First up, I wanted to remove some of the rust and clean it up. I reached out to my hundreds of pals on Reddit for advice: Rust removal on an Oliver 9.

They persuaded me to leave most of the rust alone. The aged patina is not only an interesting look, the rust that creates the patina actually ends up being protective. Which lead me down a rabbit hole about rust. When it’s dense and unchanging like it is on most of the body of my Oliver 9, it’s probably best to leave it alone unless you’re actually attempting a full restoration. Hooray, the basic rust removal I did in Part 1 was holding!

I did want to remove some rust that was doing it no favors. The arms at the top of the bat wings were looking a bit bad-rusty so I took those apart and dropped them in Evapo-Rust over night. Then it took some time to get everything reassembled, I’m grateful I took pictures before I took everything apart.

In taking the carriage off and doing some other fiddling, I did discover that this typewriter was originally Oliver green (cool!) but at some point I believe it was repainted black (boo!). In all seriousness, I don’t actually mind when people customize their things to make them their own, collectibles for the sake of collectibles are overrated. I just really like the green color that came on some of the Olivers. There are enough black typewriters in the world. Alas.

With that all put back together, I wanted to make sure I re-threaded the ribbon correctly, which led me to this video: Oliver Typewriter Shop: Changing the ribbon on an Oliver No. 9 typewriter. That’s when I discovered that the ribbon advance wasn’t working properly. There are two bumps on the sides of the typewriter that you can click all the way right, left, or middle (neutral) and they are supposed to change the direction the ribbon moves in. They don’t. Upon inspection and watching The Vintage Type: Oliver Typewriter Ribbon Advance Not working? Things to look for. it was clear that the rod that connects them wasn’t doing its job of catching the mechanism, in fact it had warped slightly and just slides over it. As a result, the ribbon is stuck going in one direction. I fiddled with some nuts but they’re firmly rusted in place and I don’t have an adjustable wrench that’s small and strong enough to unstick it. So that’s just going to have to wait, maybe there will be a part 3! Or maybe I’ll just move the whole ribbon spool when it’s time to switch it.

Next up was replacing the feet. When I bought it, one foot was partially missing so it didn’t sit evenly. I threw some felt stickies on it so that it would at least not wobble while in display mode, but I always wanted to come back to it.

There are some 3d printer files for this, and that was tempting, but I really wanted some rubber feet. For these I went to The AntiKey Chop and they were swiftly delivered. Less swift was me actually replacing them. Turns out that rubber that’s over 100 years old not only hardens, but it doesn’t want to move from where it was inserted. I took advice from this eBay listing for 3d printed feet and went to town on it with a 1/2″ drill bit (I didn’t have the 5/8″ they suggested).

With most of the rubber removed, I doused some cotton balls in rubbing alcohol and stuck them in the holes, since I learned that rubbing alcohol could damage rubber – great! I want it damaged! I’m not sure if it helped, or if being moistened is what helped, but I then dug out the remaining rubber with a disposable screwdriver (what’s a disposable screwdriver? You know, the cheap one they send with toys sometimes). It made a huge mess, but it wasn’t hard as I had feared. Once they were all cleaned out, I popped the new feet in! Beautiful.

The last part of all of this was type alignment. I did some of this in step 1, but I think I lost patience somewhat and never quite got it where I wanted. But equipped with The Vintage Type’s Adjusting Upper Case Letters and Figures On An Oliver Typewriter video I was able to get closer to where I need to be.

After making adjustments for a while, I am not sure I lost patience earlier exactly, it’s just that it’s quite fiddly and I think the hardness of the platen (you’ll never get perfect strikes) and general fickleness of 100+ year old hardware means that with use, things tend to be imperfect and not quite land properly. But that’s ok, part of why we love typewriters is the character of the characters!

With everything I wanted to fix up completed and a fresh piece of paper inserted, I finally got to type on it for a little bit. I thought that being such an old typewriter and an unusual design would make it awkward to type on, but it’s actually surprisingly enjoyable. It’s a nice typewriter!

