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Telvanor

beforeThe test line as the Underwood first typed it: every letter is dark and clear, but the t prints high, the e low and tilted back, the o high, the s low and the a tilted forward, so the line looks like uneven teeth. afterThe same line after the typebars were straightened: level, except that the t is still very slightly high.

No. 15

The t still sits a hair high

Underwood standard, from the garage across the street. Eleven evenings. .

A thirty-pound Underwood out of a neighbor’s garage, with nothing faint and nothing skipped: every common letter is just standing in the wrong place. Eleven evenings of bending typebars back, less one.

Read the whole entry

I’m Walt. I fix old manual typewriters in the evenings, in the guest room of a house in Florida, for nobody but me. This is where I write down what was wrong with each one, what I did about it, and what I couldn’t do.

Every machine gets the same line typed on it before I start and again when I stop. Those two strips are the heart of each entry: the way the letters jump tells you most of what’s wrong before a single screw comes out.

I don’t sell typewriters and I don’t take in repairs. More about the bench.

Line drawing of a standard manual typewriter with its shell removed, seen from the front left: four rows of round keys, the fan of typebars in the basket behind them, two ribbon spools with a red-and-black ribbon, and the platen with a typed sheet in it.
A standard with the shell off. One typebar for every key; the sheet in the carriage has the line on it twice.

Lately on the bench

All nine entries are on the shelf