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1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Serial # RA-2993793 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter, Serial # RA-2993793 Mei Travis's 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter. 2021-03-08 From the Virtual Typewriter Collection of Mei Travis: 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe Serial # RA-2993793 My second Royal QDL is identical to my first, the one with the rusted body that I stripped naked, and yet it still turned out to be a wonderful typing machine. Months later at Shop Goodwill in Indianapolis, I found this twin in excellent condition, save the usual grunge and wonky operations. It even has the carriage tension control knob on the left side that I'm still trying to figure out how it adjusts to match my typing technique. From this machine I had the pleasure to learn more about escapement repair through tiny openings. It's like the engineers at Royal were like, "Let's see how far we can shove the escapement up the typewriter." The backspace didn't work, the spacebar had to be forced and all the keys were heavy. After some careful examination I decided not to bend the metal tab to calibrate the position of the stop pawl. Instead I hacked it by using a small spring as a shim to increase the distance between the stop pawl and the lever that pushes it down. It worked like a charm, although I can hear a faint change in the sound of the machine as it hits the spring shim instead of the thick iron bar, and other than that, it's now another smooth typing machine just like my first. I'm thinking I'll use this one more and tuck away my naked QDL for backup.

1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe #RA-2993793

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Mei Travis (meilynne)
Created: 01-15-2021 at 11:58AM
Last Edit: 03-08-2021 at 12:37PM

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My second Royal QDL is identical to my first, the one with the rusted body that I stripped naked, and yet it still turned out to be a wonderful typing machine. Months later at Shop Goodwill in Indianapolis, I found this twin in excellent condition, save the usual grunge and wonky operations. It even has the carriage tension control knob on the left side that I'm still trying to figure out how it adjusts to match my typing technique. From this machine I had the pleasure to learn more about escapement repair through tiny openings. It's like the engineers at Royal were like, "Let's see how far we can shove the escapement up the typewriter." The backspace didn't work, the spacebar had to be forced and all the keys were heavy. After some careful examination I decided not to bend the metal tab to calibrate the position of the stop pawl. Instead I hacked it by using a small spring as a shim to increase the distance between the stop pawl and the lever that pushes it down. It worked like a charm, although I can hear a faint change in the sound of the machine as it hits the spring shim instead of the thick iron bar, and other than that, it's now another smooth typing machine just like my first. I'm thinking I'll use this one more and tuck away my naked QDL for backup.

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Hunter: Mei Travis (meilynne)

Mei Travis's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]

Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 1265

During the quiet summer of 2020, I longed to use a typewriter again. After some online research and browsing, two Brother machines landed on my doorstep. A 1971 Montgomery Ward's Signature 511D and a creamy 1985 Sears ultraportable both ignited a fire I haven't felt in a long time. I quickly found Ted Munk, the Facebook groups, and the rest of the typewriter online community, where I learned how to fix them and appreciate them. By summer's end I had collected 20 typewriters to cure my pandemic blues. Now I'm obsessed about the different styles, the mechanics & repair, and their important history. Typewriters are an endless source of fascination as a literary medium, for creativity, a tinker-fest for machine geeks, and they still contribute to the economy. I truly enjoy learning how to bring mid-century or later typewriters back to life, even the electric ones, while completely in awe of the unique antiques that folks brilliantly restore. It warms my heart that there are others, and here we are sharing the same passions about typewriters together.


RESEARCH NOTE: When researching the Royal Quiet De Luxe on a computer with lots of screen real estate, you may find that launching the Royal Serial Number page and the Royal Quiet De Luxe By Model/Year/Serial page in new browser windows can give you interesting perspectives on changes throughout the model series.

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