Next I’m going to spend a bit of time getting more closely acquainted with it. While I was ordering the replacement feet, I also bought a reproduction of the original Oliver No.9 Typewriter Instruction Manual, which was unnecessary – it’s online! I could print one myself! But it’s nice to just have something to hold that someone else got to worry about making sure came out nicely. And it did.

To back up a moment: What’s an Index Typewriter? Instead of using a keyboard with an arm for each key (or combination of keys), an index typewriter instead uses a flat reference “index” that you use a stylus with to point to the letter you want. The stylus is connected to the Type Element that rolls to your letter, number, or symbol when you hit a lever to strike. Ultimately, it’s a much simpler design than traditional typewriters, which made it an excellent choice for the world’s first 3d printed typewriter!

Also, if this sounds vaguely familiar, Madame Morrible uses a Mignon index typewriter in Wicked: For Good. It’s right after the scene where The Wizard is sitting in front of an Oliver typewriter. I was delighted!

Anyway, I printed the Index_Typewriter_Hardware_and_Printing_Guide.pdf and Index_Typewriter_Assembly_Guide.pdf so I could peruse offline, and ultimately use it for assembly. The first thing I’ll say about these is that the author, Keenan Finucan, did a spectacular job. They’re detailed and every step has pictures to help figure out the correct placement of things, and photographs where needed. I only needed to ask for a handful of clarifications throughout this process so far.

I bought this spring set on Amazon, which had almost all the spring sizes I needed (and the missing smaller one I was able to cut down from a larger) and picked up a standard black ribbon (which you can still buy at all sorts of places). From there, I selected my colors: Purple and Magenta PLA+. The “Rubber” components were printed in Gray TPU 95A. I then carefully went through all 150+ parts and renamed them which color I wanted them to be, whether they’d need high infill, and numbered them so they were being printed by order of assembly. I then uploaded them to our shared drive and asked MJ to print them for me (remember I said I’m still afraid to use a slicer and send it to the printer? I’ll get there). Tip: Though 3mf files can include a lot of details like nozzle size, these ones aren’t written that way and it’s best to just follow the Printing Guide.

Let’s be honest, it’s taking weeks to print everything, even with our shiny new Bambu H2D. In addition to working full time and having two young kids, we had to go through a couple cycles of drying the PLA+ filament, and MJ spent A LOT of time meticulously going through all the files I marked and plating them, then queuing up the plates so we could do the printing strategically with time and filament usage in mind.

Things started off quite nice and tidy.

And quickly descended into chaos with all the parts.

Most of the prints went well, but there were a few mishaps. MJ had to add a large brim along with the plate glue to the Paper Feed Panel.3mf because it shifted slightly during an overnight print, and things were not good in the morning. The printer figured out it had a problem much later while printing the platen core on the same plate, and thankfully MJ was able to salvage that and finish that print.

As I went through the instructions, there were a few sections which were somewhat unclear (Keenan might have fixed these by now, he’s been amazing with swiftly answering my questions!):

• The “Roller Rods” referenced Stage 2, Step 8 are “Lower Roller Axle” and “Upper Roller Axle”
• The following parts are logically lumped together as “Backspace Levers” in Stage 1, Step 8: Backspace End Lever.3mf, Backspace First Lever.3mf, Backspace Pawl.3mf
• The “Carriage Bridge” mentioned in Stage 1, Step 10 the the Carriage Main Bridge.3mf
• The following parts are all part of the “rest as shown” in Stage 1, Step 20: Margin Indicator Color Insert.3mf, Margin Indicator Lever.3mf, Margin Indicator Spring Lever.3mf, Margin Indicator Window.3mf, Margin Slider.3mf
• The Pivot Lever Axle.3mf is part of Stage 3, Step 9

In retrospect, some of this is rather obvious, but with over 150 little parts and some of them quite similar, it’s easy to get turned around, and you really don’t want to try to insert something where it doesn’t fit!

