L. C. Smith revival

My heart sank when I saw this machine. 

A retired colleague found it in her garage. She believed it once belonged to her father. Could I restore it?

Well—I did.

Here's how.

First, a few more views of the condition of this poor thing when it arrived:

Makes my skin crawl just looking at it!

I cleaned off the serial number, 279811-8, identifying it as a model 8 made in 1916. Since my colleague is in her 70s or so, it is possible that her father bought it new when he was a young man.

I had to get the paper tray off in order to clean under it and replace the ruined feed rollers. But how? I had never dared to do it before.

Cesar Martinez of Eagle Eye came to my rescue with some helpful videos that he created on the spot. Turns out that you have to fiddle with some tiny screws that are tucked away. The entire assembly of front scales is confusing, and if you mess with it, I advise you to take plenty of pictures and notes. Why did Smith make it so hard to swap feed rollers??

The rollers certainly needed replacing:

A local auto parts store fortunately had two sizes of tubing that fit the two sizes of roller.

Some other generous typospherians offered to replace the paper table, but I thought that it was more important to keep the original parts of this machine that has major sentimental value. I cleaned the paper table and painted around the remnants of the decal, using a black Uni-Paint paint marker.

The same paint marker did a lot of touching up elsewhere. The machine was starting to look better.

Note the pipe cleaners holding the automatic ribbon reverse mechanisms closed. If they are both open, the mechanism jams.

There are more scales in back, which can be removed ...

... and dunked, along with other parts, in rust remover (Rust911 concentrate will make 16 gallons and works great).

The carriage had to come off too. This is easy once you know the trick: the upper carriage rail slides out once you remove two long screws from the back. Then, carefully observe the location of two ball bearing holders. One of them keeps its bearings secure; the other is separate from two bearings which you obviously must not lose.

One of the links between a tabulator key and the tabulator was missing. This is a common problem on L. C. Smiths. As I've done before, I replaced it with a length of wire from a clothes hanger.

Other useful tools:

Fine steel wool and a wire brush for cleaning rusty parts that can't be removed from the typewriter, including key rings

Air compressor, toothbrushes, and Q-tips for removing dirt

Scrubbing Bubbles

Soft Scrub

Mineral spirits mixed with a little Marvel Mystery Oil

Turtle Wax for cleaning and polishing paint

And finally, my trick for getting smooth black paint as shiny as possible is to spray Pledge on it, smear it with your finger, let it dry, then polish with a soft rag.

Here are some more views of the restored typewriter:

It looks pretty good, and I think my colleague will be pleased.

Of course, when it was new, it would have been more impressive. Fresh off my success with this no. 8, I decided to clean the nice no. 2 that I've had for many years. I enjoyed doing that while chatting with other typewriter collectors on Zoom last night. Here are some views of this beautiful machine.

L. C. Smith: Before

A retired colleague has unearthed her father's L.C. Smith and wants me to restore it. I think it dates from around 1920, but at the moment the serial number is covered in rust and dust, like most of the machine. Can I get it typing and working? Stay tuned. Meanwhile, I'm off to QWERTYFEST '25!

 

This is The One

Mr. E knows my mind. He was the only one to guess which typewriter I selected yesterday.



An early L.C. Smith with an intact paper table decal for $45 is a good deal. What you can't see in the photo is that everything was working, and typing just felt good. Here's a view from the back. Yes, it needs cleaning, but note that the decals are still gold. A good sign!



As for some of the other guesses:

The 1921 Remington portable whose owner traveled to the Far East was cool, but I wouldn't know quite what to do with a beaten-up case with fragile labels. At $99 it seemed a little expensive. Apparently others agree, because it's been sitting in the mall for over two months.



The Underwood Crest is a rare model, but I already have one. Actually, I decided last year that I'd donate it to Urban Legend Typewriters (to raise money for WordPlay Cincy). And you know what? It has sat around in the shop longer than any other typewriter, ever. I guess I didn't love it, and no one else does either. It is not a terrible typewriter, but none of these late Underwood portables is great, and there is something about that green color that isn't appealing. So $52 might not have been a good investment. It was also really dirty in some parts you can't see in the photo.



The Woodstock was priced right at $33. But that depressing gray paint ... and it would have needed lots of work. I already have one of this model in black that I enjoy a lot.



Having brought my treasure home, I wasted no time in cleaning it up and equipping it with a fresh ribbon.


Now it's for sale at Urban Legend, along with 6 other machines I've refurbished. (And the Crest, but it has been put in its case to wait for a time when this world is ready for it.)





Giddy up!