Royal Custom-III

 I was never able to find a manufacturing date for this typewriter.  My guess is that is a mid 1970s machine since the fellow who gave it to the rummage sale used it for college about that time.

Finished Typewriter

Raised H that only prints the bottom half of the letter U.C. or L.C.

Example of some of the dirt

 This typewriter had more white-out on the platen, ribbon path, and housing than what a single bottle of it can hold.  Honestly there was white-out everywhere!  And dust and dirt.

After Cleaning

Cleaning supplies and the machine is ready for a cleaning.

After I had the machine out of the housing with as much removed as I chose the machine is 90% ready for a spray bath.  I covered the key board with aluminum foil to keep the splashes of chemicals from damaging the keys.

Before cleaning I blow as much of the dirt from the machine with compressed air.

After cleaning I use compressed air to blow all the residual chemicals and any junk out of the machine.

One of my favorite tools for cleaning the type slugs is the green handled brush shown beside the tooth brush.  I call it my Barney brush after the green dinosaur children's program.  It is a denture cleaning brush and works great for cleaning type slugs and is not damaged by lighter fluid or acetone.  I got mine for a dollar at Dollar General.  Or other places sell the same brush for around $5.00.  I also use wooden and plastic dental picks to dig crud out of the slugs.

When I first got this typewriter I had to do a bit of cleaning so the type was not all smudges and I had to free some keys to do the Rummage Sale post from October 2011.

One thing -- a word of warning -- that I cannot stress enough about cleaning typewriters or using any kind of spray or chemical that can splash is ALWAYS WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES. 

Even compressed air can blow dirt into one's eye(s).  I use the dust and mist proof ones.  (or a full face shield).  Normal safety glasses and goggles do not meet my personal eye safety and protection standards.

 I also removed the type bar rest vinyl cushion so it would not get damaged from the cleaning chemicals.

This typewriter (IF I can repair the H) and some of the others are going to become part of Ryan's Classroom Typewriter Project.

Here's a link to all the photos I took for this project:
Custom-III

Royal Custom-III

I have been searching for information on the Royal Custom-III I bought at a rummage sale yesterday.  I found 2 references to the Custom-III both with white fronts and nearly identical to the Safari, and I found one reference to a Safari with a black front (forgot to mark the link).   There are a few on Ebay shown as Safari Custom-II with black fronts of a slightly different style (of black front) even among the same model.

Model and serial number are not in the typewriter serial number database either.

Does anyone know the history of the Royal Custom-III?  Best I can find is that it is a 1970s something machine since it has the Litton Industries trademark on it.

Rummage sale find -- Royal Custom-III

 

 

This is a pica machine and the one fault I found is shown here.  The H type bar does not fully retract.  It did not cause a problem while typing a test.

Underside & workings are fairly clean.

Today's score:  Yard / Garage Sales 0    Thrift Stores 0   Rummage Sale 1