Weapon of Choice: 1982-ish Sears “The Electric 1/with correction” (Nakajima M7500). Easy-open shell, just 4 screws at the bottom. The old oily and flaccid drive belt and the remains of the shift pads. I have no idea how that little spring got loose and ended up rattling around in the machine. Pretty sure you’d have […]
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 […]
Mustang Saturday
Weapon of Choice: 1972 Royal Mercury. Tan older-model Aceliner for $2, a pair of Fujitsu M2551A08 floppy drives @$3 each. Also $3 for an empty older-style woodside Portable Pub case. Without the barware inside, I feel it’s a good candidate for new carrying case for my Underwood 3-Bank. Installing a new silk ribbon with metal […]
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 […]
Typewriter Podcasts!
Weapon of Choice: “Easy”, 1964 Hermes 3000. Also walking around typing on a Canon Typestar 4, making notes for a Tapecast package back to JoeVC… ScottK’s”Type O +VE” Podcast Qwerty Rotten Scoundrels Podcast Is a podcast anything like a Tapecast? Digital to analog to digital… Trying to track down squeakiness in my tape deck, only […]
Brother IF-50 Computer to Typewriter Interface User manual
I’m guessing a lot of these IF-50 Computer Interface boxes that allow certain port-equipped Brother Typewriters to act as printers for many 8-Bit 1980’s computers exist, but have long ago been separated from their absolutely essential user manuals. If you’re in that situation, you’re in luck because I’ve scanned mine. Enjoy! (:
Dynasty Typewriter Type-In Feb 9 2018 in Los Angeles!
There’s a free type-in/paper arts event in Los Angeles, and you’re invited. The event is Saturday, February 9, noon-4pm at Dynasty Typewriter at the Hayworth, a restored 1927 theater near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. A traditional type-in is basically an excuse for typewriter enthusiasts to get together and nerd out over writing machines. This is intended […]
UJTU: Slings & Arrows & things that Got Done
Oh good Lord, they really changed the post editor in WordPress a bunch with version 5. Hopefully, I can figure it all out and not make this post look as wonky as this new editor is making me feel. :P
A thing that might happen, a thing that happened and what’s happening now
Weapon of Choice: “Moneypenny” 1948 Royal Quiet De Luxe Yeehaw! I gots a Trackin’ Number! This thing begins to coalesce. :D
Sears Typewriter Serial Number Page Created!
Weapon of Choice: “Einstein” 1956 Tower Silent Atomic New Sears Serial Number Page at the Typewriter Database! But before we worry about how it all ended, let’s look at where it began. Fall of 1963 – the last “Tower” Electric is offered along with the very first “Sears” electric. The new version is a 12-incher! […]
Tower Typewriter Serial Number Page Updated!
Weapon of Choice: 1957 Tower Commander The New Tower Typewriter Serial Number Page on TWDB Canadian Tower Typewriters: Tantalizing Tidbits Smith-Corona Tabulators in the TWDB Tower Challengers in the TWDB Tower Commanders in the TWDB
Feeling Blessed for The Holidays
Weapon of Choice: 1983 Brother EP-20 “New” Dell Studio XPS from Key Snap. 6-Core AMD Phenom II X6 1045T @2.70GHz, 8gb RAM, Video: EVGA GeForce GTX 750ti w/2gb RAM. All set up and workspace cloned.. The Old machine that the XPS replaces – a 4-Core i5 Intel, 6gb RAM, no video card. I’ll be rebuilding […]
Sourcing and Replacing FEG R-61 Firing Pin
Ahh, the Ninties. The Wall had just fallen (no, not *that* Wall, the Berlin Wall) and the Iron Curtain had crashed down under the weight of insanely paranoid defense spending during the Reagan years. Newly ex-Soviet Bloc governments privatized their weapons factories and scrambled to raise hard currency by selling off surplus police and military […]
Why You Should Own a Typewriter in 2018
Ahh, The Revolution continues apace, with the Great Propaganda of California Typewriter infecting The Message into the minds of people far and wide. It is always exciting to Hear The Great Story told again by a new convert. This popped up in my Youtube feed tonight, which undoubtedly proves yet again how well Google knows […]
Ancillary Report concerning the events surrounding the 3rd CSL Type-In, AKA I’ll Tumble For Ya
The Zen of cleaning purple fingerprints from your typewriters… If this tumbler’s rockin’, don’t come knockin’… Circa 1976 SkilCraft Gem Stone Tumbler, complete and un-used Goodwill find.
Thermal Wedgies and a box for feeding very skinny thermal paper rolls into same.
