1950 Smith-Corona Silent 5

I was recently tasked by a friend to repair his 1950 Smith-Corona Silent 5. The first thing I did when I had this machine in my hands, was to check under the ribbon cover. The serial code was located on left side of the frame, and after looking through my notes, I was able to easily determine that it was a late 1950 Model. The serial code was preceded by a “S5,” which told me the kind, but I was able to identify that beforehand with the three parallel lines on either side of the ribbon cover.

The machine was defiantly over oiled, but I didn’t have all my tools on hand, all the time in the world, and access to my home workshop. However, after further examination, I was able to determine that the oil was not hindering any function at the moment, and gave my friend some instruction for cleaning.

The semi-colon and the question mark weren’t functional, the vibrator wasn’t working properly, the text was blotchy, and the touch selector was broken. The machine had apparently been left on the side of the road, but as my Sherlock skills told me, it was more thrown-out-of-a-moving-car-and-left-to-rot then simply abandoned. The body was bent in one place which rubbed the right part of the two-position bail rollers, and the paper supports were missing a screw. I was able to get the machine mechanically sound in a couple of hours, but had to take the body off. The excellent thing about these machines is the fact that there are only two types of screws holding the body on. Simplicity is greatly appreciated in my life. After removing the body completely, I noticed that the oil was pooling in a couple sections. Typewriters rarely need oil, and even then, it’s only a few drops in two or three places.

I cleaned what I could with what I had, and reattached the damaged linkages in the bottom. I ended up having to bend a few brackets, and replace a few springs, but otherwise the machine was in pretty fair condition. I placed a duo-tone ribbon on the original spools, and ran some maintenance adjustments until it worked perfectly. I would love to give it a fuller restoration some time in the future, but as of now, it works great. It types in a standard Elite font (12cpi) which was a little harder to clean due to the smaller size.

I never really had a huge affinity for the newer machines, but after hearing how silent this machine was, even with a hardened platen, I became slightly attached. Not to mention the amazing floating shift (do love basket shift machines).