Saturday, January 21, 2017

Conover makeover

You saw the Conover that has been entrusted to me before cleaning. Here it is after cleaning.




The machine has an arm that must be extended on the left before typing. When the carriage is over on the right, this typewriter has a pretty impressive wingspan.
Ready to type:

The original rubber hammer head, which is star-shaped, broke as soon as I tried it. The rubber was, naturally, hard and brittle after all these years. After a few failed efforts, I sculped a piece of rubber that does the job, hitting the paper from behind against the ribbon and the type. 


And these are the results. Not perfect, but readable.







Ad courtesy of Peter Weil.
Bell clapper and a screw courtesy of Greg Fudacz.
Ribbon made for Acroprint 125 and 150 time clocks, cut down the middle. 

7 comments:

  1. Thank you kindly for showing off the action! I've never seen one operate, but it all makes sense now. Wonderful machine, great design, and outstanding cleanup job! It did, however, trade a floating-pinky for a randomly placed Q.

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    1. The keyboard would take some getting used to, not only because of the layout but also because it takes more effort than a typebar machine. The placement of the Q is due to the need to have 10 keys on each row, corresponding to 10 characters on each row of the type cylinder.

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  2. Congratulations on your fantastic work! This is the first one of these I've seen. Thanks for the video.

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  3. Excellent work. Would cutting Acroprint time clock ribbon work for a Smith Premier #2? I was considering time clock ribbon, as it seems like my only option for really wide obsolete ribbon. Do the ends fray? Approximately how much length comes on the Acroprint spools?

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    1. It's maybe 3 or 4 feet long — a bit shorter than the usual typewriter ribbon. I don't see why it wouldn't work on a Smith Premier. I have noticed a little fraying where I cut the ribbon, but so far it's not bad.

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  4. This reminds me of the way old electromagnetic telephone exchanges worked. The Conover's a new one for me and a fascinating machine.

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  5. Fascinating, and beautiful machine. And yet another discovery for me - we share a wonderful hobby.

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