The screws on the base plate were definitely a challenge, I guess there’s a reason we don’t tend to make screws out of plastic. In spite of doing the test screw fit early in the process, I think I might have stripped some of them as they went in anyway. But they all made it in and everything snapped together, so I guess it’s not a problem! I do have to be careful when this matters though.

Speaking of not fitting, we had to reprint the Ratchet Spring Lever.3mf and Ratchet Locking Pawl.3mf because when I put them inside the holes of the Alignment Comb Right.3mf the fit was so tight that they wouldn’t move, and since springs were placed in the inset, it was obvious that they should move. Bringing the size of the shaft down to 97% seems to have done the trick (thanks MJ!).

I then got the ribbon mounted and Stage 1 was complete! I have a couple springs that won’t quite stay put, and I’m concerned about the functionality of the Rachet Pawl, since it’s a really tricky fit and isn’t reliably catching on the Spool Advance Gear. I’m forging ahead though and will re-visit this when the rest is more complete.

We have several more pieces ready to print, but we decided to take a break from this and I’ve only just begun Stage 2 with the Carriage Assembly. It’s coming together though! Unfortunately we have a clog somewhere in our AMS that’s going to take some time to debug, and we’re leaving for a spring break trip back east next Friday, so here I pause our project!

We’ll complete you soon, dear Index Typewriter.

All the research and purchasing was done by MJ. I think the daunting number of options was a bit overwhelming to me, and if we waited for me to do the research we wouldn’t have landed on a very good result, if we ever got there. He decided that based on our time and experience (both minimal) plus the desire to print things up to basic engineering parts, meant that the Bambu H2D was the right model for us. We also bought a mountain of filament. It’s topped with a 4-color AMS Pro 2 and an AMS HT.

The whole thing is terrifying to me. Hah! I don’t want to break it. So I’m following MJ’s lead here as he shows me how load and dry filament, change nozzles, and do some basic things from the UI on the printer itself. Thus far I haven’t worked up the courage to use Bambu Studio and print something by myself, but I’m sure I’ll get there. Plus, it gives MJ the opportunity to play with it first while I endlessly send him silly things to print for me and the boys.

Obviously, I started off with an IBM z17 mainframe model. We switched to the 0.2mm nozzle and did a long, slow print for the first one, all orange, to see how stunning we could make it. And stunning it was.

We’ve also tried a few other prints of the z17, like an all black one, playing with orientation, and also playing with multi-color so we could print the inset colors on the doors. We’ve had varying levels of success, but it was a fun model for MJ to experiment with new things on the printer as we get going.

Our youngest, Aaron, believes we got a 3D printer just to print toys for him. Over the summer he found a 3D-printed Toothless dragon at a toy shop and MJ got to chatting with the guy at the shop who printed them, going full 3D printer geek mode. Instead of buying one, we bought the printer file so we could do one of our first proper multicolor prints, and it came out beautifully! It’s one of my favorite things so far. I want one too.

Adam has followed in my love of stuff from the 80s somehow (poor kid) and has asked for stuff from Tron and Knight Rider. There’s limited real merchandise for both, even with the latest Tron: Ares film, but the 3D printing world is the right kind of people for finding this sort of thing.

First up was a “wireframe” type wall art of KITT the car from Knight Rider, using this model as a starting point: KITT Night Rider 2D wallart. MJ loaded it up in an editor and modified it so the print would be done with both red and black, instead of separate pieces. Neat. If we did it again, we’d probably do it face-down so the part that faces outwards is the one with the cooler looking surface.

Next up: Tron! We bought some glow in the dark filament, so this was a nice opportunity to give it a spin. We went with “Version 2” of this Tron Legacy Logo. No edits on this one, it just came out looking really cool!

Our next step was making a bit of a pilgrimage: to Microcenter. I have never been to the Microcenter here in the bay area, though I used to go to the one just outside of Philly. It was a great store for computer stuff, but these days it’s also a great spot for 3d printing stuff. The boys also wanted to go to see EVERYTHING. They have several models of 3D printers on display, and staff will help with demos if you ask.

