The doppelgänger

Here's a sneak peek of a work in progress of another skyriter, the sibling to my green racer. All work has ceased until I have free time at a later date. Lucky, my L32 is also at a stand still til then.

Adventures in typewriter repairs #2: The Olivetti Lettera 32: The ball bearing riddle

   Last night was a late night. Three AM. I don't think I've pulled a nonpaying late-nighter since my college days. Being the dedicated junkie that I am, I think I finally earned my first stripe as a typebarhead.
 
   After dinner yesterday, my belly was happily filled with comfort food which I direly needed. The television was blaring some housewife reality show on Bravo so I decided to go to the garage to inspect my "workbench" which consisted of a temporary plastic fold-up table. Originally, this was my typing table for my Sherman, my Selectric II, and two other standards. I was too lazy to haul these hulking beasts up three flights of stairs so they were relegated to the garage. Now they sit on the garage floor nearby. Except for Hank, my Royal HH, that shares the table with the work in progress. Half the table is now cluttered with typewriter parts and tools. New additions include a lamp and a blow dryer. The most recent inhabitant is Olivetti Lettera 32.

   As I blogged yesterday, I had given the Lettera a much needed soap bath. As I drained the sink, I discovered a quarter inch spring lying at the bottom. Luckily, I use a strainer for such reasons, but I didn't need it on this occasion because the spring sat dead center against the white, calling for my attention. I deduced from the carriage not working properly anymore and through a second working Lettera that the spring came from the escapement mechanism, one that held the teeth to the wheel that held and advanced the carriage as one typed. Through my Skyriters, I had a good sense of how it looked and worked, but there is no clear sight or access to this mechanism on the Olivetti. I had to remove parts piece by piece to try to get closer to it until finally the carriage collapsed on me when the ball bearings fell out. I now had easy access to the escape mechanism and wheel, but a whole new problem of reassembling the carriage confronted me. Since I didn't plan on dismantling the carriage system, I did not track how the parts fit and worked together. I feared I was not going to be able to put it all back together. But one thing at a time.

   I concentrated on the mystery spring. I hooked it on the teeth that controlled the wheel. I got it working in theory (hard to test with no carriage at this point) but the spring was being twisted irregularly so I knew it was incorrect. I eventually found what I thought would be correct since I had no map or drawing to follow (and I was not about to take apart the other functioning Lettera to see since I had no idea if I could put one back together). I included the photo in my last blog. I will prematurely jump to the result since it was good news.  The guess was correct. Happy days!

   Before I knew this of course, I was faced with the question and challenge if I could put this typewriter back together again. I've never liked dealing with ball bearings the few times I've encountered them. And never before on a typewriter. The first hour was quite fun, trying to come up with a way to get the ball bearings back into the rails without falling. It was like pinball or a game called Labyrinth I played as a child where you tried to navigate a metal ball through a maze via tilting and shifting the level of the board via knobs. The balls kept dropping so much that it was almost comical. This is where a plastic folding table where it's center has been bent over time with weight becomes a benefit (thanks Sherman!). All dropped balls rolled back to the center.

   By the second and third hour, it became less fun and comical. It became more a mind riddle how they got them there and finally it felt like a Jedi mind trick. More drastic measures were needed with the machine being in various orientations that the balls now fell to the ground. I spent much time on my knees with a flashlight looking around other typewriters and cases surrounding me. A few times I thought I had lost one for good and the game was over, but each time I got lucky and found it again. Only one time I was at a loss. Usually I hear it hit the concrete floor so I know it's there, but one time, two balls dropped. One hit the table and rolled (a very distinctive sound) and I didn't hear the other hit anything. This concerned me because there was junk everywhere surrounding the table. I looked all around and just when I was about to give up, I decided to look into a trash bin at the foot of the table. It was filled with paper towels. Buried a few layers down was my stainless steel sphere. Whew!

   Rather than spend time with the "story" or the "adventure" of the ball bearing riddle (and what an adventure it was for me) I want to document how I did it in case I ever need to do this again in the distant future. I will most likely have forgotten the steps, and there is a sequential procedure for it to work. And if others can make use of it, great.

   First off, I do not know if this is the correct or only way to do this. It probably isn't, but it works. I dismantled the rail system a couple of times after to make sure it was repeatable and it was. The only thing I regret not doing was photographing it. I was too much in a hurry to rebuild it to see if it worked when fully assembled back. And luckily, it did. Now that all the parts are on, I do not want to dismantle it. I feel like I went to battle with this typewriter, brothers in arms, and we have now both returned safely home. It was hard earned and there are still some problems that need fixing, but this typewriter has now forever been a part of me, hard to part or relinquish it. And it earned it's nickname on this adventure, Lucky.

