the incredible Bulk

uhhh, FILM, that is... 100-ft. bulk film roll.

i thought 135 film for analog cameras existed only in the usual 'cartridged' form. you know, the kind that are available these days as 36-shots-per-roll film encased in a hard shell. they also used to come in 24-shot and 12-shot rolls but i hardly find them in this form anymore in these times when digital photography rules. film also used to exist in many sizes and shapes. there used to be 110, 120, 220 and Advantix. i think there may also be other forms i am not aware of. these days, only 135 and 120 are available and they are not exactly cheap.

if you are inclined to explore film photography, you might start feeling the expense and the lack of choices when it comes, at least, to the more popular 135 form. here is where acquiring film in bulk may come in handy.


i first heard about this from another film photography enthusiast friend, Miko, who happened to mention that he rolls his own film. that got me curious and googling and, long story short, i eventually found me a daylight film loader and some reloadable film cartridges on Ebay. the 100 ft bulk film rolls are not readily available in the Philippines either so i hitched an order with some online friends who "group buy-ed" from BH [thanks Francisco Bal!]. i thought i'd try the cheaper Ilford HP5+ while the others went for the Kodak TriX film. you can check out the vid below on how i first rolled my own. please pardon the fumbling.

the Quiet Riter, revived

check out the vid below :-)

black beauty

i really went to town cleaning up this assembly and that paper guide scale. it was so grimey and hardly readable. now it's all shiny.

i wish i could go under the glass to clean out the letter underneath but i'm a bit afraid of ruining them so i just buffed the tops and the metal rings.



go ahead and scroll way below to compare these to my earlier 'typecast' posts!

this chrome accent now sparkles. it had some kind of gunk from adhesive on it. used a Dremel power tool on it to make it come alive.



this top was had some tiny white paint dots on it, like some splatter you get when you paint your ceiling. i had trouble getting it off, it wouldn't scrape off, because of the crinkle finish. my solution was to use a black Sharpie to camouflage the spots. as you can see, that worked well.

there are a few more scuff marks that goes deeper in the crinkle finish. some even went to the metal. i can't do anything more about that short of repainting the entire thing which i don't really want to do. i am not aiming for perfection anyway, just clean. and i like that it shows it's history. but i did use the Sharpie also on the scuffs where the bare metal shows. that adds a bit more to the cleanness. compare it now to my previous post to see how it looked before.




Magic Margin is a feature first patented by Royal (according to something I read somewhere but forgot where). It was later copied by other typewriter manufacturers like Remington which Royal contested. incidentally, i will have a Remington Quiet-riter typewriter coming next week (yes!) that still has that feature. its successor, the Letter-riter, this feature was removed. Speculation is that this was because Royal won that dispute.

The Typewriter Database is here.

speaking of cases, i should be off to clean this Royal QDL's case. it's quite, well... almost a basketcase rather than a typewriter case, but it is utilitarian. and who knows, maybe it could come out well too. will post about it soon as i get to it.

my first EVER typewriter

oh yeah, did i mention gunk?

some scuffing and paint droplets on the top

grimey...

oh look, Touch Control...

love the metal ribbon spool

will be cleaning this to get crisper letters and open holes on the o's and e's

it was these metal keys that made me really want to take this home despite the non-working carriage... which i did repair anyway. yes, i repaired it myself. :-D