Galaxie 12 Smith-Corona
A year ago I acquired my grandmothers typewriter after she passed away at 103. I remember myself typing on this when I was just a kid, and my grandmother up to 102 typing letters out to my uncle in Arizona. I have recently picked up a project that a typewriter would be the key instrument in helping me complete it, as well as high sentimental value, but I have noticed that it has some issues.
Within my first hour of using the typewriter, the striking keys don't seem to line up correctly. Lower case letters, and numbers will not type correctly when it hits the ink ribbon and then the page. It seems like only half of it gets ink, and it somehow hits the paper between the capital and lower case letters. It types in capital letters only. Also the L key does not even raise up to hit the ink ribbon when pressed.
I would also like to add that the typewriter has been sitting out on a high table that just acted like a shelf for years at my grandmothers as more decoration then a actual machine. I am sure at one point it had a metal cover, but it was eventually put in a plastic pillow case storage bag, and then eventually nothing at all covering it.
I did a brief youtube video search of how to service a typewriter yourself. It seems like the two most common things causing this type of malfunction is a old ink ribbon and to replace it with a new one (which there was one included with the typewriter when I got it from my grandmothers, still in its out of the factory plastic bag).
The second would be to just clean all the old ink off the type set keys with something like simple green and spray it out with end dust air duster to clear up any debris and dust that's been in there for years.
Unfortunately typewriter repair places especially local ones don't exist anymore, and those searches that do pop up are old houses that retirees ran businesses out of that are no longer active because they passed away, or closed businesses.
Thanks for your help.
