The Clickthing Clear-Out: Adopt Us, Please!

Have you gone through the spreadsheet yet checked the adoption page? There's still a lot of adoptable machines in need of good homes.

Yes, it pains me to get rid of some of these machines, since I oohed and aahed over them when I first found them. Some were just picked up in the momentum of the heady acquisition days of this blog, and some didn't make it through my rigorous mental brackets: "If I had to choose between X or Y, which would I keep?"

Drop a note in the comments if you're interested in something, and check the blog links in the table above to jump to a post either featuring or produced by the machine in question.

The list is now on its own dedicated page. This might become a standard procedure around here: find 'em and fix 'em and send them on their way.

The Clickthing Clear-Out: "The Rules," such as they are

The Issue at Hand 

In case you missed it, limited storage space and a rare burst of common sense has me paring down a lot of my machines. My first pass is to try and get them into Typospherian homes, since I have a number of keychopper-tempting machines that I'd rather see used than turned into a bracelet. I'm funny like that.

So, I've spent the week pulling together most -- not all, mind you, just most -- of the machines into one place, so I can do a proper inventory.

Conclusion: I'm about three cases away from my own Very Special Episode of a hoarding show:


Not shown: a few more portables, and the standards. Egad.

What started out as a means to acquire a useful writing machine-and-spares has turned into a space-consuming bad habit.

Confidential to Messrs. Seaver, Polt, and Messenger: I know that this is a typical weekend haul for you gentlemen. For our tiny little ranch home, though, it's a blight.

Next step: catalog everything


So my next task is a proper inventory. I've already decided that the machines will be grouped and priced according to size.

• travel typers
• portables
• semi-portables
• standards

I need to get an inventory of the machines, and for that I'll note:

• Make and model
• Serial number and my guess at year (per Ted's expanding serial number database)
• Type size and style, most are just a plain Roman-type face
• If anyone has been promised particular machine, including me :-)

UPDATE: the available inventory is online in a dedicated page.

All of the machines I'm planning to ship out are in typing shape, although I know of a few hiccups here and there. Serious repair cases (the Underwood Noiseless, for example) are staying put. And of course, I have favorites, too.

Once I get the catalog in place, I'll get it published here and we'll move ahead.

After that: adoption

My #1 goal is the safe and swift placement of these machines into new homes. I'm generally doing a first-come, first-served approach, but I do prefer local pickups if it can be managed, and shorter shipment versus longer transit if not. I'm going out-of-pocket for packing supplies, so the less the kind folks at the UPS store need to see me, the better.

Again, shipping will not be cheap. I'm a student of the schools of Double-Boxing and Over-Packing, and know that a case is not protection against transit. Please budget accordingly. I'm happy to work out payment-by-installment with you if you're a Typospherian in good standing. We'll get it sorted out.

PayPal is gladly accepted here at Clickthing Typewriter Closeouts, and we thank you for finding loving (?) homes to these fine machines, and for staving off both divorce proceedings* or paramedics finding me crushed under the Smith-Corona section after the next earthquake.**

* Kidding: Mrs. Click has been very supportive, as long as she stays off the porch and doesn't count the cases

** Not entirely kidding

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Bonus Micro-Blog: Typewriter jewelry I can get behind

Not the key-based sort, of course, but this stuff: card-catalog jewelry. The specific one I linked to claims to be a men's necklace, which, I dunno, maybe? Cufflinks seems like a more natural "men's" category to me, though I guess each is necessarily a one-off unless the library had two copies of the book.

But does the product need to be authentic? A clever typewriter-owner could make a quick trip to the library with some tea-stained cardstock and churn out the raw materials for hundreds of these things until they were chucked out for the racket. Got a favorite book? Bang out a pseudo library-card or two and turn them into some retro-reader-chic fashion.

Perhaps one of the more artistically-minded members of the 'Sphere can roll up a "typer-safe" logo for Etsy sellers, in the same way the tuna industry proclaims "dolphin-safe" products. Now's the time to capitalize on the goodwill from the documentary and promote a little typewriter justice. Down with poached keys! Up with harmless re-purposing!

Calling the Typosphere: Divestiture

Space considerations have me needing to pare down my acquisitions by a large number; there's simply too many machines around here, and not enough places to store them. (Attention lottery winners: if you're in the market for a New Best Friend please drop me a line.)

