I was able to fix the vertical alignment of the lower case characters. It happened after I got this video fully edited and uploaded and was almost too easy. There are two screws you can adjust on the bottom without even taking the cover off. One for lower and upper case alignment. It takes all of 30s to adjust it. This was supposed to be a quick video to give me time to work on other projects so you'll have to forgive me for not wanting to set back up to shoot that part and then re-edit the end of the video to work that in.
Thanks to your typewriter videos I got the courage to pull out my Brother Correct-o-Riter I forgot I had and fixed it up and I managed to snag a Selectric III from a 2nd hand store for next to nothing. Needs a bit of repair but mostly in good shape. Thanks for these great typewriter videos!
I have a 1975 SCM 6 series Galaxie 12. I got it for $20 in severely gummed up/partially frozen condition. Got it cleaned up now it works. The only remaining problem is it occasionally skips. If I put it in high gear and use a brisk snappy typing style then it doesn’t skip nearly as much. In low it skips more. Going to try flushing the escapement parts with lacquer thinner. Too involved to remove the escapement rocker and star wheel for servicing. The 5 series machines are easier to work on. I clean the type slugs by putting a towel under all of them then spray electronics cleaner and brass brush. It helps to lightly stir the gunk in small spaces such as in e or a with a metal pick then more spray and brushing.
I love your channel especially because you also enjoy all the ancient tech I also enjoy. I have such a love for typewriters especially word processors from the 80s with crt screens and floppy drives.
Ah, that brings back memories. I used to own one of these (same model and color) and it was my daily driver during my school years. I remember using this weird little thing that sort of looked like a pencil eraser to clean the hammers when they got all clogged. Toothbrush seemed to work well. p.s.: If I ever form a metal band, I am totally going to call it "POWER SPACE." ;-)
I'd like to get a manual or electric typewriter from sometime in the 1960s through the 80s. I feel like it would be a fun way to write distraction-free and also a less expensive and more practical alternative to using a vintage computer with a dot-matrix printer. :P
I was all ready to tell you to check the platen release lever, sometimes they get jammed up and can cause a misalignment. Nice to see you found the adjusting screws. You can get the user's manual for the Galaxie here: machinesoflovinggrace.com/manuals/Smith-CoronaPortablesManual.pdf I believe this model might have the "Changeable Type" feature mentioned in the manual. You could purchase kits from your SCM dealer that would allow you to put special "Engineering, International, Mathematical, Spanish-American, Medical, and Popular Greek" characters onto two type bars, then you could pop the corresponding key caps onto the Changeable Type keys (on either side of the top row) and you were all set. I think these Changeable Type kits are probably as rare as hen's teeth, but it'd make a great adjunct to this video if you could find one.
Really enjoyed the video. I’ll do the same cleaning to the galaxie 2 I just got. One question: My space bar is not as sensitive as I would like it. Do you think that bending it upwards like you did might fix that?
You have the ribbon installed incorrectly. It's suppose to go though the little fork things just to the right of where it's coming out to go to the center. ibb.co/w4Jfyz2
oops. I didn't have a ribbon in there at all before I started the video because I had put the correcting ribbon back in the SCM Automatic 12 after the correction video. So I just chucked that one in there before shooting and forgot to do it properly when I was ready to type.
Thanks for posting this. I’m currently cleaning mine and I’ve noticed the dejammer and Margin Release button not acting right. On the MR key, there’s a spring attached but not connected. Do you have an image or insight you can share as to where that spring may connect? Also the dejammer has a similar issue to yours: it depresses but doesn’t come back up.
Phoenix Typewriter has an AWESOME RU-vid channel on typewriter repair. His specialty is Smith-Corona manual typewriters. Well worth checking out. Guaranteed “Binge Watching”.
