Building a Royal O model


Mostly complete.  Time to install the body

 It is not an uncommon occurrence in the world of typewriter repair to be given a selection of parts and be asked to create a whole machine.  This month it has happened twice.  Since I love royals, I though I'd give a short overview in the work that is involved in such a project.

Dirty Dirty

One of the parts machines

The two subjects in question were two Royal Os in gloss black, the first of which was missing all feet, the spacebar, the entire constitution of the carriage besides the frame, and had (as I discovered) a bent rack.  The bent rack caused the carriage to bind on the escapement pawl.  The second O was missing the carriage entirely, which was situated off to the side in a heap.  It was also missing the bell striker and the rear carriage rail, as well as the shift bearings.


Post cleaning

Really clean



Picking and chosing.  I actually had three options including
the parts I picked from my own stock

New QDL rollers installed.  The 40s era rollers fit just fine

CLEANNN

Adjusting the shift rest

adjusting the rail spacing

My first assessment told me that the one with the intact rails would be easiest to fix, so after cleaning up the bulk of the machine, I began the cleaning and transfer of parts based on aesthetics, and selecting only the ones I felt looked the best.  This included a brand new set of feed rollers.  






All the panels were polished for both machines so I could judge which would be the nicest.  Then it got some shift alignment, as well as a sift seating alignment, rail alignment, etc etc.  It took a large amount of work to get this machine typing as well as it looked.

Little tip, a clamp can sometimes help install the rear panel.


Shift alignment 

SHINE


It was a taxing project, but not terribly difficult.  I have done worse for sure.  The carriage was all out of whack on this one, but it came out looking absolutely fantastic.  These lovely gloss black O models are quite stunning and handsome machines.  I have yet to own one for myself, but find myself taken away each and every time one falls into my hands.  Those body panels are a PITA to work with though.  If you've had to wrangle one, you know what I'm talking about.


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