Hi,

I just bought a Silver Seiko Silverette from eBay.  The lady who sold it said it was for spares or repair because "the hammers stop 1 mm before the paper.


When I tried it, it worked great, and I was chuffed. Therefore, I assumed (wrongly) she was pressing the keys like a keyboard for a computer and not hitting them as you should for a typewriter.   However, as I relaxed I noticed that the impression was getting fainter and I assume it was the ribbon.  Then I started looking inside the machine.  

Heres my problem: The type bars are hitting the anvil too early in the centre of the segment, so  letters H, G and most 3/4 of the basket are hitting the anvil so early, that in order to get a decent print you have to hit the keys quite hard to get them to swing into the platen.  I know there is a carefully designed setup where it hits the anvil first them the platen, but somethings out on mine.

Conversely, the type bars for the outer letters, like Q and P are hitting the rubber platen first and making holes in the paper.  

I tried on my other typewriters lifting the type bars by hand too see if I could see any gap between the slug and the platen and I could get it to print lightly. I could.  With the Seiko, theres clearly a fairly big gap, I would say getting on for 1.5 mm, but less so on the Q's and P's and you can see the difference in the anvil gap.

I took the anvil out (which has the fork on it too) and typed and everything typed beautifully, although I know you need the fork because it helps direct the slugs so they are straight each time.  But, it it did show thats where the problem is.

I'm hoping either the segment can me moved forward (or back) or the carriage to compensate for the problem.  I have no idea why the type basket is being affected in different places. Wear possibly?

When you type q's and p's, it sounds like a normal typewriter (albeit the platen is very hard),  but its a proper clack clack, when you hit the H and G and other keys, it sounds duller (flat metal on flat metal) so you can really hear the difference in the segment.

The machine seems to be in quite good condition although theres lots of fluff and I haven't cleaned it yet. But I doubt a clean would sort this out.

Any thoughts please?

Does anyone own a Silver Seiko or know of any way of adjusting / repairing?

A temporary fix would be to make a anvil and fork of a thinner material but that surely isn't the fix.

Cheers all

Richard