From my experiences in an unrelated trade from a previous life, I can relate to you, Tom. You only have to go the extra mile once for the wrong customer to realize that it's simply not worth it. This type of customer only reached out for my help as part of a last measure act of desperation when their money-saving, shade tree efforts made things worse. On top of that, they still expected it to be an easy (read: inexpensive) repair when it often required a lot of time just undoing their work before I could unravel what the original problem was. And for me there was the real issue of future liability: this may not apply to typewriters as such, but there was always the possibility of being held accountable for any problems that arose after the repair even though it was not something I hadn't worked on.

To each his own. In my area there are a few guys running around pretending to be typewriter techs but who have not had any formal training whatsoever. And I doubt they even have the proper tools. The one surviving, factory-trained tech that I do know doesn't get enough work to keep his storefront open on a regular basis - and his potential customer base is the fourth-largest city in North America.

This will give you an idea of what he has to deal with: The last time I visited him a person came in the shop with an old Remington standard, which the person claimed was a family heirloom that had belonged to his grandfather. He admitted that the typewriter had been stored in a musty basement, and it was obviously filthy.

The Remington owner wanted it cleaned and checked over. The tech immediately pointed out a couple of broken parts and said he had a machine in the back he could scavenge the needed parts from. He offered to clean the typewriter and replace those parts for $75 CAD. My jaw dropped. I wouldn't have considered taking the job on for twice that amount, never mind the parts.

The result? The guy with the precious heirloom actually hummed and hawed about the modest cost - and then reluctantly agreed.

I've been asked by a few typewriter owners to repair their machines, but I always declined. I'll work on my own machines, and those of a friend who is also a collector, but that's it. In conversation with those people it often came out that they had paid very little for an online find (eBay, etc.), and only discovered once it had been delivered that it required repair. And they all balked at the notion that it would cost them several times more than what what they paid for the typewriter to get it fixed.

Their solution - and I don't really disagree - was to sell it as parts and just buy another cheap typewriter in the hope that it actually worked - which I think most do.

To respond, to the last question, it has an unconventional right stop, but I was under the impression that the line lock (the part that stops you from stacking letters) is the only thing preventing you from typing further right, rather than the physical margin itself.  I haven't examined deep enough to come to a conclusion beyond that, so apologies if that's not just how it is.

Aside from that, I understand the qualms about working for people who butcher machines (for lack of a better word). Back when I was starting out, and not comfortable with prices, I was doing full restorations and teardowns with hundreds of individual parts trying to earn about $100. I was only paid $40.  This went on for about a year until I decided I had had enough.  25-40 dollars for 16-20 hours of work didn't feel fair.  As a result, I make sure all my clients sign on to a payment contract, and I make sure to take the time to work on a machine for a bit to get an accurate quote.  Often times they'll agree, even if they're not happy about it.  I have yet to have a customer turn down work.  At the end of the day, as long as I am being paid fairly for my work, I'll do it.  Even if I have to piece back together a machine someone else has dismantled.  They know the cost will be higher than the value, but are usually alright with it. I guarantee all my machines for 90 days and have only had to bring two machines back in.  One for a broken part, and one for a different ribbon.  No, as techs we are not "responsible" in a sense for setting right other people's mistakes.  But I feel like it is in part my job to do my best to keep these machines working.  I have had a lot of experience getting screwed, so I take care to ensure that both parties are being well informed and compensated.

Greetings All

With having followed this thread as it morphed from a technical question to a conversation about skills, knowledge and ethics, I feel that I should just add my 2¢ worth here.

By trade I am a journeyman heavy duty mechanic and have since gone independent as a small engine specialist. In order to get my journeyman certificate, I did a 4 year apprenticeship with 8 months in technical college and wrote numerous exams. I also attended many update schools as new products came on the market so my knowledge of these products would be current. After having gone independent, I attended several further update schools covering new products and EPA compliance on small engines. With a total of 37 years as a mechanic, I can rightfully call myself an expert in this field.

The Typewriterman did his apprenticeship as a typewriter mechanic/technician/engineer and has been repairing typewriters for longer than I have been a mechanic and is beyond a doubt an expert in his field. There are times when both of us will receive a machine in our shop or on our bench that literally isn't worth the time and effort to get it back into top notch operable condition.

