Smith-Corona
November 24, 2013
October 24, 2013
A Busy Week in the Etsy KyTyper Store!
Currently Playing: Love Has Come for You (Steve Martin & Edie Brickell)
It’s been quite the week for my Etsy shop. I’ve sold three typewriters back to back. So, my evenings have been filled up with testing, packing, and shipping typewriters. I’ve virtually sold all of my typewriter inventory so now I need to turn my attention on finding some new typewriters.
A nice Corona Standard show up in the mail today so that will be going in the Etsy shop soon. From all indications, it's a pretty nice machine.
All of that to say, running an Etsy store is a lot of hard work! However, it's a lot of fun to find the typewriters, get them cleaned up and send them off to new homes.
October 02, 2013
September 26, 2013
Florence Antique Mall - My Finds
I took a vacation day today since I had a couple of routine doctor's appointments scheduled. Since I had one early appointment and one late appointment, I had plenty of time to head back north again to the Queen City.
I met my brother for lunch at El Rio Grande Restaurant in Newport, KY. I hadn't eaten there in years and it's still as good as it ever was. (I lived in the Cincinnati area from about 1998-2003). My brother, who now lives in Northern KY, had been good enough to pick up my typewriter from WordPlay (Richard had already repaired it!) on Tuesday evening and we orchestrated the hand-off today at lunch.
After a delicious lunch, I drove to the neighborhood where WordPlay is located. I had two typewriters for them and was able to leave those next door since they hadn't yet opened for the day. With lots of time yet to go before my last doctor's appointment, I spent some time in Florence, KY at the Florence Antique Mall. Nice place. I had never been there before. And boy, did it ever have some good typewriters!
I hadn't been in the store for five minutes, when I saw this . . .
Is it a . . . Royal, I thought to myself? No......upon a closer look, I saw this:
Interesting! Pretty machine but two problems: It's a desktop (and I don't have space for desktops) and at $175 it was too rich for my blood. I was feeling good about this place . . .
BUT . . . in the same booth, in the bottom of a display cabinet, my eyes caught sight of this:
A beautiful Smith-Corona Sterling. Price: $129. Ouch. It quickly became evident to me that this wasn't going to be a place to find bargain prices. I'm a sucker for those 1940 Smith-Coronas and it was hard to let that one go.
On to the next machine. . . .
A nice Smith-Corona Silent Super. Price? $20. Ohhh, did I just hit a bargain??? I checked the carriage . . . it moved, seemed to work as it should. The bell worked. Looking good . . . until . . . I started striking the keys. Nothing. The majority of them seem to be frozen into place.
Oh well . . . . perhaps it could be repaired but I decided to see what else I could find. And the next machine was a . . . .
Oliver #9. The first one I've EVER SEEN in person. But, again too rich for my blood at $138. Is that pricey for an Oliver? Since it was behind glass, I have no idea if it functioned or was in need of repair but it was fun to run across it.
So, inside of an hour, I found four typewriters. Not a bad afternoon at all. Although I didn't buy any of them, just finding those beauties was lots of fun. And it's nice to share the story with you!
Which one would you have bought?
August 27, 2013
August 24, 2013
**SOLD****1964 Smith-Corona Sterling Typewriter For Sale
Hello all. I'm trying to make room for some new typers and so I'm putting up one of my first typewriter finds for sale. It's a clean, 1964 Smith-Corona Sterling. I've created a video showing me typing on the machine and then a brief video tour of it so you can see it for yourself.
Let me know if you're interested by leaving a comment below.
$45
Serial #5AX-29212
August 21, 2013
Fuzzy Type
I've cleaned the keys and that didn't seem to help. It is interesting that each of those are located on the upper portion of the type slug.
If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!
August 14, 2013
A New Addition - A 1945 Smith-Corona Sterling!
Through a series of unexpected events, I was able to
purchase a 1945 Smith Corona Sterling on Tuesday. It’s a beaut!
The paint isn’t perfect but it’s in reasonably good shape for its age
and types like a dream. Although I
really enjoy typing on the Hermes 3000, this typer is right near the top of my
list. It’s a good size (not too large),
not too loud, and looks sharp (I’m a sucker for glass keys!). It doesn’t hurt that I bought it at our local
typewriter repair shop and Ed had been through it and got it all tuned up. I’ve written a couple of letters on it
already and expect that I’ll be writing more on it soon.
Oddly enough, I’ve been thinking about picking up an IBM Selectric II/III. I’m a fan of manual typewriters but I do have good memories around the Selectric. After all, it’s the typewriter that I learned touch typing on and I can still remember the nice hum when the machine was turned on. It had a very sturdy feel to it. If anyone has a nice one they want to sell, let me know.
July 22, 2013
My Smith-Corona Skyriter - A Tale of Uneven Type
I bought a Smith-Corona Skyriter off of eBay a few weeks ago. The looks of those "ultra portable" machines were intriguing to me so I went ahead and purchased one. (It's a bad habit I have). Plus, I loved the idea that it came with a leather-like bag that resembled luggage more than a typewriter case.
This weekend, my wife and I started to tinker with it. Some of the keys were a bit sticky so I cleaned those up. Now they work great. (Way to go typewriter repair geniuses!) Off to the next problem: the bell was a bit reluctant to ring but my wife diagnosed and corrected that problem. (We're two for two!). But that's where our genius came to a screeching halt. We seem to have a typewriter that has something against typing a straight line. Look at this photo and you can see what I mean.
I have a couple of guesses of what might be wrong:
- Could the platen not be straight and true?
- OR could it be that the carriage isn't moving evenly, causing the print to be uneven?
I really must conquer this problem so if you have any ideas or know someone who might, please let me know or point them to this post!
Thanks in advance! (And I'll let you know how this comes out in the end!)
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