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Hi all,
Besides work, family, writing, and learning how to fix up various typewriters, I spent a better part of last summer searching for the "perfect" standard-sized "daily typer". I went through a plethora of machines like the SG3, a couple of Imperials and a few different Continental Standards, which were all nice machines, but each had some issue or other which would not let me justify using it over my portables. I almost gave up on standards (I promised to sort out my typewriter situation before the end of 2024), until I finally found the machine which felt right in almost every aspect. As the name of the thread reveals, that machine is the Underwood Touch-Master 5, aka the Underwood Five or "the last Underwood".
I had been aware of the machine's existence ever since seeing this one in the window of a local thrift store, but it was in a somewhat rough shape and missing the spools, plus the asking price was too high anyway.
Then, a few weeks ago, I saw one for sale online for a fair price (these are not that common in here), and the notice mentioned a willingness to send it by mail. Judging from the photos it looked to be in perfect condition. I could see it still had a ribbon, so I figured the spools were there as well.
After some questions, I agreed to buy the machine. It arrived in a couple of days, well-packed and intact. It was in a beautiful condition indeed, except for two things: The platen was smooth and hard (this was not a surprise), and the keys were absolutely frozen in place.
It came with some extras: A couple of unopened calculator-size Pelikan cotton ribbons, an empty Crusader-brand ribbon container, the original dust cover plus a smaller one for some Underwood calculator, old brushes, a box of erasers and a pad of typing paper.
It took me three rounds of cleaning with mineral spirits until I could free up all of the typebars and give the machine a proper test. It didn't take long to realize my long search was finally over: I absolutely loved the touch and the overall feel of the machine; this was finally a full-sized typewriter I could justify taking a permanent spot on my desk over any of my portables. I felt like the name "Touch-Master" was not a mere marketing ploy, but actually a deserved name for the machine. The sound wasn't offensively loud either, despite the hard platen, and the print quality was very good as well. I also love the ability to remove the panels and the platen without any tools.
I do like the way the machine looks as well; there is something charming, sympathetic and perhaps "underdog-like" about it to me, even though I do understand why many would think they just look ugly and boring. I would perhaps prefer Underwood's own logo on the front panel instead of the Olivetti-style one, but it's fine enough as it is.
I think my only complaint is that I wish the paper bail would sit a bit lower, closer to the writing line, as I feel like the gap between the two is a bit too wide when starting a fresh page, especially with the lack of plastic card guides. It's not a big issue though. I could complain about the lack of a silent return spring, but I don't mind that much after figuring that they never had one in the first place. Or then all of the videos I found had a machine with a malfunctioning silent return mechanism, but whatever the case, I'm fine with the noise the carriage makes; it's not too loud and the fun and smooth overall user experience more than makes up for it.
Considering how much I like the machine, I might end up recovering the platen despite the good print quality, especially now that I found someone in Europe who could probably do it, although I haven't contacted them about it yet.
Just one question: How do you remove the carriage on these? It probably isn't too difficult, as I've yet to come across a standard typewriter with a difficult carriage removal mechanism.
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Oh, the extras also included three metallic ribbon rings, as shown in the photo. I believe these were used in some models of Remington typewriters, like the All-New Portable and the Riter-series of machines, or did they fit on some Underwoods as well?
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Hi JJH
It is said that there is no such thing as "The Perfect Typewriter", but there is usually the typewriter that's perfect for you and it looks like you've found it. That machine was built when I was 3 years old and looks like a piece of solid industrial machinery.
You indicate that the paper bail is a little too high for your liking, here's my thought. These machines were made for use in professional offices and typing pools, so the paper being used probably had printed letterheads which filled the top few centimetres of the paper. The printed top edge of the paper would comfortably tuck under the paper bail holding the main body of the letter ready for the typist, as I say, this is just a thought.
