https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1xg0t6t/tim_dalys_typewriter_on_the_newlyweds/

Reply to u/arightler at tk

As one of the few here who may be typing on a regular basis on index cards, I'd generally recommend standard typewriters (which have larger diameter platens and thus handle thicker cardstock better) which also have either card fingers or Perspex card guides. These latter will help hold the card to the platen for a better imprint and make the process much quieter. Any of the Royal standards (all of which have card fingers) here would be great (KHM, KMM, KMG, HH, FP, etc.) or the Olympia SG1 which has Perspex guides.

You can get away with portables, but they're not as great for regular card work (smaller diameter platens). I might recommend one of the Smith-Corona Series 4 or 5 machines as long as they've got adjustable card fingers. (In the late 50's typically only the Silent-Super model had card fingers, but earlier models often had them as well.) Most of the Olympia SM series (2-9) will do relatively well as they all have Perspex card guides.

Ultra-portables, with their miniscule platens and barely extant/broadly useless paper bails, will be the worst possible option. Most don't have fingers or card guides at all. I highly recommend against them for this work. If you insist on using one for it, DON'T every try anything else as you'll discover how bad these are for this work and it will utterly ruin you.

Grippy platens and paper bail rollers with nice tension along with card fingers/Perspex are usually required for being able to type all the way to the bottom of a card or label cleanly.

For quickly doing labels or small cards, some of the advanced typing techniques in this video will help: https://youtu.be/JUJfCfqgsX0?si=li5bPyn8NdAr2F69&t=1649

Create a small zig-zag fold into a piece of paper to create a pocket slot which can be Scotch taped on either side. This template paper can then be inserted so that the pocket is visible above the writing line, but the paper below it is still in the platen. The label or card can be placed into the pocket and the platen reversed to feed the label or card in backwards to the desired typing line. Using a v-groove or hole in the typing line can create a pencil line to serve as a guide for inserting many labels at the same place so that the typing lines up between labels.

Some offices had special platens for holding cards like this.

Pockets like this can also be used to hold the page to add additional lines at the bottom of pages. Deeper pockets may need to be used for doing this with carbon packs whose carbons are longer than the pages.

Alternately one can do something similar by creating a inverted u-shaped set of slits into an index card to hold such labels.

My usual typewriter recommendations and some information on the market:

• On Purchasing Typewriters: Condition is King; Context is Queen 
• First Time Typewriter Purchases with Specific Recommendations for Writers

https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/x3ixaz/smith_corona_clipper_custom_paint_job/

Getting Gabriel García Márquez's Smith-Corona 5TE Ready For Exhibit<br /> by [[Richard Messenger]] on oz.Typewriter<br /> accessed on 2026-09-19T12:30:13

Includes multiple photos. The Smith-Corona 5TE isn't listed on Richard Polt's site as of 2026-09-19.

via nickila_typewriter at https://www.instagram.com/p/Db9wFQ2G8eW/

Smith-Corona machines with an @/1 key on the home row can be indicative of a machine with vertical script.

https://clickamericana.com/topics/science-technology/vintage-portable-manual-typewriters

The Smith-Coronas were offered in 4 different colors.

The Remington Quiet-Riter was eventually offered in white sand, desert sage, mist green, and French gray,

The Royal HH was offered in 6 colors including green, pink, and blue. Brown was the most ubiquitous.

Tom Hanks' quote about the Series 5 Smith-Corona typewriters https://youtu.be/AWfgpL1X_oE?si=-dA9HOQYXWv1w8wZ&t=5810

via https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1ucvk38/i_pulled_my_old_smith_corona_put_of_the_attic/ <br /> u/pete1885 reports good success with o-rings from McMaster-Carr

Specs: 9452K191 3 3/4 ID; 4" OD; 70A durometer; black

Serial Number<br /> Each typewriter carries its own serial number. Lift the cover plate, and looking at the machine from the right side, you will note the serial number stamped directly behind the touch Selector on the left side of the machine. Record this number for use in ordering supplies and accessories or as identification in case of theft.

Hunter S.Thompson's Smith-Corona Series 5 Portable Typewriter<br /> by [[Robert Messenger]] oz.Typewriter <br /> accessed on 2026-05-03T11:59:08

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=3565042706976081&set=pcb.1249358224049616

Signed card and headshot of Natalie wood in front of a blue series 5 Smith-Corona Silent-Super.

So THAT"S what's wrong with it! I knew it!!<br /> by [[Will Davis]] of Davis Typewriter Works <br /> accessed on 2026-03-26T21:08:50

[Repo Men (2010) - Death by Typewriter Scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnq1Q0JMfS8

https://www.facebook.com/groups/705152958470148/posts/1219057343746371/

Tom Hansen has delineated the differences in some of the Smith-Corona 5 series typewriters from the 1950s.

https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1khchin/apothecary_typewriter_whats_that_%C4%81/

Smith Corona Vintage Typewriter 5 Series Draw Band Install Mainspring Connection Wind Tighten by [[Phoenix Typewriter]]

Smith-Corona 5 series drawband and mainstring attachment and tightening.

Smith Corona Manual Vintage Typewriter Main Spring Removal Flush and Re-Lube Draw Band Attached by [[Phoenix Typewriter]]

Duane puts a few drops of red oil on the mainspring of typewriters as a lubricant before blowing it out to thin it down.

Here he demonstrates how to re-tension the mainspring of a Smith-Corona typewriter.

reply to question about tension control at https://reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1orxtvt/strange_lever/

Joe Van Cleave has a great video on this with respect to the Smith-Corona 5 series that will give one an idea on the entirety of adjustment points that are at play in some typewriters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYOXgqiHBmg

Personally, I've yet to run across a vintage Series 5 machine whose user-facing control lever was adjusted in a way such that it did anything at all because the linkages were so far out of whack. I suspect this may be the case on a lot of vintage machines.

