The Walking Typewriter
It’s a very common complaint/worry/issue when people new to the typewriter world get their first machine and realize that as they’re typing, their typewriter slowly moves or “walks” across the work surface upon which they’re typing. It’s often easy enough to just move it back to center and continue on, but when you’re composing something and you’re in the zone, it’s an added niggling distraction that many who use typewriters were hoping to get away from in the first place. Often this issue is worse with some of the later model electrics (I’m looking at you Smith-Corona Electras) which have a motorized auto return function which in combination with carriage inertia can cause one’s typewriter almost to jump across a desk. It might also be an issue if you’re using a 40 pound standard machine on a writing drawer on your mid-century tanker desk and the machine tips off onto the floor, though I’ve yet to hear someone complain of this problem.
So we’re presented with the question of how to remedy this typewriter “walking” issue? Fortunately there are a handful of common and inexpensive remedies.
New Rubber Feet
The primary reason we see this walking issue now and it wasn’t seen in the past is that the rubber feet of vintage and antique typewriters have hardened over time. As a result, the feet on the typewriter don’t have the grippy-ness they originally did. Their almost plastic-like current form allows the machine to slide across the table with the force applied to the typewriter as one types as well as the use of the return lever to reset the carriage at the end of a line. This makes for an easy fix by replacing the rubber feet on one’s typewriter.
Because the original manufacturers aren’t making new stock any more, replacement can take many forms which are outlined below.
Rubber replacements
There are a handful of repair companies and hobbyists who have created molds and pour new rubber feet for a variety of makes and models. These are generally excellent and will give your machine another half century or more additional life. Prices for replacements can often be found in the $15-50 range.
3-D printed replacements
With the advent of small and inexpensive 3-D printers, many hobbyists will replace their old, hardened, and cracked or disintegrating rubber feet with newly printed ones. While these often provide a lot more grip than the ones they’re replacing, they may not be quite as solid as rubber replacements. Prices for replacements can often be found in the $20-60 range.
Hardware store
Depending on the shape and size of your typewriter feet, you may find that the local hardware store might have rubber pieces designed for other uses which will work with your particular machine. This option often relies on some research, hunting around, and sometimes some craftiness to get the pieces made for a different application to work with your typewriter. While it may only be an option in 5-10% of cases, its usually fairly inexpensive in comparison to other options.
In addition to the above, I’ve seen people use self-adhesive rubberized sheets cut to size and attached to the old feet.
Mats & Pads
Often less expensive than new rubber feet are any number of mats and pads, usually meant for other purposes, but which can be repurposed for use with your typewriter.
Machine Pads
In the mid-century several companies made machine pads specifically for typewriters and other machines. While some vintage or new old stock (NOS) versions may still be available for sale online or in antique stores, they’re often in mediocre shape at best as age and exposure will have either worn them down or stiffened them up. The completist collector may look for and attempt to use these, but newer alternate versions are likely of much higher quality.
Commercial Typewriter Pads
A few small typewriter repair companies and hobbyists make small typewriter pads out of carpeting with rubberized backing which will dramatically cut down on the dance your typewriter tries to clack out on your desktop. These options often run in the $20-40 range.
Examples:
Wool Ironing Mats, Felt Pads, and Carpet Pads
There are a variety of additional pads that can be used to help keep your typewriter in place. These include pads and mats made out of wool, felt, or even carpet. Ideally you’ll want something in the 1/4 – 1/2 inch thickness range and large enough to cover the footprint of your specific typewriter.
Because they were designed for ironing, some wool mats can be found in sizes larger than the typical typewriter. While some might eschew these larger sizes, they can come in handy for larger footprint standard typewriters. Additionally, these wider mats can be used to create a larger footprint around your typewriter which can help serve as a reminder not to place your favorite beverage next to your machine and accidentally have the carriage tip it over onto your desk either as you type or when your execute a return after ill-advisedly placing your glass right next to your carriage.
On smooth surfaces, these mats can not only reduce walking, but for heavier standard machines, they can also be useful for more easily moving typewriters around if you’re switching between the typewriter and your laptop computer.
I’ve personally got 4 or 5 of the Zomoneti Wool pads around the house and love them. They were recommended to me by Gerren Balch of The HotRod Typewriter Co., an experienced typewriter mechanic who may be better known for his hot rod paint jobs on typewriter bodies. He told me he’s also got several including one he uses to prevent machines in his shop from being scratched up as he’s flipping them around and wrenching on them. He loves the fact that they’ll also soak up liquids as he’s degreasing them to help prevent mess. You’ll see them regularly in his YouTube videos.
