1 of 1- nastyhobbit
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- From: Philippines
- Registered: 17-2-2017
- Posts: 4
Swissa Junior ribbon vibrator problem
Hi everyone. I hope some of you might be able to help me with this. I'll try to describe my problem as accurately as possible.
I bought a Swissa Junior (ca. 1963) and it works, but the ribbon vibrator was too high (blocking the text I was writing) and the vibrator came off when I typed uppercase letters. So after repeated tries of putting it back in, it is now stuck and won't rise at all when I type uppercase letters. It can type lowercase letters though.
After much searching online (which I should have done in the first place), I figured out that the knob at the bottom of the vibrator had become loose (it was supposed to go inside some kind of hole at the back that's connected to the ribbon color selector), that's why it jumped off when I wrote uppercase letters. Prying it back into that hole would have solved my initial problem. The knob is now back in the hole, but the prong-like things at the bottom of the vibrator are stuck down somewhere, so the ribbon vibrator only comes up halfway. I can't get it unstuck no matter how hard I try to pull it up.
I'm thinking of removing the carriage so that I could see clearly where it's stuck and hopefully get it unstuck. The typewriter came with its original user's manual but there's nothing in the manual about removing the carriage. Have any of you had this problem before? If so, how did you solve it? Any ideas on how to get the ribbon vibrator unstuck on a Swissa Junior? Any help would be appreciated.
P.S. There's also a short, small, black rubber tube (6 mm long, 7 mm diameter) that was loose when I took out the typewriter from its case, and I don't know where it's supposed to go.
- KatLondon
- Key Master
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- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Swissa Junior ribbon vibrator problem
Hi there. this sounds ominously like the problem with the vibrator on my Piccola when I first got it. I don;t know how it gets fixed because I ended up taking it to the repair man. I will say this: don't take the carriage off! One thing you can do is shift lock, to create a space under the carriage through which you can peer into the workings with the torch of flashlight app on your phone, for example... maybe you can see what needs to go where. For getting into these kinds of tiny spaces, if something needs putting back, I've found that a pair of thin tweezers or a very thin crochet hook often works...
And thanks to the inspiration of you getting a Swissa Junior, I actually did some idle searching today and FOUND one! Techno typeface. I have to save up for it, though; but the seller has said he will keep it for me. It's madness, I'm broke. But very excited.
Keep us posted on yours, I really hope it practically fixes itself.
- nastyhobbit
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- Registered: 17-2-2017
- Posts: 4
Re: Swissa Junior ribbon vibrator problem
Hi, KatLondon, thanks for your reply!
No, I didn't remove the carriage because I couldn't figure out which screws to loosen. Of course I could loosen them all but I would have ended up not knowing how to put them all back again. So what I thought was, if I couldn't remove what's behind the vibrator (the carriage), why not remove what's in front (the segment) to see where the vibrator's stuck in? Eureka! The vibrator's prong-like bottom was stuck in between that small space between the segment and the frame. So when I put the screws back in, I made sure the vibrator was behind the frame, and not stuck between the segment and the frame anymore. And I also made sure the vibrator's knob was in the hole where it's supposed to go. Problem solved, I thought. Well, not quite.
So when I tested the typewriter, the vibrator was still blocking the text and not rising enough when I type uppercase. But worse, the vertical alignment is now off. The uppercase letters and lowercase letters aren't aligned; the lowercase letters are lower than the uppercase letters. And despite a fresh ribbon installed, the bottom half of all the letters were faded, which means the typebars are hitting the platen too low. Sigh.
So now I'm trying to figure out how to adjust vertical alignment. I read Ted Munk's post about adjusting vertical alignment on carriage-shifted machines:
It seems I have to look for the vertical alignment adjustment screws. Since you have a similar machine, would you have any idea where these adjustment screws are?
Anyway, I'll have to check some more if it's not something else. I must have done *something* wrong, because it didn't have an alignment problem before. And I don't know if this is relevant to the problem but this machine's typeface is Plakatschrift (Bulletin), 10 cpi but much taller than the normal pica. So the ribbon color choices are blue-white-blue dots instead of the normal red-white-blue dots on the segment's right side.
Good luck on the techno Swissa Junior btw! Hope you get it. I can only speak for my Swissa Junior but its typing action is great! So snappy and feels so light. I'm curious if its other Euro cousins (Amaya, Oliver Courier, Japy Script etc) have the same typing "feel". Or if it's just a Swiss thing. ;)
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Thread Starter- Fleetwing
- Typewriter Talk Vet
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- From: Hartford, CT USA
- Registered: 30-6-2015
- Posts: 1,011
Re: Swissa Junior ribbon vibrator problem
nastyhobbit wrote:
P.S. There's also a short, small, black rubber tube (6 mm long, 7 mm diameter) that was loose when I took out the typewriter from its case, and I don't know where it's supposed to go.
Maybe a bumper for where the space bar hits the frame? Or is there some sort of metal piece attached to the case that's supposed to keep the typewriter from shifting around? Those would be my guesses.
- KatLondon
- Key Master
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- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Swissa Junior ribbon vibrator problem
Good question about the typing feel. I had a Japy Personelle for a bit and loved it, but I wouldn't say it had a GREAT touch. My Piccola is lovely but has been used so heavily that I think it's just a little bit knackered.
And I have no idea where the alignment screws are. I'll try and dig it out and have a look...
Your description of the touch on the Junior makes me think of my 1956 Halda - just such a light, sort of springlike little machine...