They also have a massive machine that dispenses filament, when it works. That day was not a day it was working, which was kind of a bummer. Not just because I wanted to see the giant filament vending machine work, but also because their alternative was manual searching through hundreds of spools of filament on a series of carts, yikes! It was mostly a fun trip, so I got a couple PLA+ filaments I wanted for a project and then got some goofy PLA ones (sparkles!). At least the PLA+ was on sale.

I’ve started learning how to use FreeCAD, because there are some things I want to eventually design, like a replacement ribbon cover for one of my portable typewriters. It’s slow going, but thanks to a recommendation from Mark Fraser I’m well on my way with FreeCAD for Makers.

Next up: A big project! I was pretty excited to learn that someone had 3D printed a clone of the AEG Mignon Index Typewriter. They say it’s the first typewriter someone has made using 3D printing, and I don’t own an index typewriter, so I thought it would be a fun merging of worlds. It’s over 100 pieces though, so I’ve once again dragged MJ into my project and I’ve been going through the files and picking colors and order of print while he’s loading them up in the slicer. Stay tuned! It’s going to be really cool. I hope.

And maybe I’ll gather the courage to use Bambu Lab and print something all by myself.

So we did the really logical thing this month: We rented a temporary storage unit nearby and started cleaning out the garage so we could begin using the space more effectively.

WHAT?!

But actually, it’s not the worst idea we’ve ever had. And it’s all part of a master plan. We’re going slowly, and it’s finally moving the needle on several projects inside the house that we need space in the garage for. It’s also requiring us to slow down a bit on weekends and not pack in so many adventures and outings that need to be planned. We build Lego, we do a storage run, the boys ride their bikes, I read for a bit, we start a 3d print, and get some satisfaction from actually making progress.

At least, that’s the idea. It doesn’t feel like we’ve gotten much done, and I really don’t enjoy spending so much time on our stuff, but I think we’re heading in the right direction.

But you know us, we haven’t actually stayed home all month.

We went up to San Francisco early in the month for a couple of quests. First, was to get Aaron a Clipper Card. Now that he’s five, he has to pay for his bus rides on AC Transit and for BART, though at reduced rates. A Clipper Card allows for this to be done easily, and since the boys love public transit, the ritual of getting their first Clipper Card is a whole adventure. For Adam we got it at Embarcadero Station, but this time we went up on a Saturday and the hours at Ferry Building were much better for our visit, and that’s where we got Aaron’s card!

From there we took a vintage streetcar and a bus over to North Beach where we had lunch at Original Joe’s, which struck me as a bit fancy for a lunch with kids, but surprised me with the family friendly feel and good Italian American food, which I’ve struggled to find in California. I suspect we’ll be back. But why were we in North Beach? The second quest! I happened upon a Smith Corona Skyriter on Facebook Marketplace, and made arrangements to buy it from the fellow selling it in North Beach. I don’t need another typewriter. It’s a model I already have! But I love the Skyriter, this is a different year and case than I have, and it came with the original manual! It needs some cleaning and a new ribbon, but otherwise seems in find condition. I’ll write about it once I get it going.

Then one evening when MJ was working from home (no evening commute!) I fed the boys dinner early and we went over to the Oakland Zoo for the Glowfari. The boys and I went with a couple of our au pairs, past and present, back in November, but MJ hadn’t seen it yet. We forewent tickets to the actual zoo grounds, and instead did the zoo train, which didn’t require zoo admission, just ride tickets and with our membership parking was free. Plus, the boys and I didn’t see the ride area or take the zoo train on our last visit! We kept the boys up a little late that night, but it was a lot of fun, and I’m glad we got to loop MJ in on the lantern fun too, even if it was just a taste.