   So what exactly is the problem or difficulty? Or what I call the Olivetti ball bearing riddle? Let's back track to the carriage system first. Like most typewriters, the carriage moves on a rail system facilitated by four ball bearings that move on these two rails, two balls each on the front and back rail. It's fairly simple to slide the carriage off the rail on either the left or right side after you remove what I'll call the rail stopper (picture A below) on the back of the machine or by lifting it up once the ball bearings are out. Once you remove the carriage there is a thin device that slips between the rails which holds the two ball bearings equidistant between the rails in place with a tiny center wheel that resembles a miniature fan (picture B below) that rides the notched rails as teeth not unlike a bicycle with it's chains. Where the Olivetti becomes challenging (and maybe this is so for many other typewriters) is the positioning of this device which I'll call the ball bearing retainer (these parts probably all have names but I don't know what they are. If you do, let me know please. thx).

   The obvious solution of lining the balls and it's retainer device and slipping/inserting the carriage back on the rail like a train doesn't work. The balls will fall out depending where the carriage is on the rail because one side of this retainer extends outside of the parallel rails when the carriage is extended left or right. It doesn't matter which side of the typewriter you slip the carriage onto the rails. All it does is reverse the order of which balls will fall because the other side of the retainer will now be extended beyond where it should be. When you compare it to a functioning machine, you notice that this retainer device is always in the middle of the carriage, never extending itself to either end and overextending itself outside the needed parallel rails that keep the bearing in place. If you align and slip the carriage on the tracks, you can never get it in the middle. One end will always expose and overextend, dropping the bearing. How did they get this device in the middle? Once the ball bearings are in the rail, it locks the fan wheel to the notches and you cannot move the retainer device and ball bearings without moving the entire carriage. The system is now locked in sync. It's hard to describe unless you are dealing with it and for me, it felt like a riddle. How in the world did they get all four balls in and the device in the middle? It seems physically impossible.

   So the questions really become how does one assemble the carriage rail system of an Olivetti Lettera 32?  How do you insert the ball bearings into the retainer onto the rails without it falling later as the carriage moves from one side to the the other, or more precisely, how to you reassemble the rail system so it is exactly like how it left the Olivetti factory? Not close to, but exactly. This was key. This is where the second machine helped enormously. You have to have the retainer device in the middle first, but then how do you get the ball bearings in? This is where the order of things matter. At this point, I will just do a complete step by step.

Here are three photos where the red straw shows you where the retainer device should be when the carriage is in a certain position. The ultimate trick is how to get the device in the middle with the ball bearings.

Disassembling the carriage of an Olivetti Lettera 32:

1) Remove platen and teal paper carrier from carriage for easier viewing. This could be optional because you can see what you need to do with it on, but a bit of a annoyance in my opinion. And this is the easiest part IMO.

2) Remove silver margin setter bar. Unhook the carriage drawstring. I hook it to a nearby screw rather than unwinding it.

3) Remove black "rail stopper" contraption. This is a simple unscrewing but then I had to use some brute force to actually get it out. This is the single reason I won't disassemble it again if I don't need to. After three times, I felt I was pressing my luck and may break this screw.

picture A (it's connected to a few things so note that)

4) Once the rail stopper is removed, you can slide the carriage in either direction past it's limits and the ball bearings will drop loose. I recommend sliding it to the right if the keyboard is facing north, i.e. the return lever side. (I do so because you should familiarize yourself with this movement for reassembly) You will see the escapement wheel mechanism which you could not do so when the rail stopper was in place. Once you pass it, the ball bearings will drop because the retainer is overextended and beyond the parallel rails.

Once it's loose, you can lift up the carriage. You can't actually slide the carriage out from either side. There is an arrow like piece of metal that I believe is part of the margin or tab system that will restrict this so you need to lift it up to remove it. This metal arrow pointing up will play a minor part of putting this back together again later so familiarize where it goes, i.e. in the empty horizontal gap on the back of the carriage.

5) Once the carriage is off, you should have four ball bearings, two thin ball bearing retainer devices measuring about five inches with a tiny fan wheel in the center. (see picture B below for drawing of retainer).

Assembling the ball bearings and carriage of an Olivetti Lettera 32:

1) Place the carriage back on it's rail. Make sure the metal arrow pointing up is safely in the horizontal gap in the back of the carriage.

