• Restoration Part 3

    Keri Szafir • 07/15/2023 at 17:38 • 0 comments

    The final part of the restoration process is fixing the ribbon selection mechanism of the carriage, and reassembly after cleaning. Every single key, every part of the enclosure was thoroughly cleaned with water and dishwashing fluid. It did wonders, the machine looks fresh - good as new!
    Also, I had to fix a broken stud on the soundproofing cover to keep it in place. The fix was wasy, though I had to correct it because I didn't notice the screw head getting into way of the sponge holding part. I noticed it after filming this, and replaced the round head screw with a conical head one, with a countersunk hole. Works like a charm now.

    Of course, the typewriter's printing function was thoroughly, joyously, and at times, somewhat frustratedly tested on my benchside Thinkpad T61 running Debian. Talk about IBM (well, it was Lenovo, so technically, post-IBM) talking to IBM!

  • Restoration Part 2

    Keri Szafir • 07/15/2023 at 17:28 • 0 comments

    Replacing the hammer solenoid end cap is pretty straightforward - I did it the same way Phoenix Typewriter did. You always learn from the experts :)
    Unfortunately, it wasn't the end of this machine's problems. The ribbon cassette didn't want to fully descend into the working position, no characters were printed though I saw their dry impressions on paper. The fix was very simple, as it turned out (shown in the next part), but at the moment I was filming it, I didn't have that idea yet. I decided to cut it pretty short and do some research off the camera, and I also went through the tedious process of cleaning the enclosure.

    My (pretty short) repair video:



    PhoenixTypewriter's video:

  • Restoration Part 1

    Keri Szafir • 07/15/2023 at 17:07 • 0 comments



    What is it? Why doesn't it work?

    The Wheelwriter arrived in a rather poor state, rather dirty and some minor parts dislodged or broken. The first problem I noticed was no hammer action (that's the part that strikes the "daisy wheel" typing element through the ribbon against the paper, printing the character). Solving this required a replacement part which would be pretty expensive to get internationally. I decided to go different route - making it myself! At first, I tried making it with a conventional filament 3D printer but the part fell apart, it definitely called for a different printing technique, if not turning it on a lathe out of a teflon rod. I went for SLA (resin) 3D printing at our local hackerspace. We decided to make three of these parts, on different supports, as we weren't sure which would work... and that was a good idea as two parts were lost, only one survived. It made it into the typewriter - but that's another part of the story...