Weapons of Choice: 1983 Brother EP-20, 1984 Brother EP-44, 1986 Canon Typestar 4
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 […]
A Day With Joe (and fellow Typospherians)
Group photo of the happenstance Typospherian meetup at Bill’s, from left to right: Random photobomber fellow, Joe, Bill, Erik and Cameron. Not sure who the random fellow was, he was walking by and stopped to be in the photo. :D Fuzzier photo of us taken by the random guy, from left to right: Erik, Joe, […]
The Return of the Axes
The Machine… The Man, Mr. Butane… Hey, there’s sort of a database for Fender tube amp serial numbers now! What’s this Circuit-Bent stuff anyway? Apparently, these are still popular enough that people rhapsodize on them on the web, and charge $300+ for them on Ebay. Who’d’a thunk? I guess I did pretty good finding this […]
Report from Typewriter Harvest 2018 Type-In
As per usual, I spent my time at the Type-In chatting with folks and occasionally helping the mystified newcomer figure out the carriage return and how to make exclamation points rather than typing anything of substance, but I did try to hit every machine and get an impression off… Some computer generated typewriter art by […]
To Collect and Preserve: An Informative Brochure
I wanted to print up some flyers for the “Cold Hard Type” project to pass out at the next couple of local Type-Ins, and thought “Why stop there? I can make a little brochure/zine to pass out.” So, I whipped up a tri-fold brochure with a bunch of useful info for the new local area […]
Call for Submissions: Cold Hard Type, Typewriter Stories from the Post-Digital World
I’m in, are you? :D
It’s Autumn Type-In Season in Phoenix!
2018 has been a great year for Type-Ins, not only in the Phoenix area, but all over the country. The Revolution expands and catches fire everywhere it touches, and burns with a ferocity that cannot be quenched. The romance, utility and flexibility of the Typewriter Life reaches deep into the soul and connects with that […]
Buddy-L Easy-Writer 300 User Manual and Leafcasting…
Weapon of Choice: Buddy-L Easy-Writer 300 First attempt at Leafcasting: leaf between a sheet of paper and a sheet of Ko-Rec-Type. Hmmn, maybe the toy typewriter with plastic typeslugs wasn’t the best choice… “The leaves here are very small, Makes it hard to type at all!”
Building a new Decade-old Computin’ Machine
I took part of today to go through a pile of old computers to take to Goodwill, which is a thing that always gives me pains because I know they’ll likely just get thrown out, but then who the heck wants beige box Pentium IIs, IIIs and 4s? Someone, I’m sure, but I’ve already got […]
Rainy Day Appreciation of my 1981 Montgomery Wards Escort 550 (Brother JP-7)
Weapon of Choice: 1981 Montgomery Ward Escort 550 (Brother JP-7) This typewriter as offered in the 1981 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog Nearing the last stand for Manual and Electric Typebar machines offered by Monkey Ward. By 1984, only the electric is offered alongside various electronic wedges, the new Brother Type-O-Graph and a selection of home […]
Twinsie Seikos
TWDB: Milestone nearly reached!
UJTU: TWDB Epsilon Teasers!
Serious Research View (SRV) Typewriter Porn View (TPV) Grid View (GRD) Weapon of Choice: Thunderbird 3, 1966 MW Signature 440T
1966 Monkey Wards Signature 440T: Thrift Score – with User Manual!
Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 3” 1966 Montgomery Wards Signature 440T My other two previous Signature 440T finds: Return Of The Typewriter Bone: 1968 Monkey Wards Signature 440T (Brother) Deja Vu All Over Again – The Twin Brother and some info I found on the 440T: The 1968 Monkey Wards catalog that shows these 440Ts The spring-loaded […]
The Five-Tape Session: on cassettes and why I still use my tape deck
Weapon of Choice: “Little Jake”, 1933 Monarch (Remie Scout, 10cpi Art Gothic face) Last week’s session with The Brother took up 5 tapes, two 90’s and three 60’s, total 6 hours, enough that I had to dip into a fresh tape pack! Example: “Swing World” uses a sample snippet of The Brother in a song […]
Culling the Herd & Trimmin’ the Fat
1982 IBM Selecrtic III 12cpi Single-Pitch, Correcting. He Gone! 1990 IBM Personal Wheelwriter, he gone too! Probably 1990’s to early 2000’s Swintec 8014-8. Off to Greener Pastures. 1987 Brother Professional 90 (CX-90). Got tired of trying to make this into a printer. Weapon of Choice: 1956 Smith-Corona Skyriter – A Keeper! :D
The Case of the Disappearing Ebay Listings, or how to Wrangle Ebay EPN API Feeds
Weapon of Choice: “Joanie”, 1964 Hermes 3000 The current PHP API Feed display ads. Pretty, but a bit flakey lately. You also need to add some request variables to the Javascript call to Ebay’s servers. Attach the above to your call to toggle the return of the SuperSize image url and to tell Ebay to […]
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.
Also testing the ability to *not* auto-post on Facebook, to make sure that works.. :D