2) Place the carriage where the 0 on the measurement bar is directly in line with the type guide. Or as close as you can. This is key to get it right the first time to match factory specs.

photo angle doesn't show straight alignment

3) Take one of the bearing retainers and insert it between the rails without using the ball bearings. Let's do the front one first. The first half will be easy, but then you will need to carefully shimmy the second half in because the fan wheel will not notch properly without any bearings in place. The first retainer should also be easier since you can move the carriage to get more room. In this case, move it back so you can slip the thin device in the front rails. Insert it until the retainer end is flush with edge of the rail of the typewriter and not the carriage (see picture B).

4) Now insert the retainer device into the back rail without the ball bearings. This will be trickier because there is less room. Be careful not to shimmy it too hard and break any of the wheels teeth. I noticed moving the carriage back and forth gently while shimmying helped. Also place the retainer end flush to the edge of the typewriter rail. Remember to never move the carriage this whole time from the 0 alignment with the type guide. This is how you keep the retainer device in the middle of the carriage at all times.

picture B ("shimmy" not "jimmy")

5) Insert the two ball bearings into the left exposing retainer holders (BTW the typewriter keyboard is always facing north in my instructions here). You may need to roll the carriage over two notches to the left to expose it, hence rolling beyond the 0 mark to the negative and unmarked ruler part. Don't worry about rolling it too far because that metal arrow pointing upward will hit the end of the carriage so you won't fall of the rail.

6) Once they are in, roll the carriage system to the right slowly. The carriage is officially now in a locked sync position. As you move the carriage past the wheel escapement mechanism, go slowly and the bearings will fall out again to the escapement area once this side of the retainer is exposed. Don't worry, this is normal. We just put in the bearings to move the carriage. This is where the order of things matter. You should now notice that all four of the bearing retainer holders are exposed. Two from the inside from the escapement mechanism, and two from the outside, the end of the rails at the return lever side. You may need to find the right notch to get them all at the same time, but they are all reachable at this point.

7) Insert all four bearings simultaneously. Hold in place with four fingers. Two from each hand on each side. Press them in and roll to the left and center the carriage. Voila! They're now all in and the retainer device is now in the middle of the carriage, locked in sync. To be safe, lock your carriage lock because if the carriage moves accidentally too far, the bearing can still fall out. If so, just repeat the exercise. Once you install the rail stopper contraption, the bearing retainer device will not over extend past the parallel rails at any point. This is where the 0 measurement alignment is important.

8) Reassemble the rail stopper, re-attach the drawstring,  and test the carriage at both ends. I think you will notice this contraption limits it's movements so the ball bearings stay held in.

9) Reassemble the rest of the machine such as margin bar, paper carrier, and platen.

I hope this works for you if you happen to need to take apart the carriage of an Olivetti. I'm sure there can be variations to this method and there may be an easier way. I'd love to know if there is. But I tested this three times and fine tuned it to make sure it was precise and repeatable so I know this at least works. Happy repairs!

Again, More Typewriter Repairs : ( & the mystery spring

Not sure what happened to my typecast images from yesterday, but here it is again reuploaded.

My uncorrected typecast:

Adventures in typewriter restoration

Do you know what typewriter this is? 

Racer? No, it's a Smith-Corona Skyriter, 2Y series. It's was my last few weekend's restoration, or perhaps more accurately, revival project.

I was toying around with my two different Skyriter models (in the dueling skyriters blog) and thought it necessary to get the third and earliest Skyriter model, the 2Y, to complete the comparison. So out of curiosity,  I looked on Craigslist and found one available. I quickly contacted the seller, made an offer and he accepted. The only catch was he was 60 miles away. I decided it was not a problem and headed over that evening after waiting out Los Angeles rush hour traffic. Now is that an obsession or what?

My pimped out Skyriter

Of course, I didn't really think about it too clearly and after I got there, realized I also had to get back. Two hours and 120 miles. It didn't seem as good of an idea anymore, but like a junkie's addiction, I didn't see that far ahead. 

I found the address and the man greeted me at his driveway after a few lost phone calls. He had the typewriter out ready for me. I took a look. It was in bad shape but I knew it would be. In the ad, it said it needed TLC, but it also said it worked but it didn't. Not really. A few letters I struck didn't reach the platen. I already knew from my first glance the handle was broken and three rubber feet were missing. Did it really matter if it worked or not at this point? 120 miles, empty handed? I think not. I paid the man and got going. There was no point staying or haggling. I knew in the back of my mind when I contacted the seller that this could be a parts machine. I found myself a nearby In and Out Burger and had myself a late dinner before jumping back on the highway. By this point, it was late late in the evening. I would make it back home before midnight.

