A friend of mine scored an Olympia stash the other day. He picked up four machines with different type faces. I am particularly envious of his gray SM3, which has a long carriage and is in excellent condition. This SM4, on the other hand, is jamming in the middle of the carriage. I luckily have a sibling machine for comparison, albeit the diagnosis was simple enough.
Something was wrong with the tab teeth. It was time to open it up.
Alas, this machine needs some dental work.
It appears that someone jammed a hockey stick into its grill. It looks like I can bend some of into place, but this stuff is like hard tinfoil. If I could get it back into place, it would likely dislodge at some point. My thought is that I should remove the bent section, along with three teeth, and get this player back onto the ice. The tab settings would not work at the center of the carriage, but the carriage would move smoothly again. As they say in hockey, it’s time to put on the foil–except, in this case, I think the foil has got to go.
The Untimely Typewriter:Daily Writings Against the Tides of Distraction 
I’d remove the damaged parts. There is always the chance of finding a parts machine in the future and swapping the tab rack. For the few times it may be desired to have a tab stop in the middle, the closest could be used and the spaces counted for repeating the location. A little unhandy, but not prohibitive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Bill. That sounds like a good plan. Speaking for myself, I rarely use tab features on typewriters. Manually spacing is easy enough.
LikeLike
Agree, pull the teeth and hope for a future donor machine while you amaze yourself with how little you actually use a tabulator. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
also, don’t restrict yourself to SM4’s for donor parts. An SM7 will also have that same rack.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Ted. By the way, what do you use to clean the type bar joints? My own SM4 requires repeated cleanings, even after applying mineral spirits. (Not sure you’ll see this post.)
LikeLike
If that’s the case, I may have a rack from an SM7. I have no idea what the pitch is though, elite or pica.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am so unaccustomed to thinking about the tabulator that I never realized the spacing on the rack must different. I’ll just sever the piece. He can alway try to replace the rack later. Also, the rack is so fragile that it might not survive shipment. Thanks anyway, Bill. Now if you ever have an extra Kolibri mainspring coil on hand . . .
LikeLike
Perfect is the enemy of good enough. I look forward to some blog posts with this dude.
LikeLiked by 1 person