1 of 1- Olivettik
- Novice Typer
Offline - Registered: 01-4-2020
- Posts: 27
Help for three prong alignment pliers
Hi,
I'm looking for help to buy or build a three prong pliers used for type alignment.
The pliers that I look for is like this:
Can anyone tell me if this pliers still exists on the market?
Can you possibly give me some advice to modify a standard pliers so as to obtain a similar tool?
Thanks very much,
Regards
Luca
- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Help for three prong alignment pliers
Typebar maulers come in many different configurations and sizes. I own a number of different models and can only suggest that you continuously search eBay and your local online buy & sell for typewriter repair tools.
As for fabricating your own, it would have to depend on your level of expertise in metalworking.
I understand the need for such tools if this is something you have to do on a regular basis, but if you just have one machine with a few type bars that need adjustment, it would be far easier to carefully use a pair of easily obtained duckbill pliers. It's what I used before I began buying specific tools for the task.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Olivettik
- Novice Typer
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- Registered: 01-4-2020
- Posts: 27
Re: Help for three prong alignment pliers
Dear Uwe,
Thanks for your kind reply.
I was wondering if a tool like this could replace the original pliers.. being bolted, it can also be easily modify..
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Thread Starter- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Help for three prong alignment pliers
Are you trying to adjust the type bars while they're in the machine? If so, the size of the tool being used is of even greater importance. I couldn't see (the page you linked to was in Italian) any reference to the tool's dimensions. If it's too big it won't be of any help to you.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- skywatcher
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- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 712
Re: Help for three prong alignment pliers
Hi OlivettiK
A tube bender like the one in the link is simply too big and cumbersome to be of any practical use for the delicate work of adjusting a type bar. I can guarantee you the distance between the two anvils is greater than the length of a type bar. Also, the internal radius of the former and the anvils will not give any lateral stability to the type bar while modeling it even if you could get the tool into the type basket.
To give you an idea of size reference, take a look at these two pictures. The distance between the two anvils is only 38mm
and the width of the supporting groove is 1.5mm to 2.0mm.
Hope this gives you something to work with,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- Olivettik
- Novice Typer
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- Registered: 01-4-2020
- Posts: 27
Re: Help for three prong alignment pliers
Many thanks for your kind replies.
I have never personally performed an alignment procedure. I found some historical guides that explained how to give it, and I wanted to try it on my Linea 98, which has a relatively good writing, but some types are (very little) higher. I also have 8 other manual typewriters, which I would like to gently align.
I fear it will be very difficult to find that pliers on ebay. Maybe someone here on the forum has one more that he wants to sell?
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Thread Starter