TRY A TURBOPLATEN TODAY — Smith… Hermes… Royal… Oly… Rem… Torpedo… U-Wood… More

Description

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SMITH-CORONA, ROYAL, OLYMPIA, HERMES, OLIVETTI, UNDERWOOD, REMINGTON, TORPEDO, MORE...
Replace your worn, hard platen with a Turboplaten®
"Give me your tired, your poor, your cracked and ratty...."
What a difference a new platen makes! Begging a good platen however, a machine's just another doorstop.
In 2008, I began earnest experimentation with creating a platen in-house -- in lieu of subbing out the recovery work to Ames at an eight-week turnaround. (Ames is gone now.) By 2010, I had established a process and was producing platens regularly, mainly for Smith-Coronas but also for other makes.
Early in those experimental days, I also contemplated a *test* of what I now call a "Turboplaten." The first machine I built one for -- an old Torpedo -- cleared the ten-year mark with aplomb (April 2018). I used it how I considered might be typical -- as a daily typer for years at a stretch, for special projects and road trips, or set aside idled but "at-the-ready." I am happy to report that after a decade of heavy, general and sporadic usage, that original, provisional Turboplaten remains as buoyant and robust as the day I sheathed it.
I've now built, finished, installed and delivered more than a thousand Turboplatens.
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TurboPlaten...
...represents what I believe platens might have evolved to had the manufacture of typewriters continued in strength. It's fairly simple to understand (if not so easy to make):
1) The original black rubber is removed; 2) the inner wood or steel core is cleaned and polished or painted; then 3) sheathed in flexible, tight-fitting PVC tubing (not to be confused with PVC pipe); and finally 4) lathe sanded -- a) to obtain a smooth, uniform surface; and b) to apply low-level heat by which the tubing bonds to the core for overall cylindricality.
The most important contributor to the speed of a typewriter, beyond the operator's faculty, is *typebar retraction* -- that is, the rapidity with which the typebar recoils after it strikes the ribbon and page. The quicker the typebar clears the typeguide, the quicker the next typebar can launch. The result is a more responsive typewriter. Turboplaten subtly but effectively supercharges the functionality of the entire machine.
Turboplaten is more pliant and resilient than rubber. That increases its life and the speed of typebar retraction. It also generates cleaner finished copy now and over the long term. It doesn't decompose like rubber. Turboplaten outlasts rubber by a significant -- and still increasing -- margin.
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The transaction process –
Your bid and remittance covers the total cost of the job. Send me your old platen. I'll rebuild it, finish it and send it back to you postpaid and transformed....
I've set up this auction page to lay out in general terms my offer and proposed procedure for restoring your platen to a Turboplaten. The object of this page is to establish direct contact, delineate the process, and secure payment to initiate the job.
I've outlined basic costs and the scope of work performed. I've addressed shipping: Your dime to me, my dime to you.
This is structured as, but hardly is, a one-size-fits-all proposition. I believe my pricing for the specific product and labor can accommodate cost variables over the long-term. However, my greater aim is to do this affordably for the greatest number of people *and* profitably enough to keep doing it.
As always, if for any reason you are not delighted with the work, I will repair, replace, refund or re-whatever it takes to make it right. You are the boss!
I offer a lifetime guarantee -- seriously. Unlike rubber, PVC vinyl is completely man-made. That's a liability in a disposable item, but an asset in something intended to last. A platen is just such a thing. For the machine you're refurbishing, restoring, or just trying to make better, this will be your last platen.
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