I should've went straight to bed when I got home, but of course, I didn't. I had to check out the machine more closely. It was one dirty grimy machine. In fact, when I first put it in the car it stank like smoke. I had to stop a few blocks later and remove it from the backseat and put it in the trunk. It was by far the grimiest machine I ever brought home. Oil and grease plastered everything. I never understood why anyone would want their typewriter this way. The internals seemed like they were soaked or sprayed entirely with oil. The machine seemed like it was dripping, but it wasn't because the oil and grease had frozen mid-drip and caked up, forming dropping-like crude all over the bottom and structural skeleton. I struck a few more keys and discovered it was only the left side that didn't strike the platen. It was being obstructed by a metallic arm of some sort. Luckily, I traced the problem to an unhooked spring behind the type bars which pulled this arm back away. It was an easy fix without taking anything apart.

So three missing rubber feet, a few dents in the case, a broken handle and a major cleaning. Not bad I thought. I could work with that I guess since I had gained a little confidence with semi-repairing my Underwood. With some experience with my two Skyriters before and a working guide, I easily unscrewed the two screws to take it apart. Everything was fine still until I pulled out the internal skeleton. The felt lying at the bottom was disgusting! Half a century of grease and oil and who knows what else. It was still moist and held a noisome odor. I had to put the machine down and called it a night. Tomorrow, I decided, I would need to give it a major soap bath.

I didn't get to it the next day, and a few days later, I gave it the promised soap bath.  It had worked well when I gave it to the Underwood Golden Touch. Cleaned it right up. But it the mean time, my mind was wondering what I could do with the felt. I knew it had to go. During one of my walks, I spotted a Alfa Romeo convertible parked street-side in my neighborhood. I had to take it's picture, it was too pretty. Forest green with an off-center yellow racing stripe!

As I was photographing it, I saw the yellow fan behind the grill and then it came to me. Why not custom paint the Skyriter like this car. A yellow felt underneath would pop out the green keyboard. That became the plan.

After the soap bath with some rigid scrubbing all around, I let it dry overnight. When I came back the next morning, to my horror, all the type bars were stuck frozen. I forced the bars forward and realized it had all rusted over. I guess they call it flash rust. I didn't notice any rust in prior inspection, but now there were spots all around. Maybe I shouldn't have given such an old machine a soap bath. Now I need to use the bath sparingly and with more prudence. I went to the hardware store and bought rust remover. I brushed it on and rinsed according to instructions. Some of the rust went away but now I was getting sticky keys on more than a handful of type bars. I thought I ruined this one. I didn't really test this machine with paper and ink so I never knew if it worked properly, but one thing I did not want, was to ruin a working machine.

I was a little upset with myself but I tried my best to resuscitate it. I rinsed off the rust removal and waited another day. Rust came back. I repeated. I believed I had to wait a full day to let all the hidden moisture evaporate. So days started passing. At this time, I started gathering material for the cosmetic surgery. I made my first ever trip to Michael's. I had no idea craft stores could be so big. I collected the yellow felt and two cans of spray paint. I knew the yellow felt would be impractical for a typewriter, but I had to see how it would look. I wanted to replicate the yellow fan behind the grill detail of the convertible. 

I began disassembling parts that would need to be painted. I choice to use the stencil method of spray painting so I had to strategy what colors needed to be applied first and masked. While doing this, I realized I was missing the upper back panel which was also it's name plate - the green plate that says "Skyriter." A which point I decided why not try to stencil letters in also. I came up with the simpler "racer" to test. I was also always a big fan of Le Mans racing stripes and I preferred the double thin off centered ones so I changed that. 

As I banged out the dents in the case and sanded down chipped areas and the space bar, it occurred to me that I should probably wear a mask. Given the dates of these machines, they probably used lead paint. I didn't have one and didn't want to stop, so I didn't. 

Finally, the rust no longer appeared and I no longer wanted to apply and rinse for fear of triggering more of it. I gave it a little oil to the type bars and it seemed to help. So I gave it some more. More strikers didn't stick. I read online this is one thing you shouldn't do, but what do you do when it's the only thing working? I let it sit, hoping some of the oil would evaporate, but it didn't. I could see the oil turn brown in time, dissolving, I assume, the rust inside. I kept wiping off  what I could, hoping I'd get all the excess, but days passed before I finally gave up. It seems like this machine was made or meant to be dripping. At least now I've contained it to one place. The typewriter was back typing and ultimately, that's what I want. I do fear that one day it will conk out on me in the future due to this application, but for now, hooray for the sweating type bars. 

