I just joined this list a couple of days ago. I was recently given a model 33 ASR teletype. Unfortunately, it's in pretty horrible condition - most of the parts are badly rusted and I'm sure the entire machine is completely seized up. But I'm going to try to restore it. Well, try at least! I figure I have nothing to lose, it can't get any worse! I've already started to disassemble some of the easily accessible parts and cleaned and reassembled them. I'm actually starting to make a little bit of progress and it's looking a little better.

I'm completely new to teletypes. I had heard of them before, but never used one or even seen one in real life until now. I saw pictures and videos of them and I was fascinated with the idea of a mechanical machine that could send typed messages before computers were in wide use. I've been wanting a teletype for a while, and I finally got one! But it's going to be a huge project to fix/restore it. So I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of questions to ask here!