[GreenKeys] Teletype Model 33 Restoration Project - UPDATE

[Suhayl Khan]

Wayne and David you guys have done an amazing job!!

I think it would be nice if we could somehow document this knowledge of
maintaining, repairing, and restoring the '33s in a video series...

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 7:52 PM, David Tumey via GreenKeys <
greenkeys at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

> Greenkeys,
>
> It has been 15 long months since I started this project and joined this
> great list.  We have reached a milestone and I wanted to share some photos
> with you and brag a little on Wayne Durkee who was instrumental in making
> this happen.  If you rewind to January of 2014, you may recall I decided to
> recapture a little of my childhood and went in search of a Model 33 ASR
> like the one I had as a kid.  Well, as it turned out, I was lucky to find
> the EXACT machine I had (I managed to talk the UMass Dean of Engineering
> into giving it to me back in 1983) and I used it with a single board 6802
> computer I built when I was around 19 years old.  I still have the computer
> BTW and plan on finally reuniting the two after 32 years.
>
> When I went to pickup the UMass machine, I found another 5 machines with
> it so I bought them all.  They had been sitting inside a Dayton, OH
> garage/warehouse for the past 24 years.  I sent the keyboards, pedestals
> and UCC-6's to Florida and drove the remaining machines to Vermont so Wayne
> could work his magic.  These machines were basically dirty, rusted - junk.
> I will not forget the look on Wayne's face when he asked me what I wanted
> to do with them and I explained I wished to restore 4 of them them to "Like
> New" condition - not just fix them.  You could see on his face he was
> thinking "You gotta be kiddin' me".  Just today Wayne finished assembly of
> the 4th machine and I hope the list will forgive me for sharing a few pix.
> We divided the work as follows:  Wayne restored all the mechanical
> components (printer, punch, etc.) and I did all the cosmetic and electronic
> work including stripping/painting & plating.  It took 3 months to restore
> the 4 keyboards (those damn chalky keys), and 1 month for each of the
> UCC-6's - working every night and almost every weekend!
>
> The first pair of photos is my original UMass machine (the one responsible
> for starting this whole project) S/N: 286,369.  Wayne tried to talk me out
> of this "high mileage" restoration but as I explained, it was the one with
> the most sentimental value.  Next pair is the S/N: 464789 - the best of the
> bunch.  After that is my favorite, the S/N: 436614 - purported to have only
> about 100 hours total use on it, and finally S/N: 501269, the latest model
> of the bunch.  Unfortunately, the '614 printer had been dropped - real bad
> - at some point in its history and I found 4-5 bent and broken pieces in
> the sub-base when I removed it.  In fact, Wayne had to replace a part on
> this machine he had never had to service in his entire career repairing
> these things.  He managed to replace all the damaged components and get the
> machine working as new.
>
> The next update will show the before and after restoration work on the
> pedestals (should be done in May) and in the final update I will send 4
> photos of the completed machines with the restored covers.  I still need a
> couple months to finish the plastics.  At some point in the future I plan
> on donating the machines to telecommunications/computer museums.
>
> Thanks for the bandwidth and enjoy the fruit of our labor.  Four machines
> rescued from the scrap heap!  If you have any questions about the
> restoration or need help with your own projects feel free to contact me.
>
> --dave
> W5DT
>
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