The COVID pandemic really brought this to light in the last couple of years. With the lockdowns, John Q. Public found themselves with time on their hands and decided to put in a garden or whatever. When a gasoline powered piece of equipment has been sitting in the garden shed for who knows how long, it won't start. Those who were able to get their machines going again, I never hear about, as Tom says, those were the successful amateur repairs.

Then I get the customer who brings in their machine in a box of parts figuring I'll put it back together and get it running for next to nothing as I work from home. They seem quite offended when I tell them that I'll need 2 hours shop labor charge paid in cash up front before I'll even look at the unit. I also run into the same situation as Tom when someone buys a chainsaw from Kijiji/Craigslist/local buy-n-sell for $40.00 and expects me to make it as new for less than they paid for the machine.

As for servicing and repairing typewriters, I would call myself an enthusiast, but by no means an expert which is why I frequently ask questions on this forum. Yes, I also answer questions on this forum based on the knowledge I have acquired over the past 12 years since getting interested in these machines and frequently refer technical questions to Tom the Typewriterman.

Therefore, feel free to call yourself a hobbyist, an amateur or an enthusiast, but don't try to claim the title of expert or specialist unless you have undergone official training in your field. How about we make ourselves a fresh cup of tea or coffee and type a letter to a friend or family member. All the best,

Sky

I created an account to add to this, since I was also having issues with my line lock.

These past 2 weeks my SG3's platen and rollers have been on an adventure to the J.J. Short's factory for a refresh, so since I can't use it anyway, it seemed like a good opportunity to take the back of the carriage off and get to the bottom of this whole mystery.

Short answer is: in my opinion, it seems like the SG3 (or at least my 1968 SG3 L model) is designed to have a key stop and maybe a space stop, but also seems like it was probably designed so that the operator could "nudge" the carriage forward past the right margin with their hand, or pass the right margin with the tab key.  I'm not saying it was definitely designed this way since I'm just a hobbyist making observations about my own machine and no kind of authority on the matter, but will make my case for it below anyway, and include pictures so you can draw your own conclusions.

First off, here's the piece of metal that makes up the margin stop.  It sits at the center of the carriage and is pulled backwards by the margin release key to disengage. Pulling it backwards also engages the key de-jammer, which in the SG3 is the same mechanism as the key stop.

Notice that this margin stop is flat on the left side (which would face the left margin) and tapered on the right:


Quickly looking at the left margin shows that it has a flat tab stop that meets with the flat side of the piece of metal, so it's a hard stop like we'd expect to see in 99.9% of typewriters:


The right margin is different. It does not have a flat tab stop, but instead has a tapered piece of metal with another tapered bump-out on the far right edge (the picture below is a top down view from the back so the bump is on the left but you get the idea.):


Taking a closer look at the pic above, the mechanism closer to the right margin is the bell mechanism. You can see that as the finger passes over the bump-out on the margin stop, it will get pulled back by the spring and engage the bell.

Next to it (on the right in the image, but remember the image is top-down from the back) is that metal piece that makes up the margin stop. You can see pretty clearly that the right margin and the metal tab are all adjustable with set screws.

Here's a pic that shows the tapered edge of the margin stop a little bit better:



So essentially, as the tapered edge of the margin stop pushes into the tapered bump-out on the right margin, it forces it to push downward and that engages the key stop, which (again) in the in the SG3 is the same mechanism as if you're permanently holding down the margin release key and engaging the key de-jammer. If you adjust it exactly correctly, the bump also serves as a soft stop which is just enough to keep the space bar from advancing the carriage on its own, but I've only been able to accomplish this with everything, including the carriage mainspring, adjusted permanently.

Unfortunately (or maybe by design, who knows), that bump-out on the right margin isn't strong enough to keep somebody from just pushing the carriage past it with their hands, and using the tab key blows right by the right margin too. If I try to put that bump-out any farther down it gets caught on the bell mechanism and won't advance, and if I try to adjust the center tab stop any farther up it gets caught on the left margin. I could potentially try bending the bell mechanism to get around this, but doubt that's right.

That's about all I have. In my opinion, it looks like this was all done by design to allow the operator to push the carriage past the margin. I don't see why they would've designed it this way if they intended for there to be a hard stop. But I provided my pics, and you're open to draw your own conclusions.

This is the way my SG-1 and SG-3 are. All the right margin does is engage a line lock. You can space, tab, or use the carriage release to blow right past it. It takes a little getting used to, but the SGs are so nice that I don't mind this little quirk.