Tag: Remington Super-Riter

Rubber Grommet Repair on Remington Super-Riters and Standards

As rubber replacement is one of the necessary and sometimes more finnicky parts of typewriter restoration, I thought it would be useful to write up the details of a small recent repair for others as well as my future self.

Late last May, I did a full clean, oil, and adjust (COA) on my 1951 Remington Super-Riter. One of the few restorations steps I didn’t carry out at the time was the replacement of the rubber grommets on the two side panels and the rear panel. The rubber was so hard and brittle on most of them that they crumbled off leaving only the brass inserts. Some of them also left a sludgy black residue on the metal.

Angle on a brown crinkle painted Remington standard typewriter side panel with a rubber grommet and brass eyelet insert embedded in the bottom of the panel. The rubber is obviously dried, shrunk, and brittle.

Two rows of rubber grommets and brass eyelets.
The top left is an original brass eyelet/new rubber grommet assembly next to three new rubber grommets. The bottom row features a desiccated rubber grommet next to three original brass eyelets.

This weekend, I went foraging at the local Ace Hardware store to find some replacements for the originals.

A tray of 10 different assorted sizes of rubber grommets. On the bottom cover of the tray are all the sizing specs and model numbers while several hundred grommets are sorted into small compartments on the bottom of the tray.

I took a reasonable guess and for 27 cents each I picked up six grommets which were the perfect size. If you’re in the market for your own replacement rubber grommets, they were Hillman part number 55051-A with the following specifications: ID: 1/8″; OD: 11/32″; Thickness: 3/16″; Grove Diameter: 1/4″; Groove width: 1/16″ .

Printed label with the specs of the Hillman 55051-A rubber grommet printed on it above a bar code.

When I went to install them, I discovered that I was able to wiggle them into the holes in the side panels. I could also get the brass grommets back in with a bit of work. However, I couldn’t discern for the life of me why they included the brass grommets from an engineering perspective. Leaving them off seems to allow a nice friction fit of the panels on the appropriate metal pins against the rubber. Further, without the brass grommets one seems to get not only a better fit, but the vibration dampening of the panels seems to work better. I also suspect the grommet life of the rubber will be better this way in the long run.

Interior of brown crinkle painted Remington standard typewriter side panel with a new black rubber grommet inserted perfectly into the hole on its bottom.

I notice that my later 1956 Remington Standard has a similar design for the side and rear panels, but in that case they’d switched to a single center pin and put two bare rubber grommets on each side of it, choosing to leave off the brass internal eyelets by this time—apparently they came to the same conclusion I had. This means that this same rubber grommet repair can be done on a variety of Remington standard typewriters made after World War II.

Editor’s Note: If you’re cleaning or repairing your own Remington Standard from this era, be sure to check and see if it’s got the Fold-A-Matic feature for making your job much easier. 

If for historical or consistency reasons, you insist on the brass gromets as part of the repair of your personal machine, you can certainly manage to use the originals with some care, however, if you’ve got your own eyelet tool (which many typewriter repair people may have for inserting eyelets into ribbon for the auto-reverse functionality of Smith-Corona typewriters) you can use it in combination with new 3/16″ (or slightly smaller) metal eyelets to more permanently seat your rubber grommets into your metal panels.

Have you tried this restoration trick before? What did you use for replacements?

Restored 1951 Remington Super-Riter Standard Typewriter

Earlier this week I started stripping down my recently acquired 1951 Remington Super-Riter typewriter. The machine’s serial number puts it into the 15th month of production of the Super-Riter which replaced the storied Remington 17 and the Remington KMC.

Features of the Remington Super-Riter

A nearby manual for the Super-Riter can be found in the one Richard Polt lists as a Super-Riter, but which seems to be for the slightly later Remington Standard.

This machine, which weighs in at a solid 33.7 pounds, provides a similar Keyboard Margin Control (KMC) functionality which it’s predecessor the Remington KMC did. This allows one to very quickly and easily set the margins by holding down the key and moving the carriage. I find it to be wonderfully ingenious and much more robust than Royal’s Magic Margins similar feature which is much easier to accidentally activate and subsequently mess up your carefully set margins.

The keyboard also features a key return button (marked KR) which allows one to quickly clear key jams by pressing a button. This helps prevent one from getting inky fingers otherwise caused by pressing the jammed keys back down by hand, an action which also requires taking one’s hands off the keyboard to effectuate.

This model has a relatively standard American keyboard with 42 keys and 84 characters. It has a tabulator with a keyboard-based tab button at the top flanked by tab set and tab clear buttons.