On some machines the adjustment isn't controlling the amount of finger force one must apply, but it's controlling springs relating more to the return of the typebars and the slugs so that touch typers can type much faster without having issues with typebar return jamming things up.

Further, on many machines the dynamic range of forces involved is so narrow that most hobbyist and occasional typists aren't going to really notice a significant difference. This may be different for those who are more experienced and used to typing on a manual machine for several hours a day.

https://mrmrsvintagetypewriters.com/en-us/products/chrome-plated-smith-corona-typewriter-part-of-david-rain-collection-tom-arden

The Smith Corona Five Series (why i love them!) - YouTube<br /> by [[Just My Typewriter]]<br /> accessed on 2025-08-25T10:35:08

https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1jc2hj5/what_does_the_x_mean_at_end_of_sc_serial_number/

Reply to Joe Van Cleave at https://typewriterdatabase.com/show.21270.typewriter

It's probably a subtle difference, but is this machine provide the standard 6 lines per vertical inch or due to the taller ascenders/descenders is it a 4 lines per vertical inch machine?

If you need a "name" for this machine, I might suggest "Satchmo". In doing some research on Louis Armstrong's 5 series Smith Corona, I'm pretty sure his 5 series also had this same vertical script. None of the features on any of the photos I could find of his machine are subtle enough to distinguish which particular model of Smith-Corona he was using. If we find a good direct photo of the machine itself, I'm sure I could puzzle out which version he used. By 1955 he had at least one machine with a script face (see: https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/virtual-exhibits/my-fifty-fifth-birthday-celebration-happy-birthday-louis-armstrong/). It doesn't appear to be Smith-Corona's common Script (Artistic) No. 75 , but more like Script No. 46. Based on a version of this photo (https://www.usatoday.com/gcdn/presto/2019/07/15/USAT/d815dddc-c0b8-4c54-b9b5-719886d4a0cc-02_Armstrong_Louis_16.jpg?width=1292&height=1320&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp) it would seem that it's the Smith-Corona that was the script machine (as opposed to his earlier Remington).

According to Ted Munk's post on the S-C Vertical script: "Smith Corona is offering the [vertical] typeface as 'Script No. 46', 10 Pitch by 1954."

Joe's video of his 1952 Smith-Corona this with the same vertical script https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH6mwmoN_LI

See also: https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1mo4wbg/what_typewriter/

Somewhat interesting that Louis Armstrong played cornet, wrote on a Smith-Corona, and lived in the Corona neighborhood of Queens, NY.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW_KWF7wcfs

https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1hk0ebb/smithcorona_escapement_noise/

http://brianrytel.com/smith-corona-typewriter-series-feature-comparison/

https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1kyryww/a_cautionary_tale/

https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1l15xt2/1951_smith_corona_sterling_recovered_case/

https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1l11y1d/not_for_the_purists/

PB B'laster apparently doesn't destroy the plastic keys of a Smith-Corona 5 series.

Simple Green will peel the paint off of a typewriter in a few days.

Smith Corona Manual Typewriter Shift Lock Adjustment Latch Repair Upper Case Letters by [[Phoenix Typewriter]]

Smith Corona Vintage Typewriter Margin Rack Alignment Stop Adjustment by [[Phoenix Typewriter]]

If the "Hanks Effect" was really so prominent, then we should see the commensurate rise in price of 5 Series Smith Coronas and particularly the Clipper and the Silent which he's also mentioned several times. In fact, he's said these would be the typewriter he'd keep if he had to get rid of all others. Given this fact, it has to be, in part, a variety of other factors which inflates the prices.

Personally I think that it's a combination of the fact that they were manufactured at the peak of typewriter use and manufacturing and before companies began using more plastic and cheaper manufacturing methods, but were also done in a later timeperiod when exterior design and color were on the rise as a differentiator in the marketplace. Quality, form, and function become part of a trifecta which drive desire and collectability.

Smith Corona Typewriters 1935 - 1980 Type Alignment / Shift Motion Upper Lower Case Adjustment by [[Phoenix Typewriter]]

Duane starts out by showing the two adjustment screws for the upper and lower case motion adjustment on a 5 Series Smith-Corona portable. (This should be the same across several decades of machines and include the 4 and 6 series as well.)

Smith Corona Typewriter Main Spring Rewound Repaired Replaced by [[Phoenix Typewriter]]

Smith-Corona Series 5 and 6 typewriters had a small piece of rubber around a portion of the escapement which can wear out or become damaged. This in turn causes the escapement to not work properly and cause the dogs to get jammed resulting in large movements of the carriage while typing or spacing.

Joe Van Cleave calls it the "return silencer" and replaced his by tracing out the damaged piece on a sheet of 1/32" rubber and cutting it out as a replacement.

Duane at Phoenix typewriter describes replacing it with rubber tubing (possibly something like heat shrink?) instead. See: https://hypothes.is/a/tG4BWk77Ee-jczsjoM8SzA

Royal QDL or Smith Corona 5 series? by [[JustMyTypewriter]]

Comparison of 1950s Royals and Smith-Coronas

Smith-Corona 5-Series Touch Adjustment by [[Joe Van Cleave]]

Replace the carriage string in your 1950’s Smith-Corona Silent by [[Theodore Munk]]

Smith Corona 5 Series Typewriter Keyboard Adjustment for Lighter Touch Silent Super by [[Phoenix Typewriter]]