Cleaning the Blickensderfer 5 head-assembly (writing cipher)

The head assembly of the Blickensderfer typewriter is a bit daunting to take apart completely. For this one, the main pivot-rod was left in place, but the other bits were removed for proper cleaning.

The ink-roller bracket was completely bent out of shape and the thumb-screw for adjusting spring-tension was also bent badly. Fortunately it was possible to bend this back (a bit) without snapping the threaded rod. The fact that these parts were both bent so severely means that the top-casting of this Blickensderfer 5 got a very nasty knock at one time.

Most of the paint-splatter could be removed without damage, but the thick lacquer had also been chipped in many spots.

To make these chips less noticeable, a method to mask these was tried. First filling-in with black enamel paint.

And then followed by sanding the filled-in areas smooth and level with the surrounding paint, using fine, wet P400 sandpaper.

That was then followed by a polishing (car-polish for black) and given the sewing-machine oily-rag treatment.

Definitely still visible as damaged areas, but much less noticeable from a distance. A different, high-gloss enamel lacquer could have been used to better match the surrounding gloss. Nevertheless, the whole appearance is deemed good enough for now. (The typewriter is 120 years old, it's allowed to have some blemishes and show wear.)

The whole top assembled again and placed back onto the machine. Then popped-on a brand-new Italic typewheel (Blickensderfer Mfg Co catalogue number 440) plus a new ink-pad and to see if it works!

Yes, the machine types! 

However; the printed characters are not what's on the keys, and not always the same characted for a key either. (That was the 'w' that was pressed repeatedly, not the 'f'.) It's now a bit like a cipher machine.

From checking how the machine is out of adjustment, this is almost certainly caused by the top-casting being bent backward. This threw the wheel-locking out of adjustment and made it unusable. If the fall/knock happened long ago when it was still in use, it would definitely then have been 'retired' to the shed, basement or attic.

A quick check of the adjustment screws of the base also showed-up that the geared-prongs of the actuating bars also are bent. These bars are now impossible to adjust to be in-range with the adjustment screws.

Much more puzzling to be done! The little typewriter shows it can write, now only to make it write sense :)