Some of the more modern portables are earmarked for our local homeschooler's group, at least one is a likely donation to Ryan's Classroom Typewriter Project, and a couple are most certainly staying with me*, but I'm looking for good homes for many of the others, especially for the older, keychopper-bait type machines. They're pretty! Far too pretty to shove out on Craigslist where they are sure to be poached for retrowear quicker than you can pick up a pair of tin snips.

I'm still shuffling around the pile, but generally I do these things as a "low cost + shipping" deal, where the shipping component is by far the largest part of the cost. I've shipped a few typers within the U.S. via UPS Ground and had good luck with them adding an outer box + packing to my own inner box + packing. I'm in the San Francisco area, if that helps you estimate costs, and I'm sure we can work out some kind of installment plan if you're short on cash but long on typer-desire.

So, hit me up, Typosphere! Check out the adoption page and see if there's something you like. Drop me a note in the comments or via email or Google+ and we'll chat. I'm mpclemens on teh Googles if you want to say hello. I promise not to cause too much of a weepy scene.


* Very likely the Olympias, so don't ask, sorry. :-)

Just Following the Code, Ma'am

THE TYPEWRITER CODE (abridged)

Keep a close eye on the keys



Stripes make everything better



It's OK to celebrate your finds in private



But it's more fun to show off

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Usually a wasteland of typers except for smoke-smuggered seventies electrics, St. Vincent de Paul came through today with a lucky, lovely find. Elation turned to mild displeasure as I catalogued the issues in the store:

• The ribbon color won't come out of red,
• The ribbon vibrator isn't moving, though it can be moved,
• and ribbon posts aren't advancing, though the mechanism looks clean. 

I suspect a common cause, which will probably mean shelling this machine to see what's up.

• The line-advance lever... isn't
• The ratchet is turned off, and there's no button in the left-hand knob
• Something's up with the paper bail so it's not touching the platen

A size 3 knitting needle will easily fit into the opening, though, so maybe an exploratory poke is in order. It's handy to have hobbies that intersect with one another.

Issues aside, and they are legion, it's Just. So. Pretty. Those stripes! Those keys! All the main typing operations function, and it's still got a full set of tab stops resting on the rack in the back. I'm hoping the problems are recently introduced, and easily reversed. What fun is it only having one or two repair projects waiting on the bench?

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Update: In the comments, Rob Bowker correctly noted the similarity between this machine and a flat-top portable.

I'm curious - just HOW different are these from the original Corona 4s? From ribbon vibrator through paper fingers all the way to the key tops - it looks the same but in different clothing.

He's right of course: except for the newer machine's backspace key moving to the opposite side to make room for the tabulator, there's very little different between these two machines in my collection:

c. 1939


c. 1948





They're so similar, in fact, that I pulled out the flat-top machine last night to inspect the line-advance mechanism. In turn, I found and corrected the problem on the newer machine this morning -- someone had flipped a small spring-tensioned part around its pivot point 180 degrees, and this is the part that engages with the toothed ratchet wheel on the platen. Flip it back into place, and the line-advance lever works properly (almost.)

This also corrects the issue with the paper bail, since that part sat in the way. Now it's back in place and all is right with the world.

The platen still spins freely, though, and this is where the flat-top won't be much help, since it doesn't feature a mechanism to disengage the ratchet. I removed the left knob from the newer machine just to see if I could make some progress, and I can force the ratchet to re-engage if I push the shaft into the machine with a fingertip. I know all the parts are in there and working, so I just need to learn how to make them work all the time.

Update 2: I just remembered that my newer Smith-Corona machines have a pull-rod on the left knob to disengage the ratchet, not a push-button. Suddenly this makes all kinds of sense. Looks like I'm off to check the newer machines to see how they work, too.

Anyhow, two mysteries solved already, and I've got clues for a third. A productive twelve hours!

Update 3: And I think I've got just about everything solved. The color-select lever was just jamming up, probably due to the mechanisms not having been moved in how many decades. I shelled the machine to follow the linkages and check for impediments, worked the mechanisms, and now the lever and ribbon vibrator are behaving properly AND the spool-posts are turning. It's a repair trifecta.

I've got positive news on the ratchet front, too, and I'll share that in a future post. Hopefully a typecast!