And did you notice that passing mention of a 3D printer? MJ and I have talked about getting a 3D printer for years. Of course we have, we’re totally the kind of people who would have one. But we also knew the burden it would bring. We didn’t want a cheap one, so we’d invest in a nice one. We needed to have space for it, and all the stuff that comes with it. So MJ dove into research mode for a few months and we ended up ordering a Bambu Lab H2D and a bunch of filament over the holidays. I’ll write about this more too, including some of our first prints, but it’s been a nice diversion from storage and some of the more stressful life stuff lately. I’ve started playing around with FreeCAD to for when I’m ready to transition from silly toys and things to some things I want to create myself.

1943 was obviously an inauspicious year. Two years into our formal participation in World War II, factories were shutting down the manufacture of their standard goods in favor of wartime supplies, and typewriter factories were included in this. The Royal factory switched over in 1943, which means my typewriter is one of those wartime typewriters, and some lucky owner was able to get it before operations shut down, as operations didn’t resume until 1946. Indeed, if you look at the Typewriter Database results for Royal Quiet De Luxe shows a clear gap in what collectors own.

A little Wikipedia reading informed me that this was the preferred typewriter of Ian Fleming (of James Bond fame) and Ernest Hemingway. I’m not surprised, it’s a real pleasure to type on. I don’t expect to be writing any James Bond novels, but it’s always nice to be in famous writer company.

The friend who gifted it to me cleaned it up and applied some oil so that certainly helps. It looks like the only thing I’ll have to take a look at is keeping the ribbon firmly in place (it looks like the ribbon spools were replaced at some point, and they fall out when I put it in the case and set it on its side) and the fact that the return lever has a tendency to scrape against the top if I’m not gentle enough. Some portables have a mechanism to extend the return lever, which I haven’t found yet, or I might just require some gentle bending back into a healthy position. We’ll see how the Magic Margins treat me on this machine, the ones on my Royal FP have managed to get stuck again (argh!).

So the other night I took it to the back yard, where all the photos were taken, and we had a little writing session together. Nothing fancy or interesting, just some words on paper to get things flowing. It was lovely.

And for those of you wondering what “Shift Freedom” means? From the 1948 edition of the Royal Quiet De Luxe manual:

“TO TYPE A CAPITAL LETTER, press either Shift Key
(19 or 21) and hold it down while you use the letter
key. Either Shift Key puts into effect Shift Freedom,
an original Royal feature which eliminates the noise
and eyestrain of a bobbing carriage by lowering the
type for capital letters instead of raising the carriage.
To type a number of capital letters consecutively,
press the Shift Lock Key (22). To return to lower
case or small letters, press either Shift Key.”

Some have said it’s a bit of a marketing gimmick, since many other manufacturers worked in a similar way, but it does make for an interesting conversation starter.

The hunt was on for an Olde English Selectric II typewriter ball!

I scoured eBay and found one, for the Selectric III. I wasn’t paying enough attention, and discovered only after it arrived in the mail that the Selectric III and Selectric I/II balls are not the same. I was pretty mopey about this because it turns out that it’s actually tricky to find the Olde English type ball for the Selectric I/II.

But how could I be sure it was the right one at a glance on a listing? Thanks to this reddit post I learned that the Selectric III balls tend to have yellow lettering, whereas the I/II balls have white. Indeed, that was the case for mine!

Upon seeing my disappointment, MJ suggested getting a whole Selectric III typewriter, which I briefly considered, but decided against, though I definitely appreciate the spousal support in my space-consuming hobby! Instead, I set up an eBay alert for Olde English Selectric to see if I could snag one.

It took a couple weeks, but I found one! It was sold as a set of five balls, some of which I already have, but for $80 I could have it delivered. Sold.

And so, it was the moment of truth! How beautiful will this type be?

So beautiful. I went with a quote from Nosferatu.

But I wasn’t done! While searching for this type ball, I discovered this paperweight: a Selectric ball in Lucite from 1961 that says “Advocate”. Well, that had to come home to me. And so it did.

Now keep me away from eBay for a while.

