Carriage of a Blickensderfer 5 progress

The carriage of a Blickensderfer 5 typewriter is a relatively simple affair, as is shown on several pages online. One end of the baseplate casting had been quite badly rusted, but overall the parts came out reasonably clean and usable.

From point of view of the restorer/repairer, there are two unfortunate aspects to the Blickensderfer carriage. One is that the main brackets are held with dowel-pins in a delicate casting. The other is that to remove the platen, pretty much the whole carriage and side-brackets need to be taken off.

The pins fortunately came out with precisely applied careful hammering without any mishaps. When putting it together again, these pins will not be used. Instead, a 2.5mm rod is formed to be a springy-fit through the holes and keep the pressure-brackets in place (arrow).

One of the front paper-guiding springs was broken. Using the remaining original as guide a brass replacement was cut (card as flat template).

Brass is nowhere near as strong or springy as the steel original, but it'll do for light use. It will also be assisted by the ruler (when such is re-created too and fitted). To make it blend in, the brass spring was nickel-plated. (Nickel at the plus, part to be plated at minus, electrolyte from vinegar with 10% salt and 10% sugar. Around 5V works fine at small distances.)

Another broken item was the platen-knob. Again very fortunate that still half a knob remained, so that could be used as guide to make a new platen-knob.

With a scrubbed and polished-up platen (slate-hard), the carriage fits and actually moves when space is pressed. The feed-roller will need re-covering later on, but for now is serviceable. Strangely, the feed-roller is still soft and rubbery, but the platen is rock-hard.

The missing paper-rack and more importantly the carriage-release bar were re-created from 2.5 and 3 mm steel wire. The carriage-release rod should be ~3.5 mm rod, but the 3 mm was difficult enough already to bend in shape. Knitting needles from the thrift store again are a great source of nicely straight polished rod material.

A very neat feature that hadn't been apparent to me initially, is that the chamfered wooden blocks at the back of the case press-in the carriage-release bar when the machine is placed in the case. This automatically dis-engages the escapement when the typewriter is placed in its travel-case; very clever!

But then, the Blickensderfer overall is a very clever machine :-)