Selectic Stairway to Heaven

It happened almost by accident; three IBM (Ee-bee-ems as Toddler Magic Margin calls them) Selectrics. The strangest thing is that they are all the same color. One, two, and three. The Right Reverent Munk has also seen a surfeit of Selectrics come his way, although his come with natty keys.  Mine are more...serious?...somber?...Blue Chip! All typewriters are welcome during ITAM!

Typewriter Restoration: It's a Messy Business Pt. 3

The plan was to be farther along with this restoration, but I think I heard a saying about the best laid plans...

I came away from this exploratory surgery with a fairly good idea of what was causing the wayward keytops. Unfortunately, the solution wasn't the button I found deep in the bowels of the typewriter. That would have been too easy.

It was something far more interesting; a pivot point.

The keytop arms of this particular typewriter are very long. The extend all the way into the back of the frame where they pivot. I think this is something well-known to Underwoods. Each bar has a small tab of metal that engages with a comb/pivot plane. An extended "Z" bar-like piece covers these tabs and the pivot comb allowing the arms to stay in place, but also move freely. Small springs add some push to the tops and keep everything aligned. In the picture below, I have removed the retaining bar for ease of viewing.

On this typer, several of the arms had worked their way out of the pivot comb. Their conspicuous absence can be noted above. This small change rendered the typewriter unusable. Here is a better view of the absent key bars:

The metal tabs were intact on both bars. I imagine if they were actually broken I would have a whole set of other problems, but they look good. The loose retaining bar might have contributed to them working out of their locations.

To fix I just formed the metal "Z" a little so there would be a tighter fit. I have yet to reinstall it, but I was thinking that oiling this point might make more trouble than it solves. There is no sign that oil was ever applied here and adding it at this juncture might cause the pivot points work loose even easier.

I am also fairly confident that the springs that are on the underside of the bars are important to alignment because they keep the keytop bar tabs pushed up firmly against the pivot comb. I have a few extras from a very bad donor machine.

I am getting closer to some of the more fun stuff, but without a solid working mechanism all the rest would just be window dressing.

Big and Little

While I place the finishing touches on the next installment of the Underwood restoration, I wanted to share two photos. These machines are contemporaneous to each other and share many stylistic choices. I like both of them for their sober gravitas.

This weekend has been very difficult. The final deadlines for yearbook came around the mountain and I had to spend a few longer nights going over pages. My yearbook kids are nice, but they can sometimes miss the small details. That means that I get the singular pleasure of going over every page to make sure that there is nothing amiss. The up-shot is that my brain is tired right now.

Oscar, You Are Fantastic

Mondays are always a little blah. My Monday became far less blah when one of my former students stopped by. He had something he found that he wanted to give to me.

The racy stripe was a giveaway.

It's a beautiful machine.

It's a litte dirty with eraser shavings and such, but it works well.

And getting a gift from a student is really nice. So, Oscar you are fantastic. Thank you!

I have not posted as much as I have wanted, but there are still many days left in ITAM. There have also been some interesting developments on the Underwood in the restoration series.

4th Phoenix Type-In

I am happy to announce that the date for the 4th Phoenix Type-In and Round-Up has been set. Again, Lux has kindly allowed us to host our event at thier famous "farmhouse" table.

Bill Whal from the Mesa Typewriter Exchange will be on-hand to diagnose youe typewriter woes and offer some sage advice.

I also wanted to use this post to soft-launch a new side-business of mine: Type the Knot. If you want to know more about this visit http://www.typetheknot.com The site is still in formation, but I wanted to share none-the-less.

Typewriter Restoration: It's a Messy Business Pt. 2

This is the second part of a multi-part post about the restoration of an Underwood Universal.

The last time I wrote about this Underwood I felt like it might just be an easy job. I could clean it and be on my way, but the typewriter gods do not look favorably on my enterprise. After looking a little closer I noticed that something was very much amiss with the 3/4 and slash key. You can see the problem below:

I don't know what happened but the entire coordinating linkage is not here. As you can see from this picture it causes the keytop to be "out of alignment" with the other keys. By "out of alignment" I mean completely akimbo. Moreover, the spring is missing on this lever. I have some spares and that will be a fun repair.

In addition to the dodgy 3/4 and slash key, the 'B' is in a similar state, but not nearly as extreme as the former. This linkage is missing a spring as well. We'll get into that repair very soon.

The rubber feet are missing. This is going to be a big problem. The rubber feet on the front had a hole through the center to allow for corresponding pegs to hold the front of the machine with friction. The rear feet seem fairly normal. I will have to find (or craft) something that would work.

 

This Universal features the Champion keytops that were more comfortable than the glass key variety. Some of the lettering is pretty grimy, and some of it is gone entirely. I would like to fill in the missing paint and probably replace the white lettering on all the keys.

Finally, I look at these decals and I can see how significantly they have flaked. The one on the paper table is particularly bad, but the touch control Touch Tuning is pretty crummy. I can tough them up using a gold pen, but I am on the hunt for gold foil decal paper and a special process. We'll see if there is anything I can find that might make these decals look close to original.

As for this Universal according to Ted's new Typewriter Database (http://www.typewriterdatabase.com) this machine was made between 1936 and 1937. Of course, the deco lines give it away instantly. 

The Universal was one of two new typewriters in the Typemaster line. A more enclosed case made for a safer machine and  reduced dust problems. The more enclosed machine also allowed for an increase in the sound-deadening material; a claim made in period advertising.

On a final note, the difference between a Champion and a Universal in these 1937 models? It's the paint and a tabulator. Universals are crinkle paint with no tabulator. Champions are gloss paint with a tabulator. Interesting, no?

Restoration: It's a Messy Business Pt. 1

Restoration is one of the fun things about collecting typewriters. You can take something that is a little rough and make it shine. I recently obtained an Underwood Universal and while it looks like it's in descent shape, I think it can look a little better.

In a series of posts I am going to take you step-by-step through the restoration process that I use to make this typewriter look awesome.

Let's start by looking at this particular Underwood Universal:

Part of the challenge for this restoration is the decal touch-up. I have a few new techniques I am going to try. I look forward to sharing all my tips and secrets with everyone in the Typosphere.

Next: Evaluation