Fast forward to March 2024 and we’re sitting at the San Francisco airport waiting on a dreadfully delayed flight, and a fellow I know through the Philadelphia area Linux community reached out and mentioned he was helping with an estate sale, and came across some typewriters and asked if I’d be interested in any of them. I had less interest in the typewriters, but among the photos he shared was a mechanical calculator! I’m in. Bonus: I’m about to board a flight to Philadelphia! What timing!

It was a bit of a trek to get up to the estate, but I was greeted with what turned out to be an electromechanical calculator, meaning it has a small DC motor inside to move the mechanical components that were driven by a hand crank in other models. The trouble with this is that we’re looking at a motor that’s easily over 70 years old, and the power cable is cracked and unusable, so will need to be replaced for it to work as an electric device again. Thankfully, the mechanical components looked clean and intact, so I purchased it from the estate.

Once I got it home, the first step was to do a once-over cleaning-wise, starting with the case, which had been living in a barn and was too dirty for me to even be comfortable bringing it into the house. On a beautiful Sunday morning, the boys enthusiastically helped me with it.

From there, I could take a closer look at the machine, in all its glory!

It really is in nice shape, I’d argue even better than the one we saw at the typewriter shop. I still need to clean it up a bit more, but a once-over was good enough for now.

Sunday night I went into research mode to see what I could discover about it, especially when it came to getting it working. After doing enough web searching to know what to look for, I found a tip that told me to peek inside a slot on the bottom to find the model number and serial number. It took a flashlight and some wrangling, but I found it: Monroe Model LA5-200, serial number 437578.

The first things I learned were that the “A” stands for automatic, which means it has the motor in there. I also learned from John Wolff’s Web Museum: The Monroe Calculating Machine Company that the LA5-200 is “a later ten-column machine with … a few minor changes, but is otherwise identical to” the LA5-160, which is good for me, since the 160 is a lot more common.

Resource-wise, I’ve found:

Monroe Service Training Course Book 2: Models LA, LA-5, LA-6, LA-7, function, adjustment, nomenclature which has some excellent diagrams and things, which will be incredibly useful when I start working on it. These three images are from that guide, and were already helpful in my initial pass.

Additionally, there are a handful of LA5-160 YouTube videos showing some tear-downs and repairs, including this series from DJD Labs that I’m certain I will find useful!

Given how heavy it is, this will be staying at our townhouse in Philadelphia. So, it’ll be a project for when I’m here, which is good, because I already have plenty to keep me busy in California for the foreseeable future.

That’s a lot about the calculator, but I will admit that I didn’t leave the estate sale with just that one, I did bring home a typewriter too. It’s a 1967 Olympia SM9 (s/n: 3242067) and it was in great condition, aside from a very dirty case, that the boys helped me clean so I could bring it inside.

It’s a lovely typewriter, and it also came with a small pamphlet and cleaning kit!

I’ll also be keeping it here in Philadelphia. I’ll clean it up and get a new ribbon for it during our next visit. Amusingly, I now have two Olympias, and they’re both here. I’m thinking about ultimately giving it to Adam to use when he’s a little older, if his interest in mechanical typewriters holds.

The rest of our visit is pretty packed, including a couple work-related day trips, so I probably won’t get to work on these any more, but I did take some time the other day to finally set up a full Typewriter Hunter TypewriterDatabase account, which I’ve now populated with photos of my collection: 9 Typewriter Galleries » Hunter: Elizabeth Joseph

It was lovely and fascinating, and given how much I’ve thought about it since meeting that one, I’m quite certain that one will eventually enter my collection.

In January, one popped up on Facebook Marketplace. I reached out to the seller and learned that it was sadly non-functional, and he had been using it as a decoration in his living room. I didn’t want to drop a couple hundred bucks on one that didn’t work, so I kind of let it go. But I had also shared the listing with MJ to share my excitement in finding one, and he reached out as well and got a few more details, and arranged a time for me to take a look at it in case it was salvagable. That is love.

