I’ve been wanting a flat top for a while and couldn’t pass up the opportunity when I saw this one pop up. I made a ridiculous bid on it when it was in the $15 range and ultimately scored it for a very reasonable $56 when I’ve been seeing these go for $75-150 recently.
Sadly it got bounced around a bit in shipping and the lock was broken and one of the rock hard feet was broken. It needs a serious cleaning and some minor restoration work, but I should be able to restore this to near-new condition.
The key legends are a bit drunk and, surprising to me seem to be thick covered cardboard and not the old school glass keys. (Maybe I’ll swap out some older keytops from a parts machine?)
The rubber feet and the platen have hardened and will need replacing. Hopefully someone’s making these feet for replacement.
The case look like it got waterlogged at some point, but isn’t in horrible shape considering. Some of the fittings on it definitely need some rust treatment. The machine also has a mild musty smell that will require some airing out in the sunshine.
It’s really going to shine once I’m able to polish up the piano black enamel finish. Not bad for an 83 year old machine!