1967 Smith Corona Corsair #5Y 56260
Status: My Collection
Hunter: Kewin Sanfridsson (JoxSoup)
Created: 11-07-2024 at 10:56AM
Last Edit: 11-07-2024 at 12:37PM
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Description:
[Introduction]
My first and only Smith Corona so far and it's apparently called Corsair. The funny thing is my favorite computer parts brand is called Corsair too! Anyways, from what I understand Smith Corona is a well liked brand of typewriters back in the day. So naturally I had very high expectations! No just joking, I know the Corsair is not the finest model Smith Corona had to offer. But that won't stop me from picking on it just for fun like the amateur reviewer I am!
[Design]
First of all I do have to say I really like the design and colour scheme going on here with the Corsair. It reminds me of how the cars was designed back in the 80s and 90s with all the beveled edges. The beige-brown colour complements it perfectly. The keys are a departure from what I've typed on before but i like them they are nice to type on. They're big, comfortable and the legions on them is easy to read out. The platen knobs have a good grip to them and feel to them. Cool to have the V-shaped paper rest as well. The carriage return lever have is good it just feels a bit funky that it folds inwards when using it, I'm used to a return lever only rotating to the right.
And as I previously have mentioned I'm not to kind on the plastic chassi/shell on a typewriter as it's so fragile. But I'm happy to say that the machine itself haven't suffered any damages but the lid ain't as lucky sadly. It have gotten chipped some time in the past and a new crack have appeared on the same side which will need to be fixed before it chips off a shard of plastic.
[Problems]
What would getting another typewriter be without some fixing. When I first got it, it just wouldn't grab onto the paper when inserting it. And as usual I went out on the web to see if somebody else might have had a similar or the same problem. But it's of course not guaranteed but lo and behold! It was the paper rollers underneath the platen which had shrunken due to time. It's common for this to happen to the Corsair from what I understand. So I did the only feasible thing to do, removed the platen, took out the plate holding the paper rollers and took them out, added heat shrink tubing to every one of them. After putting it back together again and trying to re-insert the platen like a thousand times (don't ask me why) it worked like a charm almost. The spring holding the paper release lever which moves the paper rollers off of the platen had gotten worn out. This meant the levers rested state was so that the paper release is engaged all the time and it won't grab onto the paper every 3-4 lines of text you write. I have not fixed this yet because right at the moment I'm all out of springs. I would have proposed to have the resting state of the lever reversed instead like other manufactures did. This would keep the paper firmly in place and circumvent the problem all to gather and it would not put unnecessary stress on the spring and wearing it out as quickly (if you could call it that, 57 years haha) but I mean compared to even older typewriters.
[Pros and Cons]
I know of course that the Corsair is a budget typewriter but that doesn't mean it have both some good and some bad about it.
- Line spacing - There are two options of line spacing 1 or 2. This can be both good and bad depending on, if you want to have the ability to quickly move down a ½ line or 1 ½. But if you are a bit to fast with the carriage return lever it won't accidentally only move down half a line when starting on a new line, believe me it have happen to me so many times.
- Tabulator - It do have a tabulator but it's design with only 5 permanent stops. If it would have been possible and still be budget friendly I think I would've preferred it to have either just 1 or 2 movable stops instead. But I guess it's quite nice to have it preset without having to mess around with sometimes hard to move tabs and also one less thing that can start to act up.
- Ribbon Direction Lever - Finally! A actual portable typewriter with a manual override for the direction of the ink ribbon, I wish all typewriters had this feature! And while talking about the ink ribbon. Loading the ribbon is very confusing and not user friendly at all especially to someone who is new to typewriters.
[Conclusion]
It have a good design and writes relatively well. A bit heavy to type on for longer session, I typed two pages on it to figure out this text and I'm already tired in my fingers of it. It got one of those fancy typing resistance levers underneath the hood I believe but it only made the keyboard feel mushy so I don't know. Maybe it's a mush-lever for when you want that extra moss feel when typing. Joking aside, I like it but it got it's fair share of issues which can occur but again what budget typewriter don't. The positives outweighs the negatives. I recommend it if you're prepared to fix the paper rollers if they have shrunken.
Cheers!
Typeface Specimen:
Photos:
Hunter: Kewin Sanfridsson (JoxSoup)
Kewin Sanfridsson's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]
Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 1305
Hi my name is Kewin and I'm a 24 years old from Sweden. I have a few hobbies like drawing and playing guitar but I do also like myself some project here and there which is where my interest in typewriters fits in. I have always collected things through my life but I did not expect typewriters to be my next big passion in collecting. I started collecting typewriters in the beginning of 2022 and so far I have 80* of them (3 of which is currently disassembled) . I find it really enjoyable to pickup a typewriter at a thrift store/second hand and starting to clean it up and get it to a working condition to the best of my ability and knowledge. (Excuse all the dog hairs in my pictures, I do actually try to remove the hair before taking the pictures. xD) Cheers!
RESEARCH NOTE: When researching the Smith Corona Corsair on a computer with lots of screen real estate, you may find that launching the Smith Corona Serial Number page and the Smith Corona Corsair By Model/Year/Serial page in new browser windows can give you interesting perspectives on changes throughout the model series.
