed rollers were still squishy! The platen was rock hard, and I ordered a set of feet from Steve Dade before I even touched it. (Steve does killer work). Richard, whom I've mentioned here and there, was kind enough to supply the skeletal remains of a O/QDL carriage with the right hand leaver. It was interesting to not that this early rendition of the portable didn't have a left release leaver. The other main thing I was pleasantly surprised with was the lack of both an ampersand above the 7, and a pound above the 3. Instead, it had an equal sign and a plus sign respectively. Of course there was one last surprise, the question mark key legend was a nice swirly fancy one, whereas the later models opted for a more simplistic representation.

The body shell was pretty decent even prior to cleaning

Phone ran out of magic phone-juice so I couldn't record the tear down process

The first thing I knew I was going to have to do was gut the typebars. So after I dissected the carriage and the body panels, I removed the curved bearing rod and stripped the machine of its type. I was very careful to not misplace the thin connection rods, as I wasn't sure if they were marked. Of course I misplaced a few anyways, only to find out after an hour of frustration that they are indeed numbered. Jeez, wow.

Polished up real nice.

Of course once everything was cleaned with naphtha and polished to the best of my abilities (given how unmotivated I am to perform menial tasks) I began the arduous task of addressing why the machine wouldn't FREAKING backspace. It worked great, just wouldn't go backwards. I compared it to another later Model P that I had on the bench, and noticed that the entire rocker plate assembly was at a weird angle. Could it be bent? It was. It was bent about 20 degrees off. I was shocked. You probably are too, and if you aren't then you are probably bored...so go away.

In order to fix this issue, I had to pull the carriage. I don't like pulling carriages, but I've had to. Quiet Deluxe, Speed King, Underwood 6 (easy), LC Smith 8 (hard), Corona 4, Royal P, well....it was time to test the nimbleness of my fingers once again.

I pulled the carriage, off the left side as always (So you don't fight the ratchet going back on), and re-bent the bracket holding the rocker plate. I just took some bent nose pliers and squeezed the rocker plate frame against the carriage rail cross support, and boom. The backspace worked.

The keybars and slugs were left to soak for a day in a red solo cup full of naphtha. From there, I removed the carriage release leaver. It wasn't the leaver that snapped, but the bracket that held it in place, removing that meant taking apart the paper release system. A simple camshaft. In doing this, I knocked over the red solo cup spilling its contents everywhere.

I dunno how to flip this image :(

A sea of naphtha. The Naphthean Sea.

After creating the 8th sea, I took a closer look at broken leaver. I'll skip ahead a little and also discuss the replacement. The leaver has two screws that pass through three layers. The first is a small piece of metal that prevents the leaver from pitching too far back, basically a small metal tab that contacts the carriage rails. The second layer is the leaver itself, and the third is the bracket. The parts I had to replace it with didn't have three layers. The tab was built into the leaver, and the thread sizes were different. Instead of replacing just the bracket, I redid the leaver as well.

DONE!!!

The next step was to replace the felt pad on the key rest. I like matching the color of the new felt to the color of the machine, I usually have the right color, and I've been meaning to put red on my red one, which still has the original felt. My general process for this has evolved into what I feel is a very efficient method. I take a strip of thick leather, and glue a strip of felt to it. Then I glue that too the key rest. Simple right?

Green for the green machine, yellow for the yellow machine.

(yellow coming later this week)

After this was done, I re-installed all of the keybars. This proved to be a little tedious, but I managed alright. Took about an hour to complete.

Each one of these goes to its own letter

Yes, they are numbered. This one is 30

H is number 22.

DONE!!!!

Smooth sailing from that point on. I finished on the carriage, I put the carriage back on the machine, I tightened everything up and straightened out the carriage rails, then I put the body panels on and the new feet from Steve!