In preparation for our meeting, I watched a few YouTube videos, including What to look for when buying an Oliver typewriter on The Vintage Type YouTube channel, which would soon become my go-to resource. And then felt relatively confident that I could do a once-over to determine if it was worth it.

I succeeded! We met the owner in the lobby of his apartment building, and while MJ wrangled the kids, I did a quick inspection of key parts, and even popped out the carriage, much to the surprise of the owner, “I didn’t know it did that!” Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to put the carriage back just yet, oops. Fortunately, I determined that it was salvageable but needed some work, so we were able to agree on $200 for it, and then MJ bought it for me.

At home, I learned how to get the carriage on, and the boys and I did a quick once over of it on the dining room table. It was incredibly dusty, and rust had taken over most of the surface. The original green paint is gone from most of it, and there’s only a hint of the stenciled Oliver writing, which is a bit of a shame since it’s really distinctive. As I was looking for the serial number to properly date it, I realized it also doesn’t have the patent plaques on the back. I wonder where those ended up.

I was quickly able to discover that even though it wasn’t installed, there was a crusty, old ribbon in there, which I found when I removed the spool covers.

A quick trip back over to The Vintage Type, we watched Installing a New Ribbon on an Oliver typewriter and I was able to glean enough of an understanding of installing the ribbon that I could get this old one installed again. As an aside, I learned later that this video from the same channel is better for me, since I have an Oliver 9 and he shows specifically installing one of those there. Notably, I missed the detail of making sure the ribbon was tucked inside the bottom of the clips to hold it in place, which you can notably see when I finally got to type something, but it worked!

I then ordered some little steel brushes and some Evapo-Rust, so I could really get to work on it. I set up a table in my home office and one evening I got to work removing all the worst of the easily accessible rust.

I used Evapo-Rust on the pencil holder arm and the bell, but I’ve held off for now on using it on anything else. It’s a mild remover, but it’s still pretty intense and I didn’t want to mess with any of the remaining green paint. It was at this stage that I found the serial number, which had been encased in rust.

It’s 863924 which means it’s from 1919. The oldest typewriter in my collection!

From there, I brought the typewriter back out to the dining room table so the boys could help me take some soap and water to it to remove all the rust dust and generally get it cleaned up. I will note that the bottom of it seemed to be in pretty good shape with only some minor spots needing attention.

Next up was ordering a ribbon! It was back to our friend at The Vintage Type, since he sells ribbons on eBay. Since I had both my original spools, I could get away with just ordering a single spooled ribbon, and a few days later I had the ribbon in-hand. And then it took me a couple weeks to finally carve out some evening time to install it, because life gets in the way.

With that, I had a much happier typewriter! But there was one last thing: alignment of letters it was chopping off the bottom of each letter.

Back to a video from The Vintage Type: Adjusting Upper Case Letters and Figures On An Oliver Typewriter. It’s still not perfect, but it’s good enough for now.

My greatest concern in the long run is that so much of the carriage and other fully exposed parts are functional, but quite rusty. I think addressing this will require a greater extent of dismantling that will cause it to be non-functional while I fix it. It’ll be a tedious project so I make sure I get everything put back together in the right way and kids don’t run off with random screws. I am feeling mixed about whether I want to do this right now. My time is extremely limited and it is working, I kind of want to pause and enjoy it. Plus, it’s over 100 years old, it can probably wait a couple years for a more complete restoration!

For now, it just lives in my home office, happily sitting on a little table where people can see it when I’m on video calls.

You know where this is going, right?

By the end of the week a beautiful, single-family, 1940 Smith-Corona Sterling (serial number 2A 66470) was in my possession, having been very carefully shipped. Aaron helped me with the unboxing and first test.

The typewriter had been owned by his grandfather, who bought it new, and it is in stunning condition. In fact, of my collection, it may be the one that’s in the best condition. I haven’t had to do any work to it in order to get it performing perfectly.

As a nice bonus, he included a hand-written note to explain the provenance.

The iconic round, glass keys are actually quite enjoyable to type on and it comes in this legendary case that kept the typewriter safe and in great condition for years, which is no small feat for a machine that’s 83 years old.

