Crocodile typewriter: Oliver no.9

It is almost impossible to find Oliver typewriter here, on local Swedish market. They are, however, quite common in US. Being under the spell of this machine I wanted to try this famous Printype typeface which was a standard on Oliver 9 machines.

I bit the bullet and imported such machine from US. It is a nerve-wrecking experience: tracking the package’s way through Covid-cripled World, with frequent stops in airports and no update on progress for many days. Eventually, after 7 weeks I got the machine home.

It was working out of the box although a bit stiff and very dirty. It was dripping with oil which would soon atract all the dust and block the mechanism. Armed with experience of working on its older brother Oliver 5 I jumped into the job of cleaning and adjusting it.

The first thing to fix was pencil holder which got crashed, apparently when someone inverted the machine without first taking this delicate feature out of the way.

This is made of brass so, being over 100 years old, tends to be very brittle. I started very gently straightening it and it snapped instantly.

I could have silver-soldered it but I decided to glue it with steel epoxy instead.

Left overnight for proper curing.

Another thing which was entirely missing was a drawband clip. This smart little fixture enables removing the carriage assembly without untying the drawband - it simply snaps into a hook on machines’ base and jumps back into place when one returns the carriage. I borrowed the original from Oliver 5 as a template and decided to make a brass version of it.

Oliver 9 has wider catch hook - apparently an improvement over no.5 which adds stability - so I manufactured a bit wider clip to take advantage of this feature.

It is skinnier than the original but test-mounting and running the machine prove that it works equally well.

Next I focused on the carriage. There were some issues to be addressed there.

As on most Olivers the nickel-plating was mostly gone and some surface corrosion appeared in many spots. Paint job on the whole machine is heavily bubbled and resembles crocodile skin. I got this machine from California so I suspect that it was standing somewhere on the window sill as a decoration, gathering sunlight throughout all these years. Iron-casted body could get very hot so paint got damaged.

That does not concern me though, bigger problem is the platen.

The rubber is cracked and hard as wood. I intend to use this machine so this needs to be fixed.

To remove the platen from Oliver one needs to disassemble half of the carriage. Good opportunity to clean it and degrease everything.

To my joy almost all screws on the machine are in pristine shape - no butchered heads! There are only a few and one of them was carriage knob locking plunger. However I tried I could not remove it - it’s narrow head was half-stripped. I decided to drill it out.

Thuis is, of course, ANSI thread so I don’t have a substitute plunger. Anyhow, it had to be removed to take out the knob. It’s M4-ish size so I picked the proper drill, tapped the screw properly and hand-drilled the damn plunger.

It went surprisingly well, I still have threads in the opening so once I get the correct plunger I can replace the old one without re-tapping the hole.

After this obstacle was dodged the rest went smoothly.

I noticed straight away subtle differences in mechanical construction between this machine and the older Oliver 5. For example line spacing shif mechanism has a spring built in - I shifted that carefully to keep it installed and not to break it.

In a few moments the whole assembly was in parts, dismantled enough for proper cleaning.

White spirit with engine oil - typewriter soup - worked perfectly cleaning all crud. Thin layer of oil - almost not visible - which is left after naphtha evaporates will protect exposed steel from rust.

Eroded nickel plating on many parts needs to be removed or polished.

Some elbow grease and abrasive pads do the job neatly.

Paper fingers - parts which I call machine’s jewellery - needed some attention, too.

These are a little mystery to me since all Oliver 9s I saw have these fingers shaped the same as on Oliver 5 while these are just plain straight.
Old nicker peeled off and the rest was buffed to shine on the first one.

Then came the platen. It was worn and cracked in many spots - a candidate for recoating for sure.

I sanded it, to remove oxidised rubber and hopefully some surface cracks.

A bit better but why not sleeve it into a bicycle tube? This will make it possibly too soft but it is easy to remove the tube in case it becomes a problem.

It was a tight fit but after cutting all to size and sanding the platen looks much better.