While they look like doubleshot plastic, the keys are done in two molded plastic pieces which are friction fit together.  The keys are also friction fit onto the key levers so they’re (relatively) easy to remove for cleaning.

The platen is easily removeable and potentially replaceable by pulling a small lever on the front of each side of the typewriter. 

Different from many typewriters of this era, the side plates for the carriage are friction fit onto the machine utilizing a pip on the front and two on the back. A thin screwdriver wedged into the back will loosen them and allow their removal. Once these are taken off, the paper table lifts off easily. (Apparently someone was unaware of this on this particular typewriter and an incredibly thin piece of the metal holding the paper table on was shorn off. Hopefully this note will save future paper tables from damage.)

Restoration

Surprisingly all the panels of the body are removable from the chassis with just ten screws (and the removal of the knob on the ribbon reversal). The paint and finish of the typewriter were in dreadful condition and cleaning with some Simple Green and a soft bristled brush followed by a wipe-down with WD-40 have done some wonders, but it still leaves much to be desired. There are some drips of red paint and more than a fair share of chips and wear. On the positive side, the decals are in great condition. Because all the body is easily removeable, I’m very tempted to use this as a candidate for either stripping and repainting or potentially a plating process (nickel seems fun here perhaps).

This is my second Remington standard with the Fold-A-Matic feature, which again, made cleaning out and making adjustments of the interior much simpler. A prior servicing had sprayed oil everywhere inside the majority of the typewriter which had long since hardened and gummed up with dust. With the use of some mineral spirits, a toothbrush, a brass bristle brush, and the air compressor the interior is about as clean as it can be without completely disassembling the entire machine and hand polishing everything.

The rubber on most of this machine is in acceptable condition. The feet are excellent for their age and still have some grip that prevent it from walking across a desk. The rollers are still round and have grip. The platen is great for it’s age, but will certainly see recovering once the exterior is stripped and restored.

One set of pieces which didn’t survive as well are the brass grommets and rubber gaskets which are used to hold the side and rear panels onto the machine. I can easily clean up the brass portions, but the rubber will require complete replacement. In the meanwhile the machine is functional without them, but it will help to give the panels more stability and reduce small vibrations.

You’ll find a “naked” photo of the typewriter during restoration here.

Ribbon and Typeface

I’ve replaced the old, dried out ribbon with 1/2 inch blue and green bichrome from Fine Line. The typeface, based on the 1964 NOMDA Blue Book, seems to be Remington’s 534-10 pitch.

Typeface sample of Remington 534-10 pitch on a Remington Super-Riter

Photos

Angle down onto the front of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter

View down onto the dark green keys of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter. The letters appear double shot in light green plastic.

Close up angle on the hood and carriage of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter

Table level view of the front of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter typewriter. There's a silver Remington badge on the front of the hood.

Left side profile view of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter sitting on a lazy susan. The greenish-brown crinkle paint is worn but has been shined up a bit.

Close up of the Remington metal-esque logo on the hood of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter

Left front corner table level view of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter. The side of the keyboard section has a heavy used patina.

The broad expansive and massive looking rear of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter

Right profile table-level view of 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter

Close up from the right side of the right side of the carriage of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter

Seen from behind, this is a view down into the wide opening of a typebasket of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter. We see all the typebars and the slugs. Two brown crinkle painted wings extend from the sides of the typewriter to help cut down on dust into the machine. At the front of the photo we see the shiny silver typing point right next to the platen.

Angled view of the left side of the carriage on a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter. We see the green plastic platen knob and silver variable platen button on it.

Close up view of the hood and typing point of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter

Close up view of the mechanics on the right side of the carriage and platen of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter

Left side angel on the bulbous shape of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter. It sits on a wooden lazy Susan on a wooden table with a bee themed table runner. In the background are several bookcases full of books.

Acquired 1951 Remington Super-Riter Standard Typewriter by Remington Rand, Inc.
S/N: J2013204
Remington Pica 534, 10 pitch typeface; 6 lines/inch
Dirty as all get out, but seems to function nearly flawlessly. A full clean, oil, and adjust is mandatory as will be new ribbon, but in surprisingly solid condition for all the accumulated filth. Not all bad for a thrift purchase of $11.00.

View of a 1951 Remington Super-Riter standard typewriter sitting on a wooden library card catalog. It's sitting at an angle so that the front right corner is facing us. It's obviously quite dirty

Type sample on a white index card from a 1951 Remington Super-Riter. It's got a clear pica Remington typeface. The machine obviously needs some adjustment and cleaning based on the appearance of the type.