Made a little headway today. I blew out the whole works with my air compressor and rid the poor thing of decades of dust and dirt.

After that I spot-sprayed some solvent-based penetrating oil here-and-there to free up some sticky/seized parts and flush out a little grime. Also, I removed the remaining broken draw string and cleaned up the cylinder.

I think I figured out how to remove the carriage. I removed the front scale and afterwards it seemed to allow the carriage to slide out to the right. I stopped before taking it completely out because, well, frankly I got a little nervous thinking I was getting ahead of myself. I put it back together after cleaning the groove where the carriage trucks glide.

The marginal stops now move and the bell works again. Kinda neat to hear the little ‘ding’ when the carriage nears the end of the line. Of course without a return line connected I’m doing all this moving the carriage manually.

I’m hoping to get it separated into a couple pieces to make further cleaning a little easier. I still need to come up with a good replacement for the draw string.

Hi everyone, thanks for lettin' me in the group!

I am not a typewriter collector, or even an enthusiast, but merely someone who has a appreciation for older and obsolete stuff--mechanical or otherwise. I like to tinker with things and take an item that is unwanted and see if I can make it look good and functional once again. My primary medium is vintage Coleman gasoline appliances like lamps, lanterns and stoves. Also, flat-wick kerosene lanterns.

Many years back, my dad had an older Underwood typewriter. I remember it sitting on an end table in our foyer. The open and skeleton-like frame always alluded me. Fast forward to the present and that Underwood has long since moved on...

However, my wife and I have been looking for one similar to it to have in our home--mostly for display. Although, I really want to have one that is functional. I would love to fill in fields on a form with an old machine versus handwriting or filling out a .pdf!

So that brings me here--we have just acquired an Underwood model 6 11 (?) from a local church fundraiser/tag sale. It appears to be in what I would call "barn fresh" condition. I believe it is mostly complete, and with some TLC, will be pounding out documents as fast as I can hunt-and-peck at the keyboard.

I do have questions about cleaning it and making a couple seemingly minor repairs, but I will post those over in the tech section shortly. That's all for now, folks!