I reassembled all parts and lubricated these few spots which need oiling.

Very little oil is needed for typewriter to function properly. All excess should be wiped clean, to keep dust and dirt from sticking to parts.

Next came the main body. I removed the carriage assembly - the procedure is similar to Oliver 5 so that went easy but it was interesting to note differences in construction at this stage, too.

Pivoting points for Caps and Fig positions are moved down into the body, unlike in Oliver 5 where they reside on both towers. That may be the main reason that Oliver 9 is so much smoother in operation.

Cleaned assembly dries in the evening sun.

This machine is able to type in 2 colours - simple spring-loaded screw holds ribbon holder which has a grove to slide forward or back, thus offering different parts of the ribbon to type slugs hitting it. After bathing it in degreasing solution the mechanism started to work smoothly.

Next came the main body with the remaining mechanism.

Cleaning the internals from the remaining oil and dust took some time and patience but the effect is worth it.

Paintwork is really in bad shape. I considered stripping it entirely and keeping the machine in bare-metal version but in the end I decided to buff it a bit with Fulgentin and see if that can do the trick. Parts covered with patent plates show how nice the enamel was when the machine was new.

I started to put things back together.

I inspected the main spring - it is still in good shape, probably due to lacking knurled screw like in Oliver 5 which enabled easy tensioning of this spring. Folks tend to mess with that too much and often these springs just break prematurely. Oliver 9s have this possibility removed.

“Jewellery” screwed back onto the body.

Breaking mechanism for tabulator - one which slows down the main spring so that the carriage does not move too rapidly - is changed compared to Oliver 5. On Oliver 9 it was moved into the body and only short rod is sticking directly under the main spring, pressing against wide, steel spring which slows down the main spring cylinder. On my machine it needed adjustment - it was protruding too far up and was stalling the movement.

The easiest way to adjust it is to remove it from the machine and shift the blocking collar a tiny bit lower.

It is an iterative process as very minute adjustments result in drastic changes but after a few attempts I got it nailed down.

This machine had rubber feet in pretty good shape - they were present and mostly intact but the rubber, of course, was rock-hard. I manufactured new feet from fresh rubber.

I found that the quickest and easiest way to clean the key tops is to dope them in Ajax. Dirt, nicotine and oil just slide away in a few minutes. One just needs to make sure to not leave them for too long - after several hours the keys - especially black ones - became soft on the surface. They solidify after washing in fresh water anyway but better safe than sorry. Half an hour of soaking in Ajax is enough to clean everything.

Machine starts to look proper again.

I was lucky to get the machine with original spool covers. To have them covering the ribbon spools one needs to use Oliver spools, standard spools will be too high for the covers to fit. I have not yet manufactured Oliver-type spools so to keep going I fixed Oliver-lookalike spools from bits and pieces of generic spools.

It worked pretty well.

With all back in place I could perform firs type test.

This font is stunning! It appears that the platen covered with bicycle innertube works pretty well in this machine. Type slugs are not punching through the paper although they do leave deep imprint which makes double-sided writing rather impossible.

I noticed that capital letters are not synchronised with small letters. It is easily adjusted on the back of the machine.

Now all looks good!

I happily banged nonsense, just to fill the page with this beautiful typeface. In comparison to standard font, as on Oliver 5, the Printype font is much more pleasing to the eye.

The machine is ready for service!

I rolled in a sheet of fine paper and typed a letter. What a joy to type!

I hauled out my Oliver 5 to shoot some comparison pictures of both machines.

One can swap the carriages between machines - they differ in some details but are fully compatible.

Oliver 5 without the carriage. Tab breaking mechanism is visible on the left, running on the body surface.

Oliver 9 has it hidden in its guts.

Bottom view reveals some more differences. Manual ribbon reverse mechanism is simplified in Oliver 9.

Good dose of mechanical porn, ain’it?

That was fun and rewarding work. For now I’ll keep both machines but should I ever consider parting with one of them it would be Oliver 9 which will stay with me.