It's a Typewriter Month Miracle!

The Maroon Olympia is fixed! The problem was in the carriage release which was not releasing properly when the escapement advanced. It was as simple as removing an errant piece of metal that had jammed up the machinery. I am much happier now it is working properly.

I promised a blow-by-blow account of the process, but I forgot my camera was there. I did catch a few informative images that might help others in their own restorations.

I know that I promised wanted to use a water bath and dry the machine in the oven. I was a little apprehensive about the process, so I used penetrating oil instead. It was still a very dunk-like job.

A towel is the most important thing to
have in all the universe.

It was a nice, warm, and sunny day. It made the machine warm to the touch and aided in making the penetrating oil run nicely. I wanted to have a way for the oil to drip off the frame freely. I had an old metal screen and placed it over a trashcan. In the bottom of the can I had a pan collecting the oil that dripped off. The larger can was tall enough that I didn't have to stoop and bend. I placed the typewriter on top of this screen and applied the oil all over the place. After a few minutes elapsed, the machine was noticeably cleaner. I used an old toothbrush to scrub some of the tougher parts. There was a ton of junk in the bowels of this typewriter. All sorts of gunk grime, goo, and eraser dust worked loose and ran out the bottom of the frame into the drip pan.

Shiny and new.

The only negative would be the distinctive smell of the penetrating oil. I have no doubt that the smell will dissipate over the coming days and months. I was really surprised with how well everything cleaned up. It looks like a new machine on the inside.

Sticky platen.

I thought that belt dressing would be a good way to make the platen a little more rubbery. Standing it on end I lightly sprayed the auto belt conditioner. After a reasonable time elapsed the platen was sticky and gooey. I must have added too much or this product just isn't suitable for platens. I tried rinsing the sticky layer off with some water, but it wouldn't come off. I then tried some rubbing alcohol. A thin layer of grime and rubber came off revealing slightly softer rubber below. I took some wet/dry sandpaper and gave it a good scrub. After the treatment it was noticeably better.

I cleaned the body panels with some warm water and All (free and clear) laundry detergent. Laundry detergent has a bluing agent that give everything a little glow. I like it. I used a soft toothbrush to get in the crackle paint. After the panels were dry I went over them with Pledge. Pledge was a suggestion from Richard Polt's web site and it worked really well. The body has a nice lustre. There is still the scratch from where the carriage return lever scratched the body, but it just ads to the uniqueness of the machine.

Take a look at an after and before. 



Nice and new (After)                                   Dirty, unloved. (Before)

 Overall, the project was a success and I learned a great deal about typewriter cleaning. Primarily, I need to take my time. I think rushing this job would really ruin it.

Typewriter Month Blessing

I remember, as a child, gathering around the Typewriter tree with our cups of hot 3-in-1 oil. We would sing traditional Typewriter carols; "What Typewriter is This?", "We Three Repairmen", and "Margin Bells." Those were the days before the Typewriter season became so commercial. Even so, there is nothing like the smell of typewriters just out of the drying oven.

I wanted to share a Typewriter Month blessing that has stayed with me to this day:

May the ribbon you use be inky.

May your typebars be clash free.

May your strikethroughs be few.

May your correspondence be often

And remember, that you are saving the written word.

In all seriousness, I think that Feb. is a great month for ITAM. Let's thank Deek (Look for his blog Type Clack in the sidebar) for his suggestion. With all the Type-Ins, events, and blog postings, you can see how alive and vibrant this community is.

The Best Laid Plans

I still need help.

The Maroon SM3 (pictured to the left) was in a rough-ish state. The carriage return lever struck the body, the carriage itself wouldn't move very easily, and the typebars were a little sticky. I was confident that I could take this machine and restore it to some semblance of it's former glory. At least, that was the plan.

The restoration started off well enough. I took my time and removed all the body panels. There was all manner of garbage hidden behind those panels. I took my time using penetrating oil to clean the mechanism. Everything loosened up and worked very well. Then, I tried to re-install the machine into the body panels.

For some reason, after the outer case was screwed down, the carriage refused to advance using the spacebar. That is not entirely accurate, the spacebar would advance as far as the next tabulator stop. The spacebar is actuing like a tabulator! I am sure that there is some small spring in the escapement that worked loose, but it's disheartening. The carriage was moving well before this little set-back. Back to the bench it goes.

I am sure that every typewriter enthusiast has a similar story. It's part of the learning process. Hopefully, I can get it working soon.

Bulk Baco Ribbon Update

UPDATE: My conversation with Baco revealed that single spool ribbons are $3. If you have a second spool on which wind the ribbon, this is the cheapest option. I am seriously concidering odering a few extra and seeing if anyone would want them.

Celebrity RSVP

Crass Commercialism

UPDATE: The link has been fixed and the PayPal Button should work.

In my last post titled "The Problem" I shared the acute need for bulk ribbon. I am still working on that, but in the interim I want to raise a a little money to buy ribbons. That's why there is a "Buy Now" button at the bottom of the sidebar (and at the bottom of this post). Clicking this button will allow you to buy a package of 10 new typewriter carbons. We have selected the best carbons for your use and packaged them in individual envelopes. Sure, there are plenty of other places where you can get typewriter carbons, but all proceeds from this purchase will be used to buy supplies for our classroom typewriters. Each pack is $7.00

The Problem

With as many typewriters as I have here in the classroom you can imagine that they get a fair amount of use. The machines are holding up quite well. It's the ribbons that are starting to wear out. Every period each typewriter is being used. They are primarily used for journaling which is a minimum of 20 lines each day. That means that each period the typewriters are used to write 260 lines of prose. Over the course of the day that would be 1300 lines of journals. On average each line is about 15 words long. In one day the typewriters are being used to write nearly 20,000 words. I would guess that the average English word is around 5 letters long. That is a total of 100,000 words per day (or 7700 key presses per machine per day). I have not changed the ribbon en masse, yet. We have been doing this about 4 months. If you do the math, each ribbon has been through a minimum of 677,600 impressions.

I need ribbon. Lots of ribbon. I really want to find a place where I could get it in bulk and wind my own spools. All of the spools in the machines are metal and can be reused. The trouble is finding a distributor. I think China is the answer. I sent an email to my uncle who is an importer and knows his way around business in China. With any luck I can find some inked ribbon.