For continuation pages, I was taught to put the page number top and center on the page with a couple of line spaces below the page number. This might give you just enough head-space to tuck the page under the paper bail for the first line of typing, see if you think this idea would work for you. All the best,
Sky
Last edited by skywatcher (28-10-2024 00:32:55)
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Pleased to hear that you like your TM5. You might be interested to hear that the typewriter firm I was working for in the late 1970's bought a large quantity of these as surplus from the US Air Force. They are good machines, but we found them difficult to sell because the appearance of the Underwood 'outrigger' carriage made them look strange to customers used of Adlers, Olympias etc. As to ribbon spools, the 'proper' spool for these only fits two makes - late Underwoods and the Imperial 70. BUT, you can also fit these spools to post-war Remington standards although they were not designed for them. Conversely, you can probably fit the Remington 'spool-less' ribbon to the Touchmaster, and it does look as if a previous owner has done just that. Sorry I can't tell you if the carriage comes off easily - it is about 45 years since I last worked on one
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Spelling error - Should read ' look strange to customers used TO Adlers, Olympias etc.'
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skywatcher wrote:
Hi JJH
It is said that there is no such thing as "The Perfect Typewriter", but there is usually the typewriter that's perfect for you and it looks like you've found it. That machine was built when I was 3 years old and looks like a piece of solid industrial machinery.
You indicate that the paper bail is a little too high for your liking, here's my thought. These machines were made for use in professional offices and typing pools, so the paper being used probably had printed letterheads which filled the top few centimetres of the paper. The printed top edge of the paper would comfortably tuck under the paper bail holding the main body of the letter ready for the typist, as I say, this is just a thought.
For continuation pages, I was taught to put the page number top and center on the page with a couple of line spaces below the page number. This might give you just enough head-space to tuck the page under the paper bail for the first line of typing, see if you think this idea would work for you. All the best,
Sky
Hi Sky,
My father was born about a year before this machine was manufactured. The original owner really did take good care of it.
Thank you for the tip about the page number and empty spaces. I had been doing this before, but for some reason I had typed the page number in the top corner; I'm not sure why it never occurred to me that I can just as well insert it at the top and center as well. With the Touch-Master the gap is still a bit too wide even if I do this, but as I said, it's not really a big issue.
thetypewriterman wrote:
Pleased to hear that you like your TM5. You might be interested to hear that the typewriter firm I was working for in the late 1970's bought a large quantity of these as surplus from the US Air Force. They are good machines, but we found them difficult to sell because the appearance of the Underwood 'outrigger' carriage made them look strange to customers used of Adlers, Olympias etc. As to ribbon spools, the 'proper' spool for these only fits two makes - late Underwoods and the Imperial 70. BUT, you can also fit these spools to post-war Remington standards although they were not designed for them. Conversely, you can probably fit the Remington 'spool-less' ribbon to the Touchmaster, and it does look as if a previous owner has done just that. Sorry I can't tell you if the carriage comes off easily - it is about 45 years since I last worked on one
Thank you for that interesting piece of history, Mr. ttwm. It's interesting to hear that the US Air Force had a surplus of these, and they certainly have the look of something I could imagine being used at military bases. After familiarizing myself with a few Continental Standards, the style of the Touch-Master's carriage no longer seemed alien to me.
I might be mistaken, but I assume this style of carriage would have some kind of a simple locking mechanism somewhere, which when unlocked would allow me to slide it out either from the left or right, like with most Continental Standards. I might make a separate topic in the maintenance help section about it, as it would be nice to learn how to do this.
Besides the Remington ribbon rings, thankfully this particular machine did come with what I assume to be the original metal Underwood spools:
Now that I was more familiar with this model and knew that I want to keep it, I decided to go back to the thrift store, check out their somewhat rough-looking Touch-Master a second time, and make an offer. Armed with more knowledge than before, I was able to negotiate a hefty discount to the steep asking price, and took it home as a backup/parts/practice machine.
The backup/parts machine on the right, doesn't look so bad from the front after some basic cleaning:
This machine (manufactured in 1966) is in working condition as well, but it has some problems with the tabulator mechanism being very sluggish, the right margin stop doesn't stop the type bars from hitting the platen, and the print quality isn't quite as good as on the other machine. Besides collecting dust and dirt, it has obviously seen some rough times: The touch control switch has been broken off, so in order to use it you have to remove the front panel; the plunger piece from the left platen knob had been broken off as well, but there is enough of the shaft left that it can still be used. It also has plenty of scratches, especially at the back.
