1929 Erika 5 #99381

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Vlastimil Novak (Schrei112)
Created: 04-16-2017 at 06:05AM
Last Edit: 06-08-2023 at 02:39PM

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Description:

Little Erika. The rustiest one here, but maybe also the luckiest!
I got it for free. The seller was shipping me a rusty Continental standard and he packed this as a gift. The carriage frame was broken, the majority of keys and typebars hard stuck, hopeless feed rollers, broken paper scale, the bottom part of the frame badly corroded from inside and outside, and missing feet and drawband. Also some damage from bad repairing. Almost dumpster material...

This is the only typewriter I had completely disassembled to the last screw. I was quite nervous when I was looking at the whole table getting lost under all parts and the fact that I did not have another Erika to observe how it is supposed to look like. I have painted the bottom part of the frame and the rest of the rusty places remained untouched. It was a struggle, but now it is looking quite good, and typing too.
This is what I love about typewriter repair. I got something, that was too crappy to
even be sold. And now I really like it, because every tiny part went through my hands and I got it together to be a typewriter again.
Because it is missing its case, there is no need for holes in feet, so I have used these hemispherical rubber seals originally purposed for old water taps. I think that they look nice and fit the elegant shapes of this lovely tiny machine.

Erika, a small sister of Ideal is a really good typewriter. I admire her simple and clever design. Writing feels like waving fingers through the summer breeze and it is really charming small typewriter easy to maintain and fix.

Typeface Specimen:

Photos:

Hunter: Vlastimil Novak (Schrei112)

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Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 1749

If you want something, contact me: Vlastimilnovak12@gmail.com

I am a passionate amateur mechanic from the Czech Republic, and I have always mesmerized by the complexity of typewriters since my childhood. The first one (Zeta 1501) was just a toy to me in the beginning, but by every year I got older I got also better at understanding how it is working and how to disassemble it and assemble it again. The second one was Ideal DZ33 which started my love for antique machines with all the chrome and glass keys.
My machines range from mint ones through a majority of well-used machines to piles of rust that I have repaired to be typewriters again which is a lot of fun for me.
I am quite obsessed with the beauty and technical genius of standard Continentals. I love how they were producing one model of a typewriter from 1904 to the '50s with constant changes in design and my goal is to collect every decal and every major variation of them.