Changing a Lettera 22 Carriage Return Arm- So, God Help Me

[@Joe_VanCleave]

Regarding removing the platen, I had good experience on a Royal Mercury by threading the rubber of a strap wrench around the platen, reattaching it to the handle once threaded, and using that to gain good purchase on the platen without marring the rubber with pliers. As for broken return levers, I’ve been using a Studio 44 with sheared off actuator shaft by using the pull-and-click-click-twist method on the right platen knob. It’s as quick as using the return lever. The problem is convincing people that you can use the machine that way. It’s also impossible to sell a machine in that condition to customers, so this is a non-starter for repair shops. But for the private collector, it does enable an otherwise broken machine to be usable.

[@EllaShteynberg]

I swear, no matter which episode, or even if I am in the middle of a war against run-away screws, you always make me laugh. I'm thinking of starting a little book of "The HotGuy sounds". My fav so far was, "Welcome to the earth, you get disappointed and you try again." Oh yeah, and each episode, new sound also, like blup blup, or a shimmy shimmy....THANK YOU , you are an inspiration and therapist.

[@pauleaston2329]

Well, wouldn't you know it. I just picked up a 22 paperweight, because it's missing the carriage return arm. But I only got it for $40, and I'm refurbishing another 22, so hopefully the parts will come in handy. Thank you for sharing excellent information on repairing these machines.

[@pauleaston2329]

And I do have a former student who works at NASA as an engineer. I might send it to him.

[@terencegray958]

Very unfortunate how the carriage return arms are designed because otherwise it is a very good machine, the touch is very snappy and precise and I really like the design of the body panels

[@pauleaston2329]

And if you know a source for that lever assembly part, please let me know. I may want to torture myself with repairing this thing, because I have a 1950 model in otherwise good shape (except for the typical sticking, carriage shooting left, stuck parts...)

[@nandi123]

Buy or make a small roll pin pusher!

[@HotRodTypewriter]

Sure, if you can get one the size of a needle and find a way to mount it into the typewriter with no room for a tool, good luck with that friend but not gonna happen in this situation.

[@tmunk]

oh good lord, I had to try that once and gave up on it. Never got that pin out. :P

[@HotRodTypewriter]

This one was a no go either. Tried getting the pin out, the whole side of the carriage broke off. Even with the lever on the bench it took an extreme amount of hammering to get the pin out. After all that, the machine is swapped the lever into didn't work out with the lever so two more Lettera 22's back into the pile of other Lettera 22's I have that don't work. This is why I don't work on them anymore and I won't even bother anymore.

[@HotRodTypewriter]

5 hours into it and nothing but headache. I swear if a random Italian person talked to me today I would punch them in the face just because this pin 😂

[@tmunk]

@@HotRodTypewriter My deepest sympathies. Mine ended up donating parts to someone else, so it wasn't a total loss. Even great skill and effort can sometimes fail against the brick wall of bad design and materials. /:

[@taskyprianou]

🤥