1 - TypewriterGuy
- Typewriter Talk Vet
Offline 
- From: United States
- Registered: 24-4-2015
- Posts: 1,250
Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
I was cleaning out a Royal #10 and found a thimble in the ribbon mechanism.
I was just cleaning an Underwood Master today and found a sewing needle with the point pointing downward. Luckily it was not sitting on my lap!
Whats with all this sewing stuff?
Back from a long break.
Starting fresh with my favorite typer. A Royal Futura!
- Valiant
- Touch Typist
Offline
- From: Toronto
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 153
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
I got a deal when I bought a 40s Underwood that wasn't working properly -- a number of the keys were jammed, so the seller sold it to me for a very reasonable price. When I got it home and started investigating I dicovered a dollar coin lodged inside. Once the coin was removed everything worked fine.
Another time I bought a Commodore portable and found a Commodore logo rattling around inside -- but the machine HAD the Commodore logo fixed to the outside of the machine, so it must have been dropped in accidentally at the factory.
I got the best surprise with another 40s Underwood that had been rescued from someone's shed. When I got it home I put it on the kitchen counter and tested all the functions and keys. Everything worked reasonably well but when I picked it up to put it back in its case I found a three-inch moth sitting on the counter -- looking a little disgruntled, I think, for having been dislodged from its home! It had escaped harm so I scooped it up and let it go in the backyard 
.
Last edited by Valiant (27-9-2015 12:17:55)
"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the typewriter."
- TypewriterGuy
- Typewriter Talk Vet
Offline
- From: United States
- Registered: 24-4-2015
- Posts: 1,250
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
Haha! Im probably going to be finding more things each typewriter I work on.
What type of dollar coin came from the first one?
Back from a long break.
Starting fresh with my favorite typer. A Royal Futura!
- •
Thread Starter- KatLondon
- Key Master
Offline
- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
A Westlife CD.
- Valiant
- Touch Typist
Offline
- From: Toronto
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 153
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
TypewriterGuy wrote:
Haha! Im probably going to be finding more things each typewriter I work on.
What type of dollar coin came from the first one?
It was a Canadian dollar coin (a 'loonie'). 😊
"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the typewriter."
- TypewriterGuy
- Typewriter Talk Vet
Offline
- From: United States
- Registered: 24-4-2015
- Posts: 1,250
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
@Kat Well thats interesting. A full size CD? How did it fit?
Back from a long break.
Starting fresh with my favorite typer. A Royal Futura!
- •
Thread Starter- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
It looks like I haven't found anything of interest compared to what I've been reading here. There has been a surprising number of mouse nests (and all the flotsam associate with them such as nuts, berries, and a lot of poop). In one SG1 I recall pulling out a number of broken parts from children's toys.
Then there was a newly acquired SM3 that I was testing out for the first time. I was mystified by the wildly changing issues it had. The carriage would jam, and then move properly, but only when a number of keys stopped working. Thinking there was a ghost in the machine, I flipped the machine over and found a lollipop stick bouncing around in the works.
The normal by-products of a mouse infestation that sprinkle out of a machine even before you begin to clean it: wood chips, poop, nut shells, and in this case, the top of a Lego block.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- KatLondon
- Key Master
Offline
- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
@Kat Well thats interesting. A full size CD? How did it fit?
At the bottom! It must have just got mixed up in there somehow and no one had opened it up for a while. The machine never worked properly, maybe it was haunted.
- TypewriterGuy
- Typewriter Talk Vet
Offline
- From: United States
- Registered: 24-4-2015
- Posts: 1,250
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
Im actually getting a remington portable in a few days. Thephoto I saw on craigslist was covered in spider webs. Uh oh... I dont really like spiders...
Back from a long break.
Starting fresh with my favorite typer. A Royal Futura!
- •
Thread Starter- Freja
- New Member
Offline
- Registered: 24-8-2015
- Posts: 21
Re: Whats the strangest thing you have found in a typewriter?
I haven't found anything crazy in any of my typewriters (yet) but one of my typewriters still had a love letter on it. The letter was typed halfway through and never finished.
