I was cleaning and doing some restoration work on a new card index and realized that this Fred Macey Company cabinet body was the perfect size to hold up to 8 typewriters inside for a mix of both storage and display!

@the Nice try. I used it to fill in the missing color for some of the keycaps. Photos and more detail here.

Today I used a Crayola Crayon as part of a typewriter restoration project. Anyone have guesses as to how I used it in a typewriter restoration capacity?

A revelation from the Remington 666.

Quizzed by Foxes, the Devil Whirls Past, Deftly Wielding a Jazzy Typewriter

Since April 3rd I’ve been acquiring a new typewriter on average every six days. 🙈 I think after the last three I just picked up, including a Remington 666 and Ten Forty I’ve been hunting for, I’m taking a hiatus unless I see a local Olympia SG1. 🤞🏼

More progress on the 1931 New Orga (Privat 5): he types! I found some compatible spools and ribbon. Given the Orga typewriter from the movie, I thought this Willy Wonka quote was apropos both as the first type sample and as encouragement for the remainder of the restoration mountain ahead.

I realized tonight that I’ve got some reasonably thick waxed cord for use in leatherwork hiding in the craft drawer. (I chose purple in honor of Willy Wonka.) I’ve strung it up on the new New Orga and gotten the carriage moving again as it types! Hopefully it’ll last.

@annahavron How did we not discuss this post this morning at the analog meetup? Very reminiscent of the Memindex System, Pam Young and Peggy Jones' Sidetracked Home Executives, and later 43 folders, GTD, and bullet journal systems.

I got impatient since it’ll be a while before the 1931 New Orga will be operational again, so in a highly manual exercise, I threaded, advanced, and pulled out a type sample from the machine to see what we’re looking forward to:

@bradenslen When a relatively rare German typewriter in the Willy Wonka realm shows up in your back yard for such a low price, you have to jump!

@Contrariwise This is a spectacular question with some fun subtlety. Because of the small size of index cards versus standard office paper, choosing a typewriter that has multiple affordances for holding onto the cards well is paramount. In my experience, not all of them do and many are much better than others.

Generally, you're looking for machines with card fingers near the typing point. These are usually one or (preferably) two pieces of metal which stick up right where the typeslugs hit the ribbon/paper. These help to hold the stiffer index card paper closer to the platen which makes both for a better ink imprint as well as preventing smudging above your typing line because the typeslug can double-strike the paper. Not having them can make your machine much louder while typing the first 3-4 lines which can be annoying.

On some later 60's models, typewriters replaced these card fingers with longer clear plastic card guides which do a much better job of holding the thicker index cards against the platen. The Olympia SM3 is a great example of this.

Some typewriters also included adjustable "paper fingers" which stick up typically in front of the platen, and like the card fingers help to hold the index card in place.

Almost all typewriters have a paper bail that holds the paper down from the top, but you'll want one that is more than just a simple bar. These usually won't work as well with stiffer cards as the paper bail isn't heavy enough to hold them down. You'll really want one with two or preferably three rubber rollers on the bail. Many of the ultra-portable typewriters (like the Smith-Corona Skyriter) of the 50s and 60s and cheaper typewriters into the 1970s are simple metal bars with no rollers. You really won't like these with index cards. Good rubber rollers on a paper bail can help the typewriter hold onto the index card and allow you to type right up to the very last line. Without them, you'll give up half an inch to an inch of typing space at the bottom of cards because the card will tend to lose alignment and may even fall out as it clears the platen and has nothing to hold it in place at the bottom.

Of my 20 machines, my personal favorites for index cards are (in order):
* 1950s Royal HH (a big heavy standard office machine); [manual]
* Smith-Corona 1950s Series 5 Silent and/or Silent Super which both have 3 rollers on the bail in addition to both card fingers and paper fingers; [manual]
* Olympia SM3 which has a large clear plastic card guard and rubber rollers on its bail; [manual]

I've added links to the manuals of these which include diagrams of some of the typewriter parts mentioned in case you're not familiar with the terms.

Depending on your use case(s), you'll also probably prefer a machine with an elite typeface (11-12 characters per inch) rather than the slightly more common pica typeface (10 characters per inch). The smaller elite typeface will allow you to type more words on a page which can be highly useful on smaller index cards where you'll quickly run out of room. I've heard rumors that some of the bigger Olympia standards like the SG1 and SG3 had even smaller typefaces as small as 17-18 characters per inch for index card work, but I've yet to encounter one in the wild personally.

