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Appreciation post for that old manual typewriter I found in my aunt's attic
The ribbon snapped on me last weekend while I was trying to type out a short story, right in the middle of a sentence about a storm rolling in. It was a 1950s Royal Quiet Deluxe, and I spent an hour trying to thread a new ribbon before giving up and just finishing the piece on my laptop. Anyone else had a piece of vintage gear just completely fail on you mid project?
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kelly617d ago
...and that's exactly why I gave up on vintage typewriters after my third one crapped out on me. The ribbon snapping is bad enough, but the real killer is finding replacement parts that actually fit without having to modify them yourself. People romanticize these machines until they're stuck with a half-finished page and no way to finish it without ordering something from a niche website that takes two weeks to ship. I get the appeal of the clack and the smell of the ink, but for actual work they're just not reliable enough to depend on. Nostalgia is great until your project hits a wall and you're left holding a broken machine.
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the_stella7d ago
You gotta treat 'em like a classic car, not a Toyota. They need some tinkering and love, but once you find a good one and learn its quirks, they're solid. Ever try a Smith-Corona from the 60s?
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