Bummer indeed. Seems like sellers should be required to stick to the results of the auction. 

Great stuff, though I prefer fully mechanical rather than motor driven machines myself — there is less to go wrong with them, and they are certain to outlive the electrical devices.

A small point relating to servicing these pinwheel calculating machines:

As with typewriter segments, oil introduced into the pinwheels is a distinctly bad idea. Pivots, sliders, and such were, of course, meant to be greased, but the pinwheels which are the real business end of the devices are meant to be kept dry. What this means is effectively that the machines should be lubricated sparingly. Short of complete disassembly, there is no way to do this comprehensively, so servicing such machines for most of us will be a compromise with what is actually possible to do within our lights.

This site has some excellent resources should the mechanically-inclined wish to delve deeper: https://www.jaapsch.net/mechcalc/index.htm . Be warned that the operations are said sometimes to take a couple of weeks rather than hours!

 

Beachycove,

Great referral sites...thanks !

Well...lucky me...another Tower electro-mechanical machine was in-the-cards for me.

This one at our local St. Vincente De Paul Society thrift shop.  With sales tax, it ran a whopping $ 12.49 total.

After a good cleaning and polishing up, case looks brand new.  Zipper condition is perfect.

And the machine just needed a deep clean, bit of grease here and there, and a new 5/16" wide black ribbon I got from Ribbons Unlimited.  This one only print out in one colour.

For a light weight machine, it still has all metal parts where it matters most.

Removable top cowling had a 4" long crack, which I stabilized from the underside with epoxy-glue and a small strip of plastic window screen fabric...embedded in the epoxy.
.
 

Hi Mike,

I think Sears, Roebuck & Co. used both Smith-Corona but also Underwood for their versions of the Twoer-branded typewriters.

I am almost certain my Tower adder and your Underwood adder are the same machine under the cowlings.

Here is an Underwood Tower manual typewriter, running on eBay right now.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313609942212?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A18GOshVsuQTaULhfUvc7nyQ9&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=313609942212&targetid=4580702891777577&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=418640321&mkgroupid=1233652283797640&rlsatarget=pla-4580702891777577&abcId=9300602&merchantid=51291&msclkid=e5e437188ee814e25a9c545245dcf2af