Weapon of Choice: 1936 Corona Junior Model S. The Carriage Release Levers on 1959-1980’s SCM portables are prone to breakage and getting more so as they age. These, from Bubbles, my own 1960 Galaxie are brittle and developing hairline cracks despite being in quite good shape. They also aren’t white anymore. I pondered how I […]
Category: Typewriter Repair 101
One life for yourself, and one for your dreams…
Weapon of Choice: 1978 Brother Charger 11. August, 2016 was the last Quiet-Riter pickup – and I was practically tripping over ’em then.. Don’t wanna wait? Want to do all the cleanup and compiling yourself and print it out for free? Knock yerself out! (: Getting accustomed to a new workflow. I spent a lot […]
Typewriter TV Episode 001 2020/01/10
Typewriter TV – Episode One ########################################## Typewriter Books for Collectors By: Will Davis, the author of the Typewriters by Will Davis page and the co-author of The Davis Typewriter Works blog. http://willdavis.org https://davistypewriters.blogspot.com/ Bonus Youtube content from the Davis Bros. who are basically the Click & Clack of typewriters: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkoFvwDFlV9HxlBxL3Yilag/videos ########################################## A Quick Lesson on […]
1937 Corona Standard – Sometimes The Best Fix Is A Good Cleaning
Weapon of Choice: “Jack Davenport”, 1937 Corona Standard “Squareline”. Well, here’s the master escapement trip adjustment, anyway. Well, at least I understand what’s *supposed* to be happening. I do really like being able to read through a process before poking at it. Maybe for this Squareline it’ll just be “Everything fixed through the magic of […]
First and Second Score of the 2020 Typewriter Hunting Season
Weapon of Choice: 1938 Corona Junior Model “S”. I guess it’s a stretch to call them “Scores”, since Key Snap (Erik) offered them to me as he was slimming down his collection, and I didn’t find them in the wild… The Frozen-solid 1937 Corona Standard “Squareline”. Yeah, not real sure about that giant woodscrew holding […]
Holiday Sale on Typewriter Repair Bibles!
Hey, it’s the Holiday season, and maybe you want to get a jump on your Black Friday shopping? Well, all Typewriter Repair Bibles are now 15% off in the Lulu store, *and* Lulu is also offering an additional 30% off your whole order using coupon code “CYBERMONDAY30” (all caps, expires Dec 3 on midnight). These […]
The Joys of Fresh Platen Rubber on Old Writing Iron
Weapon of Choice: “Richard The Deep Breather” 1925 Corona 4. Soft Left Margin happens when there’s too much play between the margin stops and the protrusion on the carriage that stops against them – ie: if you return the carriage and notice that there is either a lot of bounceback when returning softly or no […]
Got some new printed typewriter repair manuals ready fer ya!
The Lulu store is back again, which allows me to offer a bit better pricing on printed books and much better shipping rates outside the USA than Bookpatch was able to do, still professionally printed and coil bound to lay flat on your work table. This also allows me to introduce some new books in […]
Proofing Hermes 3000 Bible!
Weapon of Choice: “Joanie” 1964 Hermes 3000.
Rejuvinating a Cloth Ribbon Cartridge for Electronic Typewriters (Nakajima)
Ahh, Cloth ribbon cartridges meant for electronic daisywheel typewriters, AKA “Multistrike” ribbons. They do exist but are fairly rare, so when you do find one, it’s certainly worth the trouble to restore them to functional condition. The main problem isn’t that the ribbon is invariably dry, though- the biggest problem is that the internal transport […]
New Feets for Richard The Deep Breather
Weapon of Choice: “Richard The Deep Breather”, 1925 Corona 4. I found a bag of 4 sizes of rubber feet on amazon, 10 feet per size. I figured one of the sizes would be right for what I needed.. Chuck the foot into a drill and use a thin file to file a grove about […]
The Tucson Haul – Fixed Typer #3 and another Giveaway Machine
Weapon of Choice: 197x Underwood 378. A Job for Superglue! Ergh, I’ll need to find a replacement for that screw. Hey, those are supposed to be inserted in the machine’s frame.
The Tucson Haul – Fixed Typer #2
Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 4” 1968 Montgomery Ward 440T. I took off the return lever and leftside carriage cover, but in the end I didn’t need to (except that it allowed me to see what was wrong in the first place). You can’t put the leftside knob on anyway unless the cover is already on […]
Upcoming Type-In and a Giveaway 1957 Royal Aristocrat!
Weapon of Choice: 1957 Royal Aristocrat. Spring malformed and sliding around. Must trim and form new hook-ends. Re-Install spring, not that it did any good. “Forming” is what we call it, not “bending”. Must be patient and have a light hand on the tool. Okay, so Aristocrats in the late 50’s had an RB prefix, […]
Upcoming Grist for the Scanner
Weapon of Choice: “Indy” 1959 Tower Chieftain III.
New TWDB “Mechanic’s Club” Patreon Tier!
