Showing posts with label Olivetti Lettera 33. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olivetti Lettera 33. Show all posts
Friday, April 08, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Of Powell's, Poetry, and Paper
An odd assortment of titles, perhaps--mystery, sci-fi, poetry--but it's my kind of odd!
Paper bounty: Clairefontaine staple-bound notebook, Rhodia staple-bound notebook, Leuchtturm 1917
Leuchtturm as compared with a Moleskine--the Leuchtturm (top) is slightly wider.
Blurb from the back of the Leuchtturm 1917
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Cats, Curiosity, and Peurile Paranoia
1. Curiosity
Last night I went to bed way too late, after rigging up a temporary new drawband for the Lettera 33 out of beading wire stuff. It sort of works, but the carriage still feels wobbly, the margins still aren't catching most of the time, and the carriage occasionally stops short and has to be pushed by hand. It also isn't always locking into place...you can push it back and forth without releasing some of the time. So there's obviously something pretty wrong.
This morning, after tossing and turning all night worrying about the thing, I got up early and started in on cleaning the stinky, stinky case. I set the typewriter off to one side for the time being. I'd set the damp case in a warm place to dry and was getting ready for work when I heard a weird sort of sound coming from the living room. I went in to discover Halvah, who has never shown the slightest interest in my typewriters, mashing her head against the keys of the Lettera and purring. She'd gotten some of the keys jammed.
Blurry cell phone photo of Halvah at work...
And then she *fixed the jammed keys*. She was still poking at the thing when I left for work. Considering I haven't cleaned it up yet, I suppose she can't do much harm. It's already broken. I'm a little perplexed by her fascination, though.
2. Paranoia
Given all the people who could have commented on my misadventures but didn't, the paranoid portion of my psyche is picturing the denizens of the typosphere around a virtual water cooler, gossiping about me behind my back and looking down their noses at my stupidity (as if y'all don't have better things to do...)
"What an idiot she is, huh?"
"...got what she deserved."
"I'd offer advice, but I'm speechless. What a knucklehead."
"I'm glad *I* know better than to buy typewriters off eBay, even once every two or three years. Unlike *her*."
"*I'd* never spend more than $7 for a typewriter. They're everywhere, after all, no matter what she claims. I mean, I picked up six last week for thirty bucks!"
"Taking typewriters to a repairman is a sign of weakness."
In my defense against these imaginary critics, in the entire last year, I bought three typewriters, and I sold one of the three. I've taken a grand total of one typewriter in for repair, back in 2009. As for why I risked eBay, in all my years of looking, I've found about four manual typewriters at local thrift stores, three of which were late-model SCMs (my Galaxie is the one of the three I kept--the others were scrubbed clean and received new ribbons, but ultimately went to new homes) and the fourth was the Olympia SM-9 I sent off recently. I've never ever ever ever found an Olivetti Lettera of any kind locally, the closest to it being the Olivetti Studio I traded for at the type-in. It isn't a Lettera, and it wasn't truly local.
And as for repairs, as I confirmed last night, I don't have the patience, the skill, and (perhaps most importantly) the tools. There's only so much I can do with a five dollar mini-toolkit, a cheap hammer, and a pair of tweezers. It'd probably cost me as much to put together a decent work bench as it would to pay to have someone with good eyesight and, you know, actual skill.
Also, I don't have the luxury of having x number of a particular model so I can compare the broken with the functional.
I did at least *try* to fix it. Can I get partial credit for that, you faceless imaginary Internet naysayers??
Last night I went to bed way too late, after rigging up a temporary new drawband for the Lettera 33 out of beading wire stuff. It sort of works, but the carriage still feels wobbly, the margins still aren't catching most of the time, and the carriage occasionally stops short and has to be pushed by hand. It also isn't always locking into place...you can push it back and forth without releasing some of the time. So there's obviously something pretty wrong.
This morning, after tossing and turning all night worrying about the thing, I got up early and started in on cleaning the stinky, stinky case. I set the typewriter off to one side for the time being. I'd set the damp case in a warm place to dry and was getting ready for work when I heard a weird sort of sound coming from the living room. I went in to discover Halvah, who has never shown the slightest interest in my typewriters, mashing her head against the keys of the Lettera and purring. She'd gotten some of the keys jammed.
Blurry cell phone photo of Halvah at work...
And then she *fixed the jammed keys*. She was still poking at the thing when I left for work. Considering I haven't cleaned it up yet, I suppose she can't do much harm. It's already broken. I'm a little perplexed by her fascination, though.