A local carpet store might give or sell you a square sample of carpet that would suffice as a pad and in combination with some shelf liner (see below), you’ll have roughly the same functionality in a DIY product that will work as well as a more expensive commercial option. Most might opt for a low pile carpet for this application, but, given the wide variety of types and colors, who would fault you for using an orange shag carpet to match up with your avocado green 1960 Aztec 500?
Another potential inexpensive method is to use oversized mouse pads if you can find them. I’ve also heard people upcycle items like computer notebook cases.
Examples:
- Zomoneti 100% Felted Wool Ironing pad (available in a variety of sizes)
- Felt Store typewriter pad
- Non-slip sewing machine pads
- Chinese/Japanese calligraphy mats
Yoga Mats
Another off-label mat that works well for typewriters are the thin, non-slip yoga mats. These come in a variety of colors and materials and work very well for keeping your typewriter in one place. Because of their size and material, they’re usually very easy to cut down from one long roll into several individual mats.
They’re often recommended by typewriter collector and restorer James Grooms who features them in many of his typewriter galleries on the typewriter database. He also suggests picking them up at thrift stores for pennies on the dollar.
Be aware that thicker and spongier yoga mats exist and will work with typewriters, but colloquially I’ve heard that most prefer the thinner ones.
Drawer and Shelf Liner
Thin rubber mats that are sold as drawer or shelf liner or non-slip rug or carpet padding can be cut down from larger sizes and repurposed as typewriter mats to prevent them from slipping around during use.
The drawback here is that some of them can be easily discolored in short spans of time. In my experience, some can also fuse with varnished wood surfaces, particularly when used with heavier standard typewriters, so keep this in mind, particularly if you’re using them on vintage furniture as display pieces when you’re not typing on them.
Some people will use these in combination with other carpet or wool mats mentioned above for a prettier but still practical and economical result.
Custom Typewriter Mats
Naturally one could use the examples above to custom make their own typewriter mats. I was always impressed at Tom Hanks’ ingenious custom typewriter covers/mats which served not only to prevent his machines from walking, but also doubled as covers to keep the dust out while simultaneously looking very sharp on a machine being displayed on a shelf, in a book case, or even sitting on your office’s credenza or library card catalog.
The “Singing” Typewriter
There’s another frequently mentioned down side of typewriters that users and their families aren’t big fans of: the noise.
While a typewriter is always going to make some sound, there are a variety of things one can do to minimize it. Before we delve into some of the potential solutions, let’s discuss a few of the reasons why your vintage or antique typewriter can be louder than it was right out of the factory.
The Noise Sources
The Ring and Cylinder and the Platen
First, the majority of the classic clacking sound you hear from typewriters is a result of the metal typebars hammering against the ring (or anvil) on the front of the segment just below the typing point. On older typewriters, you can often see the wear of the metal from years of this action occurring millions of times. This wear can also be an indicator of how heavily a typewriter was used in its lifetime.
While the majority of the typebar’s momentum is absorbed by the ring, some of the energy is reserved for the typebar to flex slightly and the slug to continue travelling forward where it’s meant to just “kiss” the ribbon and press the ribbon against the paper and then the rubbery-ness of platen absorbs the remainder of the blow. On a well-adjusted typewriter, with the typebar pressed fully forward, it should still be far enough from the platen to allow a sheet of paper to be easily slid between the slug and a backing sheet.
Depending on the rubber and manufacturing processes used, the average life of the rubber on a platen is somewhere around 30-40 years. Of course on most vintage or older typewriters, the platen which was originally specified somewhere between a durometer rating of a soft, but supple 85 and 92 is now as hard as a rock. As a result, when the slug strikes it, it’s going to be far louder than it would be for a new platen. This also means that for new typewriters manufactured in the 1980s or even typewriters from the 40s and 50s that had their platens replaced as late as the 1980s are pretty much guaranteed to have hardened platens. The end result is more noise.
As platens age, they also shrink which generally means the finely tuned ring and cylinder adjustment done at the factory (or by your local typewriter repair person) is going to be off. This generally means that the slug doesn’t hit the platen as it was meant to which also means that you’ll often see some of the smaller characters like underlines, commas, and periods piercing through your paper as you type. Age and poor alignment means that instead of the type slug kissing the ribbon it smashes the ribbon, blasts through the paper, and clangs against the hardened platen.