Spray painting proved harder than I thought. The half-size yellow can was causing me all sorts of problems. Crinkle paint didn't cooperate well either. I didn't have as much a problem with the regular size green can though. I suspect the smaller can had less pressure or throw to the spray so I couldn't cover as much area as I would like. If I sprayed too close or if there was a recess, paint would gather in little pools, creating uneven patches or losing the crinkle altogether. I didn't have a brush handy to try to even it (but I would later discover it wouldn't have worked anyhow). On certain patches I would try recreating the crinkle, but that just made things worse. I had never used spray paint before and quickly discovered it did not work like oil or acrylic artist or house paints. That's my biggest complaint of the paint job, it's uneven and patchy. If I had my chance to do over, I'd hand paint the stripes over rather than have it sprayed as an under-paint.

Of this process, the most rewarding part was finding rubber feet substitutes. I made a couple trips to the hardware store and Home Depot and discovered grommets and bushings. I had no idea they even existed before I visited this section. I bought a few sizes and they worked out. The grommets were perfect from the inside, but they worked more like protecters because they were a millimeter or so thin. I eventually chose to use the bushings because they were more like feet. However, there was about a millimeter gap as you'll see in the photo. I chose to use a rubber washer in between to fill the gap and stop the wobbliness without it. I painted it yellow for kicks.

When I put the whole thing back together I discovered the bunny ear paper holder was bent out of shape, probably from sitting in it's case for so long without the upper panel. That was an easy re-bend.

Overall, I liked the concept and effort, but I think I could've done a better paint job. Maybe stripping all the crinkle away to a smooth surface would've helped. I still need to do some touch-up and clean ups. The space bar and ruler I left unpainted for now. The Smith-Corona logo needs a redo (not pictured). I need to sand away more rust on certain areas.  I still need to figure out something for the handle. And mechanically there are still some issues with it. Alignment is not great, caps aren't imprinting clearly and it likely needs a new platen. So there's still plenty of work to do, but I'll let it stand as it for a bit. I need the break.

The Skyriter Racer welcomed into Typebarhead family

This is how she types.

On the flip side, this project has kept me occupied for a few weeks and lessened my typewriter hunting and ebay trolling. The addiction is taking on new forms!

Adventures in typewriter repair #1: Underwood Golden Touch

My first typewriter repair (kinda). I had reconnected a drawstring once previous on a Hermes Rocket but that didn't count. And this, well, this was only semi fixed. It's an Underwood Golden Touch.

This is what I saw once I pried the case open.

Half the keys did not strike the platen due to this crooked typebar basket in photo 1. I played detective with a flashlight, turned the typer upside down, and discovered the left side support had been dislodged from it's hole in photos 2 & 3. The 4th photo shows the right side and how it should be. I was able to relodge it back and realigned the basket as seen in 5th photo.

 

The keys now all typed, but the carriage was still scraping and bumping into "things" as it moved. I thought maybe it could be caused by loosened screws within the rail system, or it got unleveled or crooked like the basket was, so I decided to dig deeper and take it apart. The paint job got chipped quite a bit also that I thought it would be easier repainting the whole body rather than retouching. The back upper panel where the paper insert had a crummy red hand-painted-like "Home-Mark" label on it. I didn't really like it so a fresh repaint was called for.

I thought I'd try giving the machine a soap bath. Here you see it drying next to my new Lexikon 80.

I went to Home Depot and asked an employee how to strip paint off metal. "What's it for?" The older gentleman asked. I'm trying to restore a typewriter I told him. "A typewriter?" He asked twice as if the first time wasn't enough. He shook his head and lead me to a paint remover, a scrapper, sandpaper, brushes, gloves, paint, etc. I bought all the necessary supplies which ended up costing more than the typer.

I started stripping the paint and was planning to leave it bare aluminum to see if that would look good before repainting it pearly white like a mini cooper. But I decided to stop mid-way. I kinda liked the beaten up aged look. I figured why not leave it like this for a bit and see how I feel about it. It somewhat fit the machine since I couldn't figure out how to take apart the carriage and as I examined it more, it looked like the rail or carriage had been bent or the ball bearing could be broken cause it felt like the carriage was hitting speed bumps as it moved left to right. The first bump I could figure out was the carriage cover hitting the rail, but the subsequent ones I have no clue. I'm open to any suggestions. I decided to put the machine back together before I forgot how to since I had other new purchases that I wanted to play with.

I'm still undecided on the final appearance, but the beaten look is growing on me. Right now it only types on the right side of the platen as to avoid the carriage/rail problem on the left. So it works well for my quarter sheet typecasts. I figure if I don't like this, I can finish stripping and sanding it down and eventually repaint it. I got this white Underwood originally to install the usb-ipad connection kit. If I did, it would look like this now.