(They might not smile much on your use of mineral spirits while you’re there, so use caution.)
Tag: typewriter repair

462 Pages, Professionally printed and coil bound to lay flat on your work table.
Includes:
- Basic Mechanical Theory and Indoctrination on how mid-20th Century manual typewriters work.
- Step-By-Step Typewriter Symptom Troubleshooting Guide.
- Complete 1946 OAMI Service and Adjustment Manual Covering:
- Standard Manual Typewriters: Remington * Royal * Underwood * Woodstock * L.C. Smith,
- Portable Manual Typewriters: Remington * Royal * Corona * Underwood.
- Typewriter Tools, Ribbon Spools, Ribbons, Platens, Springs and Ball Bearings Reference.
- Typewriter Typeface and Keyboard Reference.

Cleaning up a new typewriter.

Variable line spacer surgery and some clean up on the 1950 Remington All-New.
A Small Brother Charger 11 Repair Surgery
I managed to clean out a lot of white somewhat sticky cruft, ostensibly from the correction ribbon this machine once had. I initially thought it would all blow out quickly with canned air, but it really needed some careful work with my typewriter brush and some Q-tips. The spots on the still supple rubber platen and rollers came off pretty quickly with some rubbing alcohol.
I quickly found the re-connected the spring that was preventing the margin release from working properly. I then tracked down the issue I was seeing with the vibrator assembly. It turns out someone had worked on this before and neglected to replace two small screws and nuts to hold the assembly down to the frame and at the appropriate distance from the platen. Without them it just sort of floats around between the basket and the platen. I’ll have to pick up a pair of them at the hardware store to be able to reattach it and then adjust it to the proper distance from the platen. Hopefully the rest of that assembly will operate properly once attached, particularly the bichrome lever which seems somewhat flimsy.
Beyond this the only outstanding thing I see, besides adding a new ribbon, is that the end of the backspace assembly isn’t attached to anything. It ends in a small question mark-like but very sturdy hook which I presume would have attached to either a spring or a metal wire, but I’m going to need to consult either another machine or find a service manual which details what the assembly is supposed to look like. If anyone has a helpful photo of the bottom of their Charger 11 from that hook to the escapement assembly, that would be most helpful.
The last couple of tweaks should have this back in perfectly serviced operating order. Its almost as clean and new as when it rolled off the assembly line 39 years and 4 months ago.
I received this machine on March 12th and just realized that I never really took any photos of it or played around with it at the time in part because that’s the day my car’s engine died. I’ll see what I can do to finish this up soon, so that I can do a proper acquisition post and include some photos of the exterior as well as a proper typeface sample.

Turns out, it was exactly my issue and the pieces had “frozen up”. A quick clean out and we’re back in business in under 20 minutes.