IBM Selectric II typewriter repairs
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- Опубліковано 7 сер 2024
- This IBM Selectric II needs a little TLC. Sticky tab key (easy fix), out of alignment typeball (medium hard), and sticky/hesitant carriage return (totally unobvious). Great opportunity to look inside this insanely complicated, entirely mechanical, golf-ball typewriter from 1973.
Selectric documentation on my website here: www.curiousmarc.com/mechanica... - Наука та технологія
Thank you for this excellent introduction to the Selectric. The disassembly instructions and general maintenance overview is greatly appreciated.
My mom and dad ran degrazia ibm typewriter repair for years in. Elmwood Park Illinois
Thanks for the video. I worked on these while I was in the us navy in the early ‘90s. Great memories.
Reading the comments here I see there are several others who have repaired these machines. I worked for IBM way back in 1979 for a few years repairing these machines. It was without a doubt a path of initiation to learn to fix these mechanical works of wonder. I went to IBM training center in Southfield, Mich. Any others gone there? It was a 6 month intensive course with timed repairs. We had to both diagnose and change a key spring in 17 seconds to pass the exam.
" these mechanical works of wonder." Very well said!
"6 month intensive course"? I think maybe you mean 6 weeks? I joined IBM in 1977. Initial baseline training was 6 weeks. First three weeks on the Typebar series, (model C & D), then another three weeks on the Selectric. The type bar course was only because there were still many in the field. It was not a pre-requisite. Most subsequent CE's just went straight onto the Selectric. But it certainly took a good 6 months to build up your skill level but that was just down to experience. When you're doing 5-10 repairs per day, you learn fast
@@c00kee Yes, your surely correct on that, and there were a lot of "return jobs" those first weeks. I was trained in Southfield, Detroit. How 'bout you?
@@danielhehir1 Branch Office, Wellington NZ
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@ Phoenix Typewriter, we still work on these everyday. From basic repairs to complete reconditioning
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Going to bed a happier man, having seen this.
Thanks!
Got a Selectric III correcting recently (inspired by Fran and you!), and this is gonna be a rough ride! The clutch on the main shaft is stuck, the left part (which drives the keyboard mechanism - filter bar, cycle bail and that kind of stuff) doesn't turn at all. Just getting down there will be fun. Also, the machine has an utterly bad case of Grease-Gone-Glue to the point where I couldn't even remove the typing element.
Got that service manual on my disk. Second only to the Monotype composition caster manual! I seem to be drawn to extremely intricate mechanical devices :D
Good luck! Nothing that can’t be fixed in a purely mechanical machine!
My parents had one of these throughout the 70s and 80s but when the last shop in Sydney Australia that could service it closed and it broke my parents gave it to me to pull apart when I was 10. 🙂🇦🇺
You will get better print if you move the copy control lever to position "A". you had your finger on this lever @ 5:32 , it's the lever next to the 10/12. This will also improve the correction lift-off, machine looked to be leaving a substantial shadow when you did a correction lift off on the video, you can also try fresh/different ribbons for better results.
For a real treat, see if you can find a Mag-Card Selectric. I recall using one circa 1973. Hollerith-shaped card made of magnetic material, just like tape only thicker, in a desk-side drive, stored a page (maybe more) of text so you could record, correcting as needed, then play back without errors. This was necessary in multi-part forms in legal offices, where the carbon copies also had to be perfect.
I went to the IBM schools for selectrics back in the day and worked on these for many years. There are around 800 inter-related adjustments in a selectric 2. If you don't know what you are doing you will have it so out of adjustment in a matter of seconds, you can never get it back. A broken band or main drive belt is a nightmare to repair even when you are good at it. Trust me when I say, "Do yourself a favor and save your sanity, give these machines to a museum and get a computer and a good printer."
Beobout6 .. There are good trchs and not do good techs. To replace a belt. cycle ckutch and a rotate tape and adj. and lub machine is a thirty min job. Parts cost about twenty bucks and machine should go untill it had OPERATOR TROUBLE again.
Agreed, I was a service engineer on this and other IBM models from 1972 until the 1990's when I changed career.
Thanks for your... words... of... discouragement... ?
Could do a rotate tape in 20 min.......cover off...cover on...
800 adjustments? A common myth, along with the regular "1,000's of moving parts". Infact less than 400 adjustments, the bulk of which are initial installation adjustments that never normally need to be touched, but are often disturbed by amateurs just aimlessly tinkering without a clue. Actual common day to day adjustments in normal use is closer to 50, if that.
My favorite typewriter of all times!!
that thing is beautiful
Wow, I'll bet the smell from that thing is quite something else!
Wonderfull machine 🙂
I need one of these machines in my life
Dear Marc. Great video, thank you. Could you recommend someone in Vancouver who could maintain this type of IBM Selectric II Typewriter?
Thank you 🤗
Hi Marc, Great Video! At 4:20 in the video, you show the typewriter with its main shaft top cover removed. How do I remove that top cover?
