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I recently received one but was dismayed to find that it skips often unless I'm very deliberate. Is this something a typewriter shop can fix?
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Usually a good cleaning and very light oiling does wonders. Sometimes an adjustment and occasionally a tired spring somewhere here or there, but mainly just cleaning and oiling is enough to raise a machine from the dead.
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I have to agree with TypewriterKing. Before you get into escapement adjusting, try cleaning and oiling (use gun or sewing machine oil). Skipping is usually caused by the escapement dogs getting stiff or sluggish due to drying out or gummy oil. I use a wooden fondue skewer with a drop of gun oil on the end, and a flashlight in my other hand, to get way down in there where the dogs live and place a drop or two wherever it looks like metal sliding on metal. And then you need to exercise the machine, typing a couple of pages a day for a week or two. You can also help sometimes by reducing the main spring tension (but you have to leave enough to pull the carriage all the way to the end of the line).
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Couldn't have said it better meself--get them dogs where they live.