1 of 1- Teipiadur
- New Member
Offline - Registered: 03-1-2015
- Posts: 14
Smith-Corona Sterling (1960) sticky Q
After months* of slow and careful cleaning, today I finally oiled my Smith-Corona Sterling. Everything is lovely and smooth, with a really nice action... except the Q. If I depress the Q just a little bit, it falls back perfectly, but engage it fully and it sticks.
Am I right in thinking that something, somewhere, might be just a little bit bent, perhaps? It's impossible to see where it's sticking, and because it moves perfectly freely when only slightly depressed and let go, but sticks when fully engaged, I have a sneaky suspicion that it's a wee bit out of kilter.
Any ideas for what to do next? I could probably live with it, as it's not a common letter, but this is my day-to-day machine until my Royal No. 10 is properly cleaned and in service. (Something I'm slightly too scared to do myself, I must say!)
* Ie, I kept getting distracted by other stuff...
- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Smith-Corona Sterling (1960) sticky Q
Assuming that the segment and all the keys associated linkages are perfectly clean, the easiest thing to do would be to lift the typebar slowly by hand and visually (and by feel) isolate where it's meeting resistance. Often in these situations the type head isn't perfectly aligned with the type guide and gets jammed within it. There are of course a number of other possible reasons why it's getting stuck, but using this method is a good start.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