I was waiting for you to type in "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over again (The Shining reference). Hahahaha
Gorgeous machine! I wish I could ahve a machine with typeball.
I have a Royaluxe 450 mechanical typewriter and the bell mechanism has a missing part. It is the part that moves the other part that hits the bell. I have no idea how it should look like and I cannot figure out how it would move when the carriage moves back, I could improvize something so that it would hit the bell, but it would get stuck when the carriage returns. Does anyone have any idea where I can find a photo of the bell mechanism of this particular typewriter?
What a coincidence, I just inherited my parent's original selectric typewriter. Unfortunately it was seized and I was not able to get it to unstick. Its on the shelf now but I'll probably have to recycle it.
+Pizza Problems: Pleeeeease don't throw it away! Advertise it on ebay or Craigslist, give it to your local electronic surplus shop, or to your best retro-computing friend... Or use more time and WD40 :-)
No IBM Selectric is seized, Just needs to be flushed & re-lubed. Very common for these to sit unused for years and then they get sticky & stuck. BTW WD-40 is the worst product you can use on a typewriter. I Rebuild IBM's every day for last 35yrs, I know every page in that adjustment manual. I have every part for every IBM Selectric. Phoenixtypewriter.com
Pizza Problems .
no, no recycle! bet you have somone in yellowpages. Selectrics have the best touch.
no worries guys. a lot of time has passed and I still have it safe and sound.
very informative, I'm working on mine and having similar problems. in your video you referenced a adjustment manual could you give me a link to it as I have not been able to find it
+Don Carothers You need to join this Yahoo! group, then you'll get access to their file library:
groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/golfballtypewritershop
My off on switching only comes on when I move the black and white wire
Where did you get the repair Summary from?
I need them fast
@CuriousMarc
Do you know how to fix a Smith Corona SL 105 typewriter ? I bought one and tested it, the words are not producing on paper and fades. I think the hammer strikes too hard on the ribbon ink cassette. The carriage mechanism works, but the words being put on paper; nope.
No I don't. Ribbon too old maybe? The ribbon here is "new", can still get it online from Staples!
+CuriousMarc I was using a new ribbon cassette, but when the hammer starts punching the black strip has become clear afterwards.
Smith Corona SL 105, Sounds like the ribbon drive is not working. Common problem, we repair these all the time. Phoenixtypewriter.com
Be careful movin the type ball carriage back and forth when the margin tabs are flipped up! I just broke one of mine.
Donde puedo utilizar sus servicios.?
I can’t find the levers in the front 1:52
Given this is entirely mechanical, where does the energy come from to move the carriage across the page sequentially when the space bar is held down?
A single, continuously rotating electrical motor in the machine provides the energy that drives the impact printing and the carrier movement. The movement of the carrier to the right is actually indirectly provided by a main spring. The main spring is automatically wound up by the electrical motor when the carrier returns to the left (when pressing Carriage Return).
stupossibleify This may be far too mechanical to grasp,but here goes.
First of all,spacing and tab motions are driven to the right via a coil main spring unwinding.Space bar mechanical motion is a linear ratchet.A tooth skipping in and out of a straight line of teeth.
When the spacebar is held down in repeat mode the spacebar drive cam is cycling repeatedly.The return/index cam is a separate cam.
Carriage return rewinds the main spring via a return clutch.
The spacebar ratchet tooth is held completely out of the rack until it reaches the left margin,where it restores to the rack.
Holding down the spacebar will cycle the spacebar drive cam,but with the tooth/pawl being held out for return,it basically is not doing anything except cycling the cam.
Hope this helps.
Technically, this typewriter is electromechanical. But the only electrical component is the motor. Everything else is mechanical.
the best
I have one but mine is electric and key board not working its on but not doing nothing
I just bought ine ans when i pkug it in , it does not turn on ...well the carriage clicks to the left side but then nothing :(
These are notoriously difficult to repair and adjust, they have thousands upon thousands of parts. If you don't want to chase down the fault, I have heard people dunking the whole mechanism in a simple green solution and hoping for the best, but I suspect it only helps in mild cases when parts are not stuck very much.
You should transform it in a teletype.
See how the Selectric II typing mechanism works at ua-cam.com/video/bRCNenhcvpwA/v-deo.htmlnd the whiffletree mechanical digital-to-analog converter that the Selectric uses at ua-cam.com/video/G_SC7oWL78A/v-deo.html
Quiero comprar una máquina igual IBM selectric 2 correctora, alguien vende?..?
Given this is entirely mechanical, where does the energy come from to move the carriage across the page sequentially when the space bar is held down?
A rotary mainspring, as Marc mentions.
it has a motor I think. you can hear it hum when he turns it on
Yes, these are electric.
The typewriter is mechanical, but with the mechanical elements engaging with shafts driven by an electric motor. I believe the only electric parts in a Selectric are: the on/off switch, the motor, and in the Selectric III two bulbs to show which pitch is selected.