Celebrating One Year in Michigan and A Four Color Ribbon

A very special thanks to the Right Reverend Ted Munk for his comment on my last post about the Sears Forecast 12, and the link to his manual, and also to Richard Polt for the posting his manual about this type of ribbon.  Both manuals convinced me to take a cartridge apart.

Both had posted manuals for a similar typewriter that used a four color ribbon. I could only get mine to unspool the black/red.  I gave up on the ribbon and made the post. I replied that mine only had the black/red half of the ribbon. Over the next few days I kept thinking of the 4 colors. Finally I decided to take the Blue/Green cartridge apart.  I found a bunched up twisted blue/green that could not get pulled through the exit slot.  Viola! I have a working 4 color ribbon.

The spools before I opened one.

This is an open spool. I do not have any images of when I opened the blue/green. I did that one morning before work.

After carefully removing the chrome winding disk the spool cover can be removed.

The bottom of the cartridge is the same as a bottom flange of a regular spool.

This shows the slots that feed/spool the ribbon. Notice how large the space is between the cover and bottom of the cartridge.  I think that is how the blue/green got tangled.

The splice is covered with silver paint. Notice the crinkling of the left part that is the lead to the blue black half. This was all bunched up inside the slot in the cartridge and some of the ribbon was actually wound reversed.  I'm thinking it came out from between the flange and cover and was not put back in correctly by a former owner of this typewriter.  The silver paint is to indicate the end of the color and to prevent getting ink on one's fingers when changing from one bi-color to the other.  The eyelet will trip the ribbon reverse mechanism like a normal ribbon so the chosen half keeps working.

Regular spools work fine. 

Any guess as to the date of manufacture?

Sears Forecast 12.  A bit of stand-up garage typing to create the typecast.

I chose the first typewriter I got after moving to Michigan.  This is an Olivetti Lettera 22 with Victoria Elite Typeface.  The typewriter was made in the 50's.  The Serial Number matches 1950 and 1954.

Hope to see some of our friends, and make some new ones on Typewriter Day.

And the Michigan Typochondriacs have a new web site:

Michigan Typochondriacs

Olivetti Typewriters for the Type-In, Red Lettera 22 and others

The first Lettera 22 I received.  It is the red Italian one.   Outwardly it looks the same before and after cleaning.

One cannot (well, yes I could, but I need to plug one of Ted Munk's excellent manuals) start work on a Lettera 22 without the manual.

This is getting ready to remove the cover from the Lettera 22.  No need to remove the bottom plate. In fact not removing the plate before removing the covers, and putting the plate back on before replacing the covers makes cover removal and reinstallation easier.

When I bought the Lettera 22 the type bar rest pad was loose and laying in the machine.

I cleaned all the old adhesive residue from the mounting channel and used printer's cement (rubber cement will work) to remount the leather pad.

A bit out of place, but this is the pad before reinstalling it.

I need practice to be able to use this keyboard whether or not I use the 2-finger method or not. It is much more difficult to use than I thought it would be.

The 1938 Universal.  No case and a very difficult sticking T type bar.  The T wanted to hang in the type bar guide yet looked like it was properly shaped when compared to all the others.  After hours of honing it and tweaking, I think I finally have it working. As with all the other Underwood typewriters I ever used, this one is a superb typer and nothing was done to it yet except to get the T working.  This is the third Universal that crossed my bench and all were excellent typewriters.

A bit of color shift from the LED lighting in my shop.  This is the taupe Lettera 22 being readied for a cleaning.

Reminds me of an SM 3 or SM4.  The rubber mounting washers for the cover were all deteriorated.  These are actually small rubber gaskets that I had plenty of from working on radios.

Note again, to remove the cover the platen must be fully left as far as it will travel.  The same to replace it.

After cleaning the type slugs and blowing the dirt out of it.  This typewriter typed great and did not require any other cleaning besides cleaning the very dirty type slugs.

Not perfectly clean, but much cleaner than when I started to clean them.

This one is now ready for next Saturday's Type-In.

Here are the Universal and Clipper awaiting repair along with a script H3k I hope to finish for Saturday.

Another superbly fun to use typewriter.  Every time I use an Underwood the only thoughts that come to mind is loads the paper perfectly straight the first time and every time, and nothing beats an Underwood for great typing,  Speedy, Snappy, Fast, Dependable.  Even my No, 3 is a joy to use.

And a preview of my digial imaging hardware. Yes, that is a Panasonic lens on the OMD.  Nice thing about the micro four third format is the lenses are not camera manufacturer body specific and I can still use my 35mm lenses!

Both of these are fun to use for what they are.  I'm still learning, but I'll take my 35mm, medium, and large format cameras and real film over digital imaging for quality any day.