Broken touch control lever:
Broken, but still usable plunger:
Scratches at the back:
The remains of a sticker for an Olivetti service center, and a dealer decal:
I also noticed that even if the machine has obviously been through some rough treatment, the platen is softer than on the main machine. I thought I could just swap the platens until I get the original one recovered, but to my surprise this was not possible: it turns out the platens and the carriages are not 100% identical. The platen shaft of the backup machine is actually a little bit shorter. The difference is very small, but enough that it won't sit correctly in the main machine, and I cannot close the part which locks the left side in place. The backup machine can take the ever so slightly longer platen shaft though, because that doesn't interfere with the locking mechanism on the left!
The backup machine's platen above with the blue arrow:
This is how the original but harder platen sits correctly on the left side:
This is how the softer but ever so slightly shorter platen sits in the main machine; that's a no go (if I move it more to the left, the right side shaft then has a similar problem, and won't close):
I did clean up the back up machine, and while the touch isn't quite as nice and smooth, it's still a very good machine to type with. Interestingly, while the platen is softer, the rest of the action (the escapement?) is slightly noisier, so it doesn't really matter much which one I use when it comes to noise.
It was missing the spools as I mentioned earlier, but I did have a pair of these plastic "universal" spools, and while they supposedly don't actually work properly with the ribbon reverse mechanism (I will test this when I have the time), they are better than nothing for now.
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I like the Touch-Master 5 as well, largely because of the late 50s/early 60s look, which is Olivetti work, I gather. One caught my eye in an antiques mall a few years back, and I thought, wouldn’t a magnificent machine like that be handy for this and that? I had been wrestling with labels in the office and was sick and tired of fiddling with printers. Home — and thence to the office — came the TM5.
There was some very minor damage, so I also bought a parts machine that appeared in a local for sale ad, but I ended up fixing both during the COVID lockdown by making some small parts from metal, so that I now have two TM5s, one pica and one elite, one being wide carriage and the other not. BUT, I am missing the ribbon covers on one, which I can’t find anywhere. I fashioned some from copper sheeting, but they just don’t look right. Any chance you would sell me them from your parts unit?
As to the platen and knobs, I do believe that all those knobs should screw off the platens so that you can swap parts as required. See the repair manual available on the inter-webs.
And as to the carriage removal: It has been a while, but I seem to recall having taken off the spring from the carriage (and secured it on the screw conveniently placed rear top left), then moved the carriage left and right to remove a couple more screws found under it on the main body. I think the tabulator on the back had to come off as well, but that ought to be removed at this stage for cleaning and lubrication anyway, so it won’t hurt to take it off. Then, as I recall, the carriage lifts or slides right off.
There is a centrifugal brake at the rear left that is part of the tabulator mechanism. It has a plastic gear (underlaid with metal) on which the plastic often seems to be cracked, and that can cause annoying problems like missing spaces. The trouble is that the gear effectively expands so that the teeth don’t mesh properly with the other gears present. Very common fault on the TM5, which you can read about online. Both mine were like this. Obviously this wa a weak point in the design. Best method of repair I have come across is to remove the brake (easily done), and stick a circular compression clamp like one of those little screw-on fuel line clamps around the cracked gear, in order to gently draw the plastics together (they should slide over the underlying metal). Then use an adhesive like shoo goo or epoxy to fix it for another fifty years. The machine will then likely outlive all of us.
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Beachycove wrote:
.... snip ....
There is a centrifugal brake at the rear left that is part of the tabulator mechanism. It has a plastic gear (underlaid with metal) on which the plastic often seems to be cracked, and that can cause annoying problems like missing spaces. The trouble is that the gear effectively expands so that the teeth don’t mesh properly with the other gears present. Very common fault on the TM5, which you can read about online. Both mine were like this. Obviously this wa a weak point in the design. Best method of repair I have come across is to remove the brake (easily done), and stick a circular compression clamp like one of those little screw-on fuel line clamps around the cracked gear, in order to gently draw the plastics together (they should slide over the underlying metal). Then use an adhesive like shoo goo or epoxy to fix it for another fifty years. The machine will then likely outlive all of us.
This is exactly the fix I used for the same problem on the same machine and it worked great! Recommended.