June 11, 2008 brings us back into the shop for more work.  There are as many typewriters out there right now as there have ever been; the Monarch No. 3 still undergoing rust removal on its carriage, the Smith-Corona Silent-Super for a slight adjustment and final cleaning, the Royal KHM for further paint removal analysis, a Consul 221 for lubrication and the machine you're about to see which joined all these today.
The next machine to enter the shop is this IMPERIAL 50.  It's serial number V3299 and was built in 1939.  We've been waiting to get this one into the shop for quite some time - I think we announced it last year - and are happy to get going on it since it's an unusual machine.  You don't see these in the United States all that often; this is the only one I've ever seen.

This machine's overall design is so interesting that we're going to show a lot of the work on it in detail even though almost all of the work is cleaning only.

This machine was Imperial's very first design for a four bank, front strike typewriter.  They had made Moya's three-bank downstrike designs prior, and when the company went "modern" it did so in a big way by designing a machine easily dismounted into several important and interchangeable parts.  The Imperial 50 first appeared on the market in 1927 although design took a couple of years before the release for sale.
The only serious problem with this machine is that its left side front foot is broken; we'll see that closely in a moment.  First we're going to take the machine apart as it was designed to be.

First operation is to unhook the drawband from the carriage and re-hook it onto the special post provided for this purpose at the right side rear of the machine.  The screwdriver head is right on top of this post and the drawband is attached to it.

Below that we see one of the two latches for removing the carriage and its rail; these push inward to operate or to release.
Next, the carriage is released through simultaneous depression of the latches and a vertical lift.  This leaves the typewriter in the condition at right.  Note the escapement at the top center, with the drawband emerging through the top deck to the left of this and running over to the holding post.  Note the two studs (one each side) for locating the carriage rail as well as the depression in the top deck for the carriage to sit.

This is an area just prone to collect dust, and we see it here before any cleaning took place.  Luckily it's just dirty in here and not rusty.
Even more interesting is the removable type action unit of this machine, seen at left.  This is similar in some ways to that of the Pittsburg Visible / Reliance Visible.

The two latches seen on each side of this unit release it from the main outer frame; the unit then slides forward on specially designed rails mounted to the inside of the main frame.  Replacing the unit is just as easy.  This design was patented.

There were, as I just hinted, a number of machines with separable carriages and / or "action units" and we have to admit here that this Imperial is an excellent design for accomplishing both of these functions with little effort for the operator and little chance of misalignment or failure from a design standpoint.
Removal of the action unit leaves the main frame in the condition seen at right.  Note that the ribbon spools remain on the top deck; they're driven by a linkage contained totally inside the main frame and which derives its motion from a mechanical connection at the rear.  Note also the glass windows in the sides of this machine.  While Royal Typewriter Company, perhaps the best known makers of machines with glass windows had given these up years before, we see here a bona fide 1939 typewriter still fitted with them.
At left, the actual failure that brings this machine into the Works.  The frame doesn't widen at all near the feet - a design weakness in our opinion.  Still, it's a minor break BUT it's a complete shear.
Here's Dave outside in our great weather today attacking the action unit of the Imperial 50 with an air compressor.  This machine did have some dust and so forth inside but it was one of the cleaner ones we've had out here for heavy work.
While he was cleaning the action unit, I was inside cleaning the frame and carriage.  Here's a shot I grabbed of the back of the machine.  The silver disc at center has the serial number on it.  While the decals are reserved from the front, those visible from the rear make a bold statement.
Further disassembly includes removal of the platen.  There was nothing really wrong with the platen; however, we have begun to notice the commonality of rusting of chromed paper trays inside carriages and I wanted a look.  One lever each side is all that's required to get the platen instantly free of the Imperial 50 carriage and we see that here.  Yes- a couple early spots of rusting were found and some chrome polish applied.
Thirty seconds' worth of Dave working on the platen with very very light wet abrasion gives this perfect result.
The final act today!  I mixed some J-B Weld and although the temperature in the shop was about 82 F and the humidity only about 32 percent it was fairly runny.  I allowed 15 minutes for it to begin to cure to the point where it would not run off of my wooden craft stick (like a big tongue depressor) and then I applied it to both the frame and the foot.  We sat the machine initially on the same location but since the position of the foot was hard to maintain we moved it to the main bench, as you see here.  It will set up overnight and then we'll move it off the bench to finish curing for a couple more days.  By that time the rest of the machine will be ready and we'll finish it all at once.
DTW '08