Ooh, look! Patreon and Sellfy have set up an API that allows us to offer discounts at the TWDB Sellfy Store (https://sellfy.com/twdb) to TWDB Tier-level Patrons through some arcane technomagic. We’ve set up our first Patreon Tier and we waved the magic wand over it that theoretically should have set up the method by which […]
Brothers Under The Skin: A Defense of 21st Century Chinese Typewriters
Weapon of Choice: 2006 Generation 3000 with Transplant 1981 JP-7 Engine. Oddly, the ribbon cover latches are reversed between the two shell designs. You lift up the back on the JP-7, but lift the front on the G3k. Both shells have 4 screws at the bottom that are removed to take the shell off. the […]
The Brothers 3
Weapon of Choice: 1971 Remington Automatic 612 (Brother JP-4) I’m also working on a package for Joe, and according to the audio letter he sent, I have about 3 months to fill up the opposite side of the tape. Well now, 3 months is enough time to fill up a whole box, I’d think. Since […]
Adjusting Escapement Trip on Smith-Corona Skyriter – Solve Skipping Letters!
Weapon of Choice: “Indy”, 1959 Tower Chieftain III Swapping the return arm from a 6Y to a 3Y Skyriter. I should note here that correctly adjusting the trip point also does significantly “snappy up” the typing action. Having it too low results in a sort of mushy end of stroke. That’s all gone now. :D […]
Yes you can swap the long return lever from a Corsair for the vestigal return arm of your early Skyriter!
My 1956 Smith Corona Skyriter with vestigal return lever… First remove the carriage cover of the 6Y machine – you need to do it to access the one screw that holds the carriage return assembly in the machine. Yep, that long screw at the top of the assembly is all you need to unscrew once […]
Five Years Later: update on Using WD-40 to bring an old typewriter ribbon back to life!
Original post, and how to re-ink an old typewriter ribbon with WD-40. This 1970 Royal Sprite @TWDB
Remington Fold-A-Matic: Easy access to your Super-Riter and later Typewriters
Discussion of the Remington Fold-A-Matic feature for the Super-Riter @ Facebook Antique Typewriter Maintenance Group. 1953 Remington Super Riter @ Typewriter Database
The Hermes Baby and Rocket Typewriter Repair Bible now available!
Hey, look what just came in today’s mail! :D The Hermes Baby and Rocket Typewriter Repair Bible is now available! 98 Pages, Professionally printed and coil bound to lay flat on your work table. Contains: Hermes Baby and Rocket User Manuals Complete 1963 Service, Troubleshooting and Adjustment Manual Covering: Typewriters: Hermes Baby and Rocket Models […]
Bibles in the Wild
Heh, just realized my folder full of screenshots of happy mechanics using their Typewriter Repair Bibles is getting full again, so here’s the latest shots of people’s worktables: Are you interested in becoming a front-line mechanic in the Typewriter Revolution? Is there anything even remotely as satisfying as knowing what you’re doing when you’re in […]
Random Ramblings on DIY Typewriter Platen Recovering – and The Green Selectric Lives Again!
This Selectric @ TWDB 1962 Triumph Perfekt @ TWDB 1978 Brother Charger 11 (International Keyboard) @ TWDB Service manual for Brother JP-1 Typewriter (Brother Charger 11 is a JP-1)
Shrink Tube Typewriter Platen Re-covering DIY: Hermes 3000
I posted this to the Facebook Antique Typewriter Maintenance group last week, but nobody had tried the shrinktube platen re-covering method on an H3K yet… So, since nobody had tried, I needed to do it myself to make sure that the slightly larger-diameter platen would still work within the tolerances of the Hermes 3000 carriage. […]
Super-Riter $3 Platen Recovering – The Prompt Timeliness of The Thrift Gods
I’ve Ignored Them for Too Long, Because They Do Not Annoy… Hermes 3000 Service Manual
Vlogcast Episode 0.1: Feline Assisted Typewriter Diagnosis
So, I figured out how to use OpenShot, and tried shooting some video at f11, which is too dark for the lousy lighting I have in the house. It’s somewhat amusing though, because Number Six decided she wanted to star in the show, and I had totally forgotten that I’d already fixed the Lettera 22, […]
O.O.P.R.A.P. and The Typewriter Repair Bibles are Back! :D
Get ’em while they’re here. I am reminded of Scripture, Psalm 33:10 “The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.” Roughly translated into the title of a Public Enemy album, it means “Man Plans and God Laughs.” In other words, Act Now – Possibly a Limited […]
What’s In The Box???
The Smith-Corona Floating Shift Typewriter Repair Bible is now available! 334 Pages, Professionally printed and coil bound to lay flat on your work table. Includes: Smith-Corona “Floating Shift” User Manuals Complete 1947 and 1951 Service, Troubleshooting and Adjustment Manuals Covering Portable Manual Typewriters: Smith-Corona Squareline (Flat-top), Speedline and Super-5 Series – Standard, Clipper, Sterling, Silent […]
R.I.P. O.O.P.R.A.P., the print edition
Happy Typewriter Day! Now Turn your Bibles to Chapter…
Happy World Typewriter Day! It warms the cockles to see the celebration of this day spread the globe. No longer does the world require seed agency – the people are WOKE and events now spring up like fairy circles in the morning mist. The largest living organism in the world is not a Kraken, it’s […]
The difference between Tell and Show
There it is, that typewriter in your “ToDo” pile, collecting dust because it’s not quite working right, but you don’t know exactly what’s wrong with it, or maybe you think you know, but are trepidatious to really dig in there and find out. Maybe there’s even a small amount of guilt. You know that machine […]
Tabulatin’ My Bibles
Joe Van Cleave recently came up with a good idea in this post, where he does a little “Let’s use this to fix something” review of the recently released Smith-Corona Floating Shift Typewriter Repair Bible. That idea was adding tabbed dividers to the sections of the book to split up the sections for easy access. […]