2. Paranoia
Given all the people who could have commented on my misadventures but didn't, the paranoid portion of my psyche is picturing the denizens of the typosphere around a virtual water cooler, gossiping about me behind my back and looking down their noses at my stupidity (as if y'all don't have better things to do...)
"What an idiot she is, huh?"
"...got what she deserved."
"I'd offer advice, but I'm speechless. What a knucklehead."
"I'm glad *I* know better than to buy typewriters off eBay, even once every two or three years. Unlike *her*."
"*I'd* never spend more than $7 for a typewriter. They're everywhere, after all, no matter what she claims. I mean, I picked up six last week for thirty bucks!"
"Taking typewriters to a repairman is a sign of weakness."
In my defense against these imaginary critics, in the entire last year, I bought three typewriters, and I sold one of the three. I've taken a grand total of one typewriter in for repair, back in 2009. As for why I risked eBay, in all my years of looking, I've found about four manual typewriters at local thrift stores, three of which were late-model SCMs (my Galaxie is the one of the three I kept--the others were scrubbed clean and received new ribbons, but ultimately went to new homes) and the fourth was the Olympia SM-9 I sent off recently. I've never ever ever ever found an Olivetti Lettera of any kind locally, the closest to it being the Olivetti Studio I traded for at the type-in. It isn't a Lettera, and it wasn't truly local.
And as for repairs, as I confirmed last night, I don't have the patience, the skill, and (perhaps most importantly) the tools. There's only so much I can do with a five dollar mini-toolkit, a cheap hammer, and a pair of tweezers. It'd probably cost me as much to put together a decent work bench as it would to pay to have someone with good eyesight and, you know, actual skill.
Also, I don't have the luxury of having x number of a particular model so I can compare the broken with the functional.
I did at least *try* to fix it. Can I get partial credit for that, you faceless imaginary Internet naysayers??
Monday, March 14, 2011
Devastation (with updates)
To begin with, the Lettera 33 smells like Stinky. But that, I expected. Also, it was packed with *nothing* around it...a few folded pieces of brown paper that did nothing except maybe keep the shipping box protected from the dirty case. And, though it may or may not have happened in shipping, it has several issues...and none of them things I feel hopeful I can fix on my own. The biggest one is that the carriage feels sort of wobbly, and the draw band is off, and although the whatchamacallit the draw band winds around still feels like the spring inside is working, it doesn't feel...right.
*sigh*
I should know better than to go near eBay.
On the bright side...um...the bright side? It came with a little Lettera 33 manual. Yay.
I guess there's always Blue Moon. Maybe this will have a happy ending after all. In the meantime, I guess I can concentrate on cleaning the case. I don't have the heart to work on the busted typewriter.
UPDATE (and this is precisely why I shouldn't work on my own typewriters): I fixed the draw band...sort of...for awhile...before everything went terribly south. The first time, the tension wasn't high enough, I don't think, because it would go about halfway across and then sort of lose steam. So I went to try again, and it was closer, but still too loose. So I tried another time. And *this* time, the screw I was using as a weight in order to lower the cord through the typewriter and attach it at the bottom of the carriage on the other side got stuck in the mechanism. And I can't get it out. At all. No amount of jiggling and tapping and yelling at it makes any difference. Neither did cutting the cord to it so the screw is in there all alone. The carriage is jammed to one side with that screw in there, and so far as I can see the carriage will need to come off to remove it, and there's no easy way to remove the carriage when you can't *move* the carriage. So not only do I still have to take it down to Blue Moon, but now I can't even take it in the case, and I have to admit what an idiot I am. I spent the better part of the evening trying to get the darned thing out, so I'm tired and cranky and I smell like mildew and I want to cry and maybe punch something.
So there's that.
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: I got the carriage centered again. And I sort of rigged up a temporary draw band to let me play with it. The draw band doesn't work quite as it should...I probably still have the tension wrong, or it's too short. And the margins aren't working...maybe they weren't working to begin with, or maybe I busted 'em. In any case, I'm not attempting any further fixes on my own. On the bright side, from what little typing I can do...this is one comfortable, snappy little typer. Maybe all will come out right in the end...?
*sigh*
I should know better than to go near eBay.
On the bright side...um...the bright side? It came with a little Lettera 33 manual. Yay.
I guess there's always Blue Moon. Maybe this will have a happy ending after all. In the meantime, I guess I can concentrate on cleaning the case. I don't have the heart to work on the busted typewriter.
