The Tikka-Takka of Little Rhino Keys…

Abi's SCM Sterling. An excellent and quite fetching example of the early 60's Super-5/Galaxie hybrid.

Abi's Adler Tippa, still on my workbench. The keys are incredibly sticky on this one and quite a few keys are especially reluctant to unstick. Sigh...

Rejuvinating typewriter ribbons with WD-40 seems to work well. I did 5 of them tonight. It's time consuming but imparts a certain amount of zen. I unspool the dry ribbon in a box, lightly spray it with WD-40, then re-spool it slowly while wiping the ribbon down with an old sock to soak up the excess WD-40. If the ribbon needs end grommets, I install them while winding the ribbon.

A nice dealer label found on one of Abi's Skyriters.

Updated: November 2, 2012 — 9:07 am

3 Comments

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  1. That is a nice Sterling. Seems like the Tippa may have been treated like an SM7 I recently unstuck. I had to wash the segment and type bars in carb cleaner, and then I used acetone and then I left the machine soak in KEP overnight and then sprayed with carb cleaner again and the machine finally came to life and I still had a few type bars that I had to wash even more at the segment with lighter fluid. Good Luck!

  2. WD-40 sure does a great job on ribbons. I spray the ribbon has I wind it from one spool to another on a busted underwood no. 5. The crank for the spools on the no. 5 is very handy.

  3. A Brigade party sounds really fun. Keep going, Tori!

    I love PB Blasting — I use that stuff on carriage rails and on anything else that needs lubrication. Other useful products for cleaning out segments and the like are carburetor cleaner and electric motor cleaner, both of which I’ve found at the auto parts store. But they can damage paint and they stink.

    I still lust after an Adler Universal, but I couldn’t handle a wide-carriage one.

    Good to see that you’re back at the keyboard and out of the hospital bed.

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