Of my three portables it’s probably the least portable, but it’s also the oldest portable I have, and it’s obvious even from the names that both the Skyriter and the Traveller de Luxe (which I keep in Philly) had a very specific intent. So I think my Skyriter will remain my hipster outdoor coffee shop typewriter, and this one will be the one I use in my deck and back yard.

What makes this one really special to me though is that I have a real personal connection to it.

So it’s fitting that my first type-in was in Philadelphia! On November 18th I went to Legend of the Type-In at Cartesian Brewing, put on by Philly Typewriter.

I knew I wanted to go to this when I learned that our November trip back east would overlap and confirmed it was kid-friendly, but I wasn’t sure about logistics. Would I just bring Adam? He is my typewriter buddy, after all. Or would all of us come down? Should we invite some friends?

I did invite several folks and a local group I’ve been involved with, but in the end it did just end up being our own little nuclear family. MJ dropped Adam, Aaron, and I off at the entrance and then went to find parking (South Philly, oof!) while I wheeled the stroller in, along with my Olympia Traveller de Luxe. Side note: I’m so glad I had MJ bring the Olympia to Philly on his last visit! I don’t need a bunch of portables in California, and there was no way I was bringing my Remington KMC out for an adventure.

Right as we walked in, we were greeted by an Oliver #9. I don’t think it’s a particularly rare typewriter, but it is legendary due to the “batwing” design that makes it type unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and I’d never tried one before. It was lovely and fascinating, and given how much I’ve thought about it since meeting that one, I’m quite certain that one will eventually enter my collection. The boys seemed to really like it too.

My first 15 minutes were spent repeating “be gentle” and “only one key at a time” over and over as the boys explored the typewriters on display.

When MJ arrived, he whisked Adam off to enjoy a few more typewriters, while Aaron stayed glued to me, as he has been doing lately.

It was also then that I also had the opportunity to set up my Olympia. Admittedly, shyness had prevented me from making it a priority and it had been sitting alone in the stroller, but MJ encouraged me to take it out, and the fact that everyone was kind and friendly helped me get there eventually. Please ignore that I was too anxious to type properly. Embrace the typo!

Once that was set up, Aaron settled on the Selectric II.

There were only a couple electrics there, but I think the familiarity with the near identical one I have at home, plus the ease of use, is what made him gravitate toward it. He happily inserted paper, typed, took the paper out, re-inserted it, and then typed some more. He was absolutely delighted by it, and it turns out I have quite the little typewriter artist!

Sadly, a type-in only has limited interest to a couple kids under 5. Plus, I couldn’t leave them unsupervised for even a moment, since these typewriters are owned by other people and I couldn’t risk them being misused or something knocked over. Aside from Aaron’s art, Adam typed his name on several and I dictated a few more letters to him, but I wasn’t able to do much myself. I also didn’t have any beer! But the weather was nice and I did pay the $15 entrance fee so I could walk out with a Philly Typewriter pint glass and a few stickers. I was able to have a few conversations with fellow typewriter lovers, so over all it was a lovely time for all of us.

Mid-event I left my typewriter behind and we did a quick side-quest to a small playground nearby where the boys had a lot of fun burning off some energy. On the way back I got a ridiculous cannoli and admired the tourist spots that are Pat’s and Geno’s.

As the event wrapped up and I returned to collect my typewriter as MJ got the kids back to the car, I had the pleasure of meeting Philly Typewriter founder Bryan Kravitz. Turns out, he lived in the bay area for quite some time, and was intimately familiar with the typewriter shop that Adam and I frequent, Berkeley Typewriter. It was nice to chat about his bay area time, and the shop we have in common.

I’m glad we all went, but I may have to think about how I’d want to do another one if the opportunity arises. It’s fun to pick up my Skyriter and sit on my own at an outdoor cafe as I let my mind wander on paper, but I imagine that having some like-minded company at a type-in where I actually type would be nice.