An Olympia in a Broadway shop window

During a saunter round Leiden, spotted a grey Olympia SM typewriter in the shop window of a second-hand store.

Rather an up-market thrift store - such a thing exists, surprisingly. It seemed to sit somewhere on the scale between junk-store/thrift and an antique-shop. Located in the city on the Breestraat (i.e. Broadway) with a mid-century modern flair in its display.

The photograph of Mr Rühmann probably also dates from the 1950s. It was after closing time, so no safari of the insides of an up-market thrift store - just the window display :)

Blickensderfer carriage escapement adjustment

The reason for this hole in the base casting of the Blcikensderfer is now clear.

It gives visibility of the meshing of the indexing-claw with the carriage rack. This moving claw in the rest-position is held against a stop-piece that can (must) be adjusted. The stop-piece is fixed with two screws, accessible only from above, so not when the carriage is mounted on the machine.

When this stop-piece is not quite right, there will be a bit of play in the carriage position. When at rest, it will then be possible to manually shift it about a bit.

Because the stop-piece cannot be adjusted with the carriage on the machine, it is a trial-and-error iterative process today. The peek-hole shows how the stop-piece still needs to be moved. The factory almost certainly will have had an empty carriage-strip with access-holes to tighten the screws with a rack in-position.
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The second adjustment is the static claw. It is held on an eccentric screw that permits left-right adjusting. It should be placed so, that when the moving claw is pulled out of engagement, the carriage cannot be pushed to the right - the static-claw's function is to prevent any pulling-back by the moving claw when indexing the carriage.

With the two claws now adjusted, the Blickensderfer typewriter somehow feels a bit more ' solid'. When the escapement is out of adjustment it will still index and type just fine, but will have a bit more rattle and may have irregular kerning.

Increasingly, I'm amazed how well the little Blick can be made to work; and with increased curiosity for the long-lost factory documentation on manufacture and adjustment :)

Blickensderfer platen knob replica

The re-creating of a platen for the Blickensderfer typewriter slowed down, but a small improvement in the surface finish of the sleeve was tried. 

After filing away more thoroughly the z-seam bulge and a general roughening of the entire surface (fine sandpaper), the surface was painted with a water-based acrylic. The paint was simply brushed-on and left to dry for about 10 or 15 minutes. After the paint was dry (but not hard), rubbed with a cloth/rag to make a smooth surface.

The above image shows the newly manufactured reproduction (top) next to the original ~1905 platen. The repro surface still shows the seam of the printing process, but the surface is smooth and it's less noticeable visually than it was. The thin layer of acrylic should not have any real effect on the resilience of the platen and it does help to even-out the surface. Result of this method is that it looks good and types fine, but it will have to be seen how durable a surface this is. Trial and error :)

Also, an improved replica of the platen knob was made. Because the knob needs to be tightened quite hard on the rod, it really did need a threaded metal insert. In this case, just as in the original, a hex-nut.

For fitting the replica knob on an original platen-rod, a UNF 8-36 nut should be fitted. If making one for a new M4-based platen, there's a model for an M4 nut too. Both versions can be downloaded here.

The 3D model is ideally printed with a small layer-height. For nicest results, of course a small nozzle will create a crisper profile and enable smallest layering.

Enable supports (tree) and set the support threshold to e.g. 20 degrees to avoid annoying supports in the central hole.

To finish the knob, insert a nut and fixate with a small drop of e.g. cyanoacrylate glue on a corner. With a few applications of paint and then light sanding, the surface can be made to imitate the surface of an original. (Pedestal-stand helps with painting.)

A glut of knobs! Of course only one needed per Blick - here on the Blickensderfer 5.