I read an essay by a retired typewriter repairman who worked in London but then lived in Australia (which I only mention in case it might help you to find the web page, since I cannot now) about how they gave typewriters baths: it was mainly solvent, small part of lubricant. Yes it's quick and dirty but since these were professionals at least you cannot say it was disastrous. Disadvantage would be a very light coating of oil on everything, which might trap dust faster, advantage of course is cleaning and lubrication in one quick operation. And I think our friend capillary action might help by getting more oil in the contact points then on surrounding areas: as the stuff dried the tiny crevices would tend to suck in the remaining solvent.

Sorry I cannot locate original.

As to whether adding machines are like typewriters or unlike typewriters I'm sure arguments could be made either way, but there are definitely going to be many points of similarity, including intricate mechanisms with bars and levers and pivots and bearings, oh my. I am sure excess oil would be a poor idea, but I'm not sure NO oil is the answer: this unidentified retired typewriter repairman mentioned that once they forgot to add oil to the solvent and they soon got a call from one of their customers that now her typewriter squeaked. But I do not think such heroic lengths would be necessary if there were only a few sticky linkages which could be addressed individually.

Speaking of baths, do you know they used to give entire steam locomotives lye baths when they were in the shop? At least the undercarriage. Imagine how dirty those mechanisms got!

Hi Z

Sounds a bit like a project I want to get to later this year when things have warmed up. Way too cold to do any sort of typewriter or other mechanical servicing at the moment, low last night was -22ºC (-8ºF or 251ºK). The project I have is a 60 button Smith-Corona adding machine that doesn't add as all the mechanics inside are gummed up with dried oil. I have a 10 button Victor that I regularly use for tallying parts on work orders and when it's my turn to count the offering at church every 4th Sunday. All the best,

Sky

skywatcher wrote:

Sounds a bit like a project I want to get to later this year when things have warmed up. Way too cold to do any sort of typewriter or other mechanical servicing at the moment, low last night was -22ºC (-8ºF or 251ºK). The project I have is a 60 button Smith-Corona adding machine that doesn't add as all the mechanics inside are gummed up with dried oil. I have a 10 button Victor that I regularly use for tallying parts on work orders and when it's my turn to count the offering at church every 4th Sunday.

Laughing out loud, skywatcher - it reached 72ºF (+22ºC or 295K)  on Christmas Eve in NYC, and I gather in the Praries of Alberta, it did not!  NYC sees -8ºF from time to time but everybody is moaning about it nonstop and the newscasters fill up their blather quota: in your neck of the woods I imagine "a mite chilly" covers it. Kelvin is a nice touch.

I love that you put your Victor to work - to me the best pleasure you can take in an old machine is that it still performs its original function.

By the way, ztyper, I've since seen the solvent/oil trick for typewriters mention in an Underwood #3-5 repair manual, though at that time the recommended solve was gasoline. Why use mineral spirits when you can use something even more liable to flash fires! Real typewriter men use gasoline. 
 

Now here is a nice reasonable quantity of synthetic oil on Amazon US...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00COVG1C4?psc=1

That's only 1,059.99 USD for 55 gallons, free delivery! Before you dismiss this as naff, that comes to just over 1.20 USD for 4 oz. !  So you just have to get a supply of home brew bottles and could resell at a tidy profit. I would be surprised if that's not what the bottled-in-my-garage looking distributors were doing, except that you might count yourself lucky if you received this quality of product - at least it's synthetic :-/.
But sorry, beak - I believe free delivery of the 55 gallon drum is limited to the US. Perhaps when I syndicate my Super Ultra-slick Miracle Synthetic Typewriter Oil, I will ship internationally.