Outside of index cards, if you're more of a notebook person, you could try some of the A5 notebook/binders which allow punched pages to be inserted and potentially re-arranged. This will give you more typing space on a page and free up some of the limitations on appropriate typewriter models. The Campus 20 ring A5 system comes to mind as a possibility here.

Let me know if you have any specific questions. I'm happy to help.

Incidentally I think there's an upcoming Micro.blog Analog (online) meetup on Saturday for discussing fountain pens, stationery, notebooks, etc. If that sounds interesting to you, ping @cygnoir or search her site for details to RSVP.

@mattl I've always liked Spiderpig indieweb.org/Spiderpig

@patrickrhone @manton If only someone would tell him that every day at every McDonalds in the country there are groups of two or more old men buying a cup of coffee and hanging out half the morning and complaining about how bad America has become without doing anything substantive to fix things, we'd all be in much better shape.

@velocykel OMG! That's lovely. 😍

@velocykel Picks, or it didn't happen. :)

@velocykel If you've kept both, you can use one as a parts machine to repair the other?

An uncanny coincidence that I picked up a 1958 Olympia SM3 typewriter today (with a Congress Elite No. 84 typeface, 11 pitch, 2.3 m/m and a custom math keyboard) and this awesome t-shirt shows up on my doorstep 20 minutes later???

@velocykel I've seen lots of Hermes in mint green, but never one in orange. Sounds like fun!

@JohnPhilpin Thanks for the pointer to Jason Stanley and his work!

@JohnPhilpin It's tough to spot because it sounds like Arendt, but it sounded like such a good quote I wanted to collect it and attribute the original source. (And read the rest of the original.) Trying to find it proved instantaneously problematic. Of course it doesn't mean the words aren't any less true in the end...

@JohnPhilpin That quote sounds a lot like Arendt, but a quick search indicates it's something floating around on social, but was likely made up. I wonder what she would think of the irony?

@rlk Thanks! That is part of the goal with the machines and tools around the house—to get me to work at writing more thoughtfully and frequently.

@pratik I'm curious what statement you're making here? I can see an argument you might make on the appearance of the headline alone, but this editorial is far from what the headline may imply.

Today’s office. We’ve got a newly finished Shaw-Walker filing cabinet and a 1955 Royal HH standard typewriter.

A fascinating looking class that ostensibly will have no required textbooks or the need to take notes. Michigan State, Fall 2024. Via Sara D. Miller.

Forget gasoline. Dismiss lighter fluid. Let slip the idea of lacquer thinner.

When I clean my type slugs, I only use bourbon.

@velocykel What'd you get?!? Let me know if you need help in bringing it back up to speed.

@the If it helps to be able to say that Tom Hanks taught you to change a typewriter ribbon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBbsNKaVAB0

@the I started out with reading Polt's The Typewriter Revolution (Countryman Press, 2015) which has some good basics. Consulting his basic typewriter restoration page was very helpful too. Beyond that and knowing the names of some of the basic parts, the rest is just following along with YouTube videos and practicing on getting my own machines up to snuff. It's almost amazing what you can do with a single screwdriver, a squeeze bottle of paint thinner, canned air, and a toothbrush.

I did just get a copy of The Manual Typewriter Repair Bible, but have yet to really crack it. Hopefully it'll up my game for this upcoming repair.

It's been a very satisfying and useful little hobby these past 4 months. If you want to crib from my notes...

@patrickrhone @bradenslen Thanks for the birthday wishes.

@KimberlyHirsh I suspect some Duolingo courses know about the quirkiness of the repeated use of odd words and do it on purpose for the whimsy. From a language learning perspective, hearing bizarre, but common words out of general context makes your brain work harder to capture the subtleties of the grammar and usage. The repetition helps to drive less common words into your brain.

Perhaps there's also a hidden lobbying element too? I'll admit, I do eat leeks way more frequently now than I ever did before starting Welsh.

@herself @KimberlyHirsh In the Welsh lessons it's always leeks, parsnips and sausages. Use of both everyday and bizarre items like these in language lessons go back to the Ollendorff method. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeinrichGottfriedOllendorff

@odd Congratulations. I've yet to add a Hermes to my collection yet. Is there any truth to the rumor being spread by @patrickrhone that one has to be an excellent father to own one of those? If I recall, you started out with an Erika, right? How large has your collection become?

@hutaffe Ha! It is very lush...

@hutaffe Is your affliction so bad that you picked up Marcin Wichary's recent multivolume history?

@richardcarter Those were good friends indeed!