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1954 Underwood De Luxe Serial # A 2515413 1954 Underwood De Luxe typewriter, Serial # A 2515413 Nick Stokes's 1954 Underwood De Luxe typewriter. 2015-03-21 From the Virtual Typewriter Collection of Nick Stokes: 1954 Underwood De Luxe Serial # A 2515413 This belongs to my Father-in-Law, who bought it as a high school student with money earned from odd-jobbing.

I love the chocolate-and-cream colour scheme of this typewriter, and the art deco styling. It types extremely well, and feels very light to the touch. Only two problems: first, the letter "U" does not type for some reason (embarrassing for an Underwood). My guess is that this is due to the fact that it's impinging upon the ribbon vibrator instead of striking the platen, either because of a bent typebar or some quirk of the mechanism that makes the ribbon vibrator to lurch to the right as the U approaches. It all happens so quickly that it's hard to tell what's going on.

Second... well, it's missing carriage return / line space lever, isn't it. The lever has been twisted off, leaving the torqued remains of the hinge screw in place. It looks like a simple piece to fabricate if I had to make a rough replacement for it: cold-roll a stainless rod drill two holes - one for a pin to engage the line space ratchet (which is undamaged), and another for a new hinge post. It's not a high priority fix as you can achieve the same basic function by manually advancing a line and pushing the carriage back across. It would look nicer repaired, but my Father-in-Law isn't bothered by it.

1954 Underwood De Luxe #A 2515413

Status: Sightings
Hunter: Nick Stokes (ndstokes)
Created: 04-19-2014 at 09:28AM
Last Edit: 03-21-2015 at 02:50PM

Description Hunter 2 Photos 1 Like  Find on Ebay #AD  Find on Etsy #AD

Description:

This belongs to my Father-in-Law, who bought it as a high school student with money earned from odd-jobbing.

I love the chocolate-and-cream colour scheme of this typewriter, and the art deco styling. It types extremely well, and feels very light to the touch. Only two problems: first, the letter "U" does not type for some reason (embarrassing for an Underwood). My guess is that this is due to the fact that it's impinging upon the ribbon vibrator instead of striking the platen, either because of a bent typebar or some quirk of the mechanism that makes the ribbon vibrator to lurch to the right as the U approaches. It all happens so quickly that it's hard to tell what's going on.

Second... well, it's missing carriage return / line space lever, isn't it. The lever has been twisted off, leaving the torqued remains of the hinge screw in place. It looks like a simple piece to fabricate if I had to make a rough replacement for it: cold-roll a stainless rod drill two holes - one for a pin to engage the line space ratchet (which is undamaged), and another for a new hinge post. It's not a high priority fix as you can achieve the same basic function by manually advancing a line and pushing the carriage back across. It would look nicer repaired, but my Father-in-Law isn't bothered by it.

Typeface Specimen:

Photos:

That almost counts as a type sample. The ribbon is upside down, though. No fear.
That almost counts as a type sample. The ribbon is upside down, though. No fear.

Not a very good shot - sorry! I blame the photographer. :-)
Not a very good shot - sorry! I blame the photographer. :-)

Hunter: Nick Stokes (ndstokes)

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Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 114

I'm a mathematics teacher and I enjoy old technologies.


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