4mo ago

A productive evening

My Adler Contessa de Luxe now works! It has a lovely font. I cleaned it, changed (respooled) the ribbon, and made a few little adjustments. It still has two problems: one of the sticky keys is still sticky (the others aren't anymore), and the bell doesn't work most of the time. But I'm happy, it's the first machine I actually repaired.

@typewriters

typewriter #typewriters

7 comments

Congrats! I failed so badly when I tried to fix my first machine!
Oh, an azerty Layout? The Frenchie in me wholeheartedly agree with that ;)
- @Libb That's why I said “actually repaired”; the first one I tried to repair is still unusable 😅. I had to give it to a seasoned collector who proposed to repair it for me.
  And yes, I'm French too 🙂.
  @typewriters
Nice!
I'll share what I do, first I remove the casing, the platen and as many plastic and rubber parts as I can, keys included, I don't remove the wheels driving the spools if they are plastic.
Then I soak it with degreaser, let it do its thing for a minute and rinse it with a pressure washer or an engine cleaning gun with water, not too hard just to rinse. This I do two or three times.
To dry it fast and avoid corrosion, first remove the excess water and then put the typewriter in the oven at 45-50°C for about 45-60 minutes.
After that, I oil everything and put it back together.
- @quediuspayu @typewriters Thanks for sharing this! I'd love to be able to clean that deeply. I don't have a lot of tools, even not an air compressor… I used a bottle of compressed air, emptied it completely and there's still dust.
  Which oil do you use, and where?
  
  I use the same oil I use for sewing machines, it is very thin, low viscosity. I apply it using syringe with the bevelled tip of the hypodermic needle cut off.
  I put oil everywhere there's metal moving against metal, it doesn't need much, just a thin coat. Too much oil can collect more dust or even drip inside the case.
I just looked what white spirit is and just found out it is the same thing I tried to clean the first machine I had, hahahahaha. On my second attempt I got much better results with gasoline, remove everything plastic or rubber just in case.

7 comments