UPDATE (and this is precisely why I shouldn't work on my own typewriters): I fixed the draw band...sort of...for awhile...before everything went terribly south. The first time, the tension wasn't high enough, I don't think, because it would go about halfway across and then sort of lose steam. So I went to try again, and it was closer, but still too loose. So I tried another time. And *this* time, the screw I was using as a weight in order to lower the cord through the typewriter and attach it at the bottom of the carriage on the other side got stuck in the mechanism. And I can't get it out. At all. No amount of jiggling and tapping and yelling at it makes any difference. Neither did cutting the cord to it so the screw is in there all alone. The carriage is jammed to one side with that screw in there, and so far as I can see the carriage will need to come off to remove it, and there's no easy way to remove the carriage when you can't *move* the carriage. So not only do I still have to take it down to Blue Moon, but now I can't even take it in the case, and I have to admit what an idiot I am. I spent the better part of the evening trying to get the darned thing out, so I'm tired and cranky and I smell like mildew and I want to cry and maybe punch something.
So there's that.
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: I got the carriage centered again. And I sort of rigged up a temporary draw band to let me play with it. The draw band doesn't work quite as it should...I probably still have the tension wrong, or it's too short. And the margins aren't working...maybe they weren't working to begin with, or maybe I busted 'em. In any case, I'm not attempting any further fixes on my own. On the bright side, from what little typing I can do...this is one comfortable, snappy little typer. Maybe all will come out right in the end...?
Anticipation...
Today is the day the Olivetti Lettera 33 finally gets here!
The good news is that Fed-Ex Ground delivers to my work building first thing in the morning, so I won't have to wait nervously for hours before the package arrives.
The bad news is that Fed-Ex Ground delivers to my work building first thing in the morning, and there isn't a convenient time to stop and unpack and clean a typewriter in the midst of the work day, so I'll have to wait nervously for hours before opening the package.
It builds character, I suppose.
The good news is that Fed-Ex Ground delivers to my work building first thing in the morning, so I won't have to wait nervously for hours before the package arrives.
The bad news is that Fed-Ex Ground delivers to my work building first thing in the morning, and there isn't a convenient time to stop and unpack and clean a typewriter in the midst of the work day, so I'll have to wait nervously for hours before opening the package.
It builds character, I suppose.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Oh dear...
Why, why, why do I do these things??
I appear to have acquired what is in all likelihood a candidate for the position of Stinky Jr. *sigh*
This is a prime example of why I should not be permitted to wander the halls of eBay unchaperoned. And unlike Stinky, I had clear photographs of the dirty stinkiness, so I have no excuse for my behavior. The second after I placed the opening bid, I started praying someone would outbid me, but they stopped short by about a dollar.
In my own defense, in several years of Lettera 22/32/33 stalking on eBay, I've rarely seen them go for under $50 not counting shipping, even when they're in poor cosmetic shape and described as non-functional. And it's the type pitch I was hoping for. And horribly, horribly filthy though the case is, the zipper looks intact. If it *only* needs a serious cleaning and maybe some general maintenance, it might not be such a bad deal. I can do cleaning (I have experience, for better or worse...) and I can postpone the trip to Blue Moon until it arrives just in case it has issues with ribbon reversal or other such common things.
Tentatively excited...'cause you know I've always wanted to be like Duffy and Ryan... It could be a total heartbreak...but maybe it won't be.
Wondering what that "CAMO" thing is all about. I reckon I need to come up with a good story or a means to cover it, 'cause it's likely to be questioned. A last name, maybe?
I appear to have acquired what is in all likelihood a candidate for the position of Stinky Jr. *sigh*
This is a prime example of why I should not be permitted to wander the halls of eBay unchaperoned. And unlike Stinky, I had clear photographs of the dirty stinkiness, so I have no excuse for my behavior. The second after I placed the opening bid, I started praying someone would outbid me, but they stopped short by about a dollar.
In my own defense, in several years of Lettera 22/32/33 stalking on eBay, I've rarely seen them go for under $50 not counting shipping, even when they're in poor cosmetic shape and described as non-functional. And it's the type pitch I was hoping for. And horribly, horribly filthy though the case is, the zipper looks intact. If it *only* needs a serious cleaning and maybe some general maintenance, it might not be such a bad deal. I can do cleaning (I have experience, for better or worse...) and I can postpone the trip to Blue Moon until it arrives just in case it has issues with ribbon reversal or other such common things.
Tentatively excited...'cause you know I've always wanted to be like Duffy and Ryan... It could be a total heartbreak...but maybe it won't be.
Wondering what that "CAMO" thing is all about. I reckon I need to come up with a good story or a means to cover it, 'cause it's likely to be questioned. A last name, maybe?
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