My naked typewriter - Hermes Baby with script typeface
I avoid these machines.
I mean - typewriters with plastic body shell.
There is nothing wrong with them - don’t get me wrong. For most parts they are very good machines, even exceptional, like Tippa I once had. It is just that I don’t like how plastic ages, how brittle it becomes over time. It does not really develop patina, contrary to metal-bodied machines.
So how I happened to grab this one little fellow?
I got inspired by Joe Van Cleave who talks about connection (or interface) between human and machine. I think he has a point in describing this as a factor why typewriters are still with us and why they gain more and more popularity. Renaissance of a kind in our modern, digital era.
One of his short episodes can be found here.
I stumbled on Hermes Baby machine with plastic body shell. A newer incarnation of my favorite, old, all metal machines. Most importantly - it has a script typeface!
I cleaned and repaired it and decided to keep it out of the shell, naked.
Then I recalled Joe’s thoughts about typewriters as bio-mechanical extensions of our brains. He made a valid point - I agree with him. My small Hermes Baby is now even more in this tune.
Well, apart from that - it is a script typeface machine!
This overshadows whatever material the body is made of. I very much like this typeface and so far I only have one other machine with such font - happens to also have plastic body.
Besides - I had a plan!
The machine arrived in “typing condition”, with just three problems: very dirty (but no WD40!), rubber feet busted and right-hand platen knob was gone. Nothing serious really.
It took me a good half an hour to remove the mechanism from the shell. Unlike older Hermes Baby/Rocket with metal panels this reincarnation is sitting inside one-part shell. To remove the machine one needs to carefully slide it out, flexing the shell cautiously to pass by parts of the mechanism. Eventually, without breaking anything, I managed.
The shell consists of two parts: main body and carriage back cover. Plastic cover in style of Olympia Splendid closes the machine for transport.
Pistachio color holds nice, no discolorations or cracks.
I have an older Hermes Baby with standard typeface.
My diabolic plan was to swap bodies, thus getting metal-bodied machine with script typeface.
Guess what? It ain’t gonna work.
Even though both are Hermes Baby these are quite different machines.
Both share the same carriage-shift (or rather carriage-tilt) construction but many details differ. No wonder - the plastic-bodied machine, being newer, was made in Germany. Older Hermes is Swiss-made. Newer machine has color-selector which older one lacks.
Alternative could be swapping type bars between machines but nope! They differ in shape and length.
Re-soldering type slugs seemed too much effort as for now. Maybe some time in the future.
All right then, I dumped the idea and instead focused on fixing the new machine. First step, as always, was to remove the platen, to gain access for cleaning and inspection of paper rollers. All good here, no flat spots, just dirt.
The only platen knob left was the left one, with line ratchet decoupling mechanism.
Mechanism is maybe little exaggerated word: it is simply friction-based, no clutch or anything like that.
The right platen knob, also plastic, was gone. Only metal insert was still attached to platen axle. I turned a new one, from aluminum. I was considering plastic - or something as cool as Tufnol - but already at this moment I started considering leaving this machine bare-bone. Aluminum knob will match nicely, weight penalty being just a few more grams.
Pressed-in the original insert and voila!
The left knob was still functional but I figured it will brake apart anyhow soon. I detached it from the metal insert and moved ahead with fabricating a replacement.
And there we have both of them. Plunger screw acts as a stop for line ratchet release.
The platen had very hard rubber. As this is a fun project I decided to experiment with covering it with latex inner-tube. This is thinner than standard rubber inner-tube and offers options with the color.
Decided to go with greenish tube.
I sacrificed perfectly good inner tube from my sport bike. Mounted on the platen and tried fitting it to the machine. Zonk! It did not fit - it was too tight. Turning back to the lathe - to shave a bit of the original, hard rubber.
Initial diameter of the platen recorded.
Mounted back the inner-tube and tried fitting. All good!
Looks very good!
But the imprint was awful! As much as I like the color I had to strip the latex tube and substitute with good-old standard bicycle inner-tube. Latex, even though very thin, was too soft for this particular type face. Instead of crisp, sharp contours I got shaded letters which looked bad.
After all these back&forth actions I finally sat down and typed on still bare-bone machine. I noticed, to my surprise, how quiet it became! It seems that the plastic shell - which lacks any sound proofing - acted as a resonant box, rectifying sounds of the mechanism. Without it the machine sounds much quieter and almost like Remington Noiseless.
Well, that was a decisive factor: the shell will stay on the shelf, I will keep this machine naked. Fabricated new feet from modern, transparent polyurethane and there we have it!
Quite pleased how it looks without its shell, in fact!
My knobs match the overall feeling of “technical” machine.
Clean and adjusted!
Most importantly it types very well! Even though the keys are equally close as on original Hermes I find these newer. shaped, white keytops easier on fingers and more pleasant to type on.