1959 Smith Corona Silent Super #5T 668208X

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Chris Floren (Duder)
Created: 06-26-2022 at 04:40PM
Last Edit: 06-26-2022 at 05:09PM

Description Hunter 15 Photos 0 Likes  Find on Ebay #AD  Find on Etsy #AD

Description:

Bought as a project from shopgoodwill.com, and when it arrived I found it was rougher than I hoped it would be. So... I probably overpaid. But challenge accepted. Alpine Blue. There are dozens of these machines in the database already so I'll just focus on the work I did to bring this one back.

After removing the body panels and cleaning them with Simple Green & Scrubbing Bubbles, I cleaned the mechanism thoroughly with mineral spirits. The carriage was quite jangly and rattly and seemed to have more free play than it should. Sure enough, there's a spec for that in the S-C service manual. I used a dial indicator with magnetic base to measure the initial play and it was around 0.050" (fifty thousandths of an inch = 1.27mm) up & down total motion with the carriage extended all the way to the left. By adjusting the bearing tracks I was able to get it dialed in, much tighter, but without binding. Got it down to 0.015" - 0.020" (0.38 - 0.50 mm) which falls in the acceptable range. The margin release mechanism was sticky and had to straighten one of the small short key links to correct a sunken key. Otherwise it was mechanically good.

In terms of cosmetics, I used my marginal bodywork skills and an automotive body hammer to get out a pretty decent dent that was right in the middle of the ribbon cover. There was some sort of white-out painted strip in that same area but gentle rubbing with a q-tip soaked in mineral spirits got rid of that. I whitened the keys and knobs using 40 Volume Developer cream (peroxide) and then worked out some dents in the holiday case as best as I could. It types beautifully now. Gave it to my sister for a late birthday present. It's a 10 cpi / pica machine.

Arrived on April 03, 2022 - given away on June 19, 2022

Typeface Specimen:

Photos:

With its brother, my 1957 Desert Sand Silent-Super, for a color comparison.

Paint chips abound. Just adds character.

All finished up under the hood.

I gently heated the felt mat to soften the terrible 1950s black goo adhesive, because the S-C plastic logo was loose. I glued this back in with contact cement, then glued the sound deadening mat down again, all good.

As-found knob vs. whitened knob for comparison.

Keys after whitening with 40 volume developer cream. Right platen knob un-whitened for comparison.

Close up on the indicator tip. By adjusting the bearing rails carefully, one screw at a time, I was able to get the carriage much tighter with no binding. 15 to 20 thousandths is where I ended up.

A better view of the indicator sertup. It is zeroed out here. I then pushed the carriage up and down as far as it would go. Initial play was almost 50 thousandths...too much!

Setup for measuring carriage play. I've got the carriage extended all the way left (right as shown in this photo) and have the magnetic indicator base stuck to the frame of the machine. This way I'm measuring relative motion between the carriage & frame.

Number 5 key is sunken down in relation to its neighbors. Root cause was a stretched link.

Removing the bodywork was a bit tricky, my first time for a 5-series S-C. Now I know the secrets.

This is as far down as I stripped it.

Using the receipt paper as a straight(ish)edge to show the dent in the top cover. You can see light coming through, centered over the "m" in Smith.

Neglected but not terrible.

Before. Dirty & smelly, strange white painted strip on the ribbon cover.

Hunter: Chris Floren (Duder)

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Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 121

Automotive turbocharger engineer, lifetime tinkerer, expanding into typewriters from cars, motorcycles, bikes, engines, etc. My mom was a writer, writing teacher, and worked in a print shop when I was a small kid, so there's probably some connection there!