Felt and foam padding
To assist in dampening sound both within the typewriter as well as transference to the surroundings, many typewriters from the 1930s onward had sections of industrial padding, felt, or foam glued into the main body panels. Some of the older padding as seen in the 5 Series Smith-Corona portables holds up relatively well while the foam in machines like the Royal FP and the Futura 800 or even the IBM Selectrics has disintegrated into dust and can make a terrible mess as well as be difficult to clean out. On some machines it has picked up a dreadful smell and needs to be replaced.
Gromets and Rubber Washers
Another, albeit smaller, source of noise in typewriters is the movement and potential rattling of metal body pieces. As a result, you’ll often see small rubber grommets on body panels (common in some of the later Remington Standards) or thin rubber gaskets between the screws and body panels (this is very common on late 1950s Smith-Coronas). Many 60s and 70s typewriters with plastic or thin metal hoods will be held in place by a post which inserts into rubber grommets on either side of the ribbon cups. This makes them easier to take off and replace, but also prevents vibrations from transferring.
Desk Surfaces and Reflected Noise
Of course all these sources of noise are frequently not only heard directly from their source, but the energy of the sound waves is bounced off of the hard desk and writing surfaces upon which one’s typewriter is placed for use. In contemporaneous typewriter usage at mid-century, most were situated on wooden or rubber-like linoleum-covered tanker desks which don’t exist in modern office spaces anymore. This means that your bare metal, glass, or other hard surfaced-desk is reflecting all of the noise from the typewriter right back up at you and amplifying the noise the machine is making.
The Noise Solutions
Now that we’ve looked at most of the noise sources associated with a typewriter, let’s look at some various means of minimizing them.
The quickest, easiest, and one of the least expensive noise dampening solutions is to use a typewriter mat of one of the sorts described in the section on “walking typewriters”. Felted wool and yoga mats are considered the best. In addition to helping keep typewriters in one place, they can help to absorb quite a lot of the sound as well as prevent reflection of the sound off of the desktop. Their diverse functionality and the ability to accessorize a desk and a typewriter make them incredibly useful accessories.
Colloquially, I’ve heard people say that this sound dampening method is even better than replacing the internal felt or foam on the internal body panels, which is another relatively inexpensive method of sound dampening.
Using 3-5mm felt from your local hobby store is a simple replacement for old felt and foam which can frequently hold unpleasant smells. Others frequently suggest Ethylene-vinyl acetate foam sometimes more commonly called EVA foam which is used in a variety of common applications from shoes, athletic equipment, yoga mats, toys, packaging, furniture, seating, and even cosplay costumes. Others may also suggest materials like neoprene which is commonly used to make wet suits. Most all of these are relatively easy to find in a variety of fabric, foam, and hobby stores as well as online stores. One can use paper patterns cut out to follow the form of the typewriter panels and then trace the pattern onto the material and then cut it out. A variety of glues like rubber cement can be easily used to secure this new noise dampening material.
For rubber grommets and washers, these can often be replaced by a quick trip to the hardware store and browsing through the hardware or plumbing sections. Online purveyors like Grainger and McMaster-Carr often have huge selections which will allow one a lot more flexibility to more closely specify sizes and thicknesses. Many hardware stores will also have grab-bag choices that include a variety of sizes of rubber parts so that you can easily pick and choose the appropriate size parts for your particular typewriter.
Finally, another very good means of minimizing the noise of your typewriter is to re-cover the platen. Going from a rock hard platen back into a lower durometer rating will help to quiet your machine and give it a more lux typing feel at the same time. Few people do it because it can run about $100 plus shipping, but it really improves your typing experience and is well worth the effort. Because the companies that do this work also do rollers, be sure to spend the few extra dollars to resurface your carriage rollers to have better grip when threading your paper.
Several companies offer platen re-covering and related services including:
- J.J. Short Associates, Inc. for Typewriter Platens, Feed Rollers, Bail Rollers, Finger Rollers, and Power Rollers. A platen and feed rollers can run about $100-120 plus shipping, but call or email them for a quote for your specific machine(s)
- Bob Marshall at Typewriter Muse in Riverside, CA
- AKB Longs in the Netherlands. Send an email to rollen@akblongs.nl Prices are about 40€ + VAT for portable platens + shipping both ways
- Alessio Vescovo in Italy
Remember that if you have your platen re-covered you will want to properly re-adjust your typewriter to get the proper ring and cylinder adjustment done after platen installation. Your local repair shop can handle this for your, or you can attempt it at home. This adjustment will improve not only the noise but the imprint of the letters on your page as well as the longevity of your platen.
Other ideas?
Do you have other options that have worked for you? Have you custom made your own anti-walking and noise cancelling accessories for your typewriter? Be sure to share examples or companies with usable solutions in the the comments below.
