Saturday, July 7, 2012

Smith-Corona Skyriter 3

The na does not look green tinted in real life.


Finished about 6:00 this morning.




Looks like the 5, e and s need a bit of cleaning.

Skyriter with a Hermes 3000 TP in the back ground.  The Hermes will either be sold or end up as a typewriter in the Classroom Project.

I like the stripes.  They are on the machine ribbon and type bar cover as well as the cover that makes up the case and...

The stripes go all the way around.  A nice touch since the bottom is rarely seen.  The previous owner added some foam.  I left it on rather than risk damaging the paint.

I thought a bit of silliness is in order.  A Skyriter powered by a 4-400A. 

Better yet a 4CX250B.  I have more radio gear to repair and it is nearly time for our regional A.R.E.S. net.


13 comments:

  1. Nice. Among the Skyriters, this is the color scheme I like best.

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  2. I've been looking for one of these beauties for a while, I like their design and compactness. How's it like to type on them, compared to, say, a Olympia or a Remington?

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    1. I only had a Nakajima Olympia to use as a comparison. Much better than that one and of the Remington machines I have used this is much nicer. The carriage is not listed as a Floating Shift, but it is balanced and just as easy as the Floating Shift I have.

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  3. Bill,
    I really enjoyed this post. It fun to be able to go along with your clean/repair of this skyriter. YOu have consistently good posts with nice "meat" to them.
    Btw, were you using Grace screwdrivers?
    - Michael

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    1. Grace gunsmith screw drivers reground in the machine shop at work so they would fit the .024" typewriter screw slots. The pistol set may be the better choice. I use Xcelite electronics tools and Grace screwdrivers.

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  4. "I used a marked backer sheet and ignored it." Priceless! Very nice skyriter, and good job cleaning. I haven't found one yet here.

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    1. Old habits are hard to break. I get so used to looking at the left for the gage. I marked my sheet on the right.

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  5. Bill, looks remarkably similar to my Empire Corona. Mine maybe a lemon, or maybe a built-to-a-price UK derivative of the original - but I really don't like it all. It ll begins quite sweetly, but the slenderness of the platen seems to cause the paper to feed back in to the top as it curls. And the ribbon vibrator is intermittently reluctant to hoist the ribbon to the desired height. Your enthusiasm for the machine has encouraged me to try and iron out the latter of these bugs. To be sure, the lightness of the carriage shift and the snap of the keystrokes is great when it is on song.

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    1. Rob, I am not familiar with U.K. built ones. I have read that the new ones built in the U.S. are not as good of a quality as the older ones.

      If they are anything like the Holland built Royals there are some really nice ones and really problematic ones.

      I have a Royal Crescent from Holland that is generally nice, but of lesser quality than the old U.S. Royals and even many newer U.S. Royals. Then I read where some are not good typers.

      Could dirt or a bit of mis-alignment be the cause of your ribbon vibrator? Or maybe a bit of uneven wear some place?

      Best of luck with yours.

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  6. I'm becoming more and more fond of the skywriter look as time progresses, but I'm still not quite sold on them. Great shots though, nice work!

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  7. Im with Scott albeit 2 yrs later... still on the fence

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    1. Skyriters, like most Smith-Corona and othter brands of the late '40s and through the 50's are not very fancy, but are quite funcitional and nice to use.

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