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Monday, March 21, 2011

good news/bad news/d'oh!

I was at the Goodwill remainder store looking for rescues and I found two.  First is an elite SCM, an assembly line twin of my script Zephyr Deluxe, this one a "Corsair Deluxe."  Like Adwoa's new Hermes, it is missing a cover which thought a very funny coincidence, and it works just fine.




I went to the back corner in case the clamshell was over there.  no such luck but I saw this:



Which quickened my heartrate.  inside was this:




The carriage doesn't advance.  The knotted cord is off the pulley, as you can see:



I wanted to figure out how to attach it so I went to look at my recently-acquired script studio 44 and darned if that string didn't snap in two when I touched it.  So now I need a bit of a tutorial on getting that pulley off and connected and more importantly, putting it back together.  Or I could just type on them listing hard to port as I did here:
It turned out to be a standard Pica typeface.

9 comments:

  1. The "pulley" (spring) stays on: don't remove it! The cords were expected to eventually break and are meant to be replaceable without major disassembly. I can look at the bottom of my 44 if you need photos of one still connected.

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  2. Umm...I'd give advice, but this is *exactly* the attempted repair I recently bunged up so badly. So I won't. Awesome find, though! Even with the busted draw cord.

    Word verif: brimb. When the draw cord lets go, that spring goes BRIMB!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This may be a job for a pro. When I was trying to wind the pulley, it would click and lose the tension. Then of course it disconnected from the other end. I need a repair manual and the right tools at this point, or is it time for a road trip?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Silly comment: were you maybe winding it the wrong way? I once "helpfully" let loose the tension on my SM3, and thought I'd broken the drum somehow. After finally untangling the cord and swearing at it for some time, I realized that I was going the wrong way. Seen from the top, the drum wants to unwind to the left... and that's how I was spinning it, thinking that made sense, since that's how the carriage moves.

    *facepalm*

    Special tools should not be required, beyond a third arm, anyway. ;-) With the SM3, I had to give the drum a couple of turns, then -- while holding it -- tip the machine on its side to feed the cord down to the attachment point on the end of the carriage where I could rehook it.

    If you have a neighborhood Pro, by all means, take it in! They should have cord suitable for the task, but see if you can watch over their shoulder as the magic happens. Replaced with modern materials, a new drawband will likely outlast you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sometimes the tension spring inside that pulley will break. It did on my Oliver 9 and I took it off, opened it up and got it situated. Sometimes that mainspring inside the pulley breaks from over tensioning.

    Its not too difficult to fix, but it does take a little time and patience until you figure out what's what.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The plague of the bald typewriters is upon us! Was the Corsair Deluxe also script?

    Good luck with the drawband repair; if you have a professional nearby, by all means let them have at it. Two Studio 44s in one house... hope you have the space!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yup. that's one worry--Tom of Cambridge Typewriter says that when the drawband breaks, the mainspring can unwind rapidly and snap inside the casing or come loose... this happened on an Olivetti Lettera 32 I had.... -- he fixed it, I believe by trading a mainspring from a scrap L-32.

    Cheers and get well soon, machines!

    --phillytyper/mcget

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  8. It can be a bit tricky. Takes lots of patience. If you're unable to get it fixed up by the next time we northwesterners get together, remind to bring some cord material and I'll see if I can help.

    ReplyDelete
  9. On my Silent Super, I eventually fixed it, but actually had to remove the spring/drum - this helped me to visualize what it was that was plaguing it and eventually get it to work. On the SC, the thing was easy to remove. I have no idea if the mainspring on the Olivetti is as easily accessible.

    ReplyDelete

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