Typewriter SOS: The DIY Guide to Fixing Common Problems with Typewriters

Is your Olivetti’s Carriage Jammed? Your Royal Portable not printing when you type? This essential typewriter repair book has been made to help the sea of people who bought a typewriter from a charity shop and for some reason it has stopped working and the only people who know how to fix it are either retired, dead, or live really far away. If this is you, don’t worry help is here. Condensed into 48 pages, this concise paperback book describes and guides you on how to fix the 15 most common problems with manual typewriters, detailed below. Most problems are simpler to fix than you might have thought, and with these industry tips and instructions guiding you through step by step, you’ll be back up and running in no time. Written and illustrated by Claire La Secretaire Typewriter Studio, we have been reconditioning typewriters since 2010 and have had hundreds of typewriters through our doors all with varying problems. We have put this concise guide book together from our experience in diagnosing and fixing most of the problems we come across, most are easy, all of them are fixable. The problems covered in this book: If your typewriter works fine, but it only types in one line like this: H E L P If your carriage is loose and there is a piece of string flapping about underneath it Carriage is not completely loose, still works but has little tension and pulls slowly The type bars are hitting the paper, but the ribbon isn’t coming up to meet it The ribbon covers up the words as you type instead of falling back neatly into place The type bars don’t reach the paper and they are very tense If the upper and lowercase letters aren’t aligned Turning the letters inside glass keys the right way round If the ribbon is faint even though it is not old If your typewriter only types the tops/bottoms of the letters The type bars aren’t returning to their position in the type basket The paper will not go down it just slip and slides everywhere like a wet salmon Bell doesn’t sound Typewriter won’t go back in its box There is no number 1, 0, or exclamation mark, but I need to let people know that I am exclaimed Cleaning and oiling Replacing the ribbon Parts and names Specific issues with particular typewriters such as Olivetti, Remington and Smith, Byron / Oliver Courier / Swissa Piccola / Japy Contains detailed full-colour photos and illustrations of step-by-step instructions and tools needed on how to fix these typewriter problems, and to have you up and running in no time. Extras include information on specific models that have specific problems such as Olivetti and Byron, what some of the buttons and levers are for, and where to get replacement ribbons, as well as links to our YouTube videos to help with specific problems.