The famed 1936 Animal Key Smith Corona Standard Portable Flattop

Yeah, that title is a MOUTHFULL.  It has been forever since I have updated this blog.  I know, I know, consistency is key.  Key for what?  Becoming a somewhat successful blogger, not that that's my goal, but this outlet does help support my business.  Anyway, for those of you who are unaware of the existence of this magnificent typewriter, allow me to illuminate you.

The animal key Corona was introduced in the 1930s by the LC Smith and Corona company.  It was offered across three base model portable typewriters for an added premium price of around $2.49.  The idea behind the machine was to encourage children to learn to type.  It was the hopes of the company that these colorful and frankly adorable little animals would help "guide young fingers" or something, as they put it.  In reality, the only thing people were guided to do was not to purchase the machine.  The added premium price was just too much to justify for a machine meant for a child during the Great Depression, and it was this lack of sales that makes this machine so phenomenally rare.

As with any Smith Corona of the era, they come with this weird white metal rot.  Not a major issue, but it makes cleaning a very distinct pain in the butt.  On top of that, it appeared to be filled with colorful confetti?  And a whole lot of oil and rust.  In fact, it was so over oiled that a couple of the keytops were discolored, the shift lock permanently so.

Just look at all that GRIME

see the confetti?

Due to the rare nature of the machine, my task at hand was to perform one of the most in depth restorations I have ever undertaken, as well as the furthest I'd ever bother to take such a common base machine.  Technically speaking, I could take this machine down to the frame and then take the frame apart, but what would be the point?  At the end of the day, there is no real merritt or purpose in taking a machine further apart then you need to.  Even if you are skilled enough, it just becomes a waste of time.  That being said, all the type bars needed to come out of the machine, as well as all the central carriage elements, the type guide and ribbon lift system, the margin and line lock system, the entire escapement, backspace, and bell.  

This is more or less what everything ended up looking like

Each individual component had to be hand polished.  The 42 type bars spent four hours in the ultrasonic and came out very clean, but the nickel plating had worn off in areas giving it a splotchy camo look.  Each type bar then got all the nickel stripped, and the base metal taken up to a nice brilliant shine.

The same process was essentially followed for every consecutive part that came out of the machine.  Multitudes of springs and tiny screws were tucked away for safekeeping, and resulted in a tiring routine of hooking everything back up where it belonged, and readjusting all those tight tollerences.

Both the escapement and the rocker plate were so badly weathered that it was causing the machine to become sluggish and sticky.  They cleaned up well despite needing new springs.  The rod that is attached the the rear margin stop is the line lock actuator.  This pulls a small linkage to the right of the escapement that blocks off the type bars when you reach the end of the line.  The blocking lever line locks are not as reliable in my findings, and tend to give the occasional issue when typing at high speeds.  I much prefer the entire keyboard lockout that royal standards tend to use, much more reliable, though the similar mechanism on the Underwood's are prone to sticking.  

The margin stop on the corona is only held in with two screws, and those are accessible from the bottom of the machine, there are two holes in the base of the frame that allow you to fit a slotted screwdriver into.  If you ever wanted to remove the carriage on one of these machines, this mechanism must come out in addition to the front ribbon and guide system which bolts on to the underside of the bottom rail assembly.  Not worth removing the carriage on these machines.

  Despite all of the initial metal finish damage, the machine actually came out quite clean.  I would go so far as to say it looked fantastic.  All the internals got a nice wash down with mineral sprits, which where then hand dried and wiped clean with a rag in any area I could reach.

Blogger is not a fan of me dragging images around, so before my computer crashes and I lose everything I was working on, I am just going to leave those three as they are.  It is...artistic.  Anyway, the knobs also got a nice shine on their exposed metal bits.  Something that is difficult and nearly never done for these machines.  The left knob collar that also contains the central platen clutch shaft is always weathered.  The factory never polished the surface since it was never going to be visible.  I went that extra step for completionist's sake.  The front line scale also got an overhaul.  I took a pin and scraped out all the crappy old lacquer and replaced it with brand new fresh white lacquer and then gave the entire part a good polish.

Widescreen, look at that, like a movie!

Then it was finally time to reassemble the entire machine.  It also got a new set of feeders, and a brand new rubber platen, courtesy of JJ Short.  It took a fair bit of time to reinstall all of those tiny mechanisms, screws, and springs, but after everything was said and done, there were no major problems.  The last request the client had was for me to resolder some of the type slugs that were not printing in line with the others.  This is not something that is easy to do without a type solder jig.  Corona quality varies wildly from era to era, and machine to machine, This one was no acception, as if Children didn't quite deserve a nice aligned typewriter.  Resoldering can sometimes harm the machine, especially since the more you do it, the less solder that exists.  For any major jobs, I would prefer to construct and use a jig, then clear out all solder from the type slugs and replace it with fresh solder.  For this project, where only around ten keys needed to be adjusted and they were already installed, it was the bet bet just to do it on the machine.  Freehand soldering is not easy, especailly when your fingers are burning and you need to hold the slug still as it cools to prevent it from moving a fraction of a millimeter.  Eventually I got the text decently evened out, and the machine very well working.

Below I will post some photos of the fruits of my labor, and hopefully a video in the coming week or two.  For now, enjoy the machine and it's beautifully unique keyboard.  This was a labor intense project, but every once in a while, a very deserving machine pops up and you just spare nothing.

gotta love those elephants 

notice how they all interact with the letters.  Quality printing there.

If you like what I do, visit my website!  www.lucasdul.com/typewriters

AND a video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cuau_FMe_qA