I know it looks a little silly, but it holds the carriage off the escape dog, a small fragile gear that is very important. The original typewriter packing materials did similar things but are of course missing now. Just remove the rubber band and add it to your rubber band ball!

Good question! The main reason would be the case design. The cases that are just a top cover sometimes don’t fit our packing methods, or some older typewriters (I’m looking at you Corona) don’t have space inside the case for much padding. There might be other reasons why we have to pivot from our usual methods like a broken carriage release lever (which would always be disclosed in the description before purchase).

If you think that’s bad, imagine our office! Those pesky peanuts hold up to the weight of a typewriter better than air pockets or other void fill in our opinion. They are recyclable, though maybe not in your curbside bin.

• The carriage has so many moving parts and keeping it tight with plastic means the metal isn’t absorbing all the bumps of shipping.

I hate to blame everything on shipping, but super-hot or cold weather plus changes in humidity really do affect expansion and contraction in metal. Let the typewriter acclimate for a few hours then try typing the sticky key 20 times, and just flicking it back down when it sticks at the top.

Try flipping the ribbon direction, it’s usually a pretty loose lever and with packing materials can easily flip so that’s it’s trying to pull fresh ribbon from the empty side.

Check to be sure you removed our famous rubber band from the right side of the carriage.

Check that the ink color is set to black or red. That white color in the middle is for stenciling and doesn’t use the ribbon.

Is it still in any rubber band or plastic wrap packaging? Otherwise that sounds like the carriage lock is engaged, flip it off

The best thing is to dive right in! Flip switches and see what happens, type as much as you can, ring the bell until your spouse asks you to stop, open up the “hood” can watch all the moving parts while you type! A typewriter is a sturdy machine that has lasted decades before it landed on your desk, and you can’t do much to mess it up!

In older typewriters they saved a bit of space and money by designing the lowercase “L” to double as the “1” key.

We just use computer paper, or notebook paper, or construction paper or whatever we have lying around. For slightly fancier typing, you can roll in an extra sheet behind the one you are typing one. We’ve had customers type on maps, price tags, cards… the sky is the limit!

We like to buy in bulk on Amazon ($2-$5) and Etsy has some cool color options for a bit more. We usually just buy “standard” ribbons and if the spools don’t fit in a machine, we wind the new inky ribbon onto the old spools. This is especially important on Corsairs where new spools can be about $20 a pop. I have a very short video on YouTube of me respooling a ribbon if you need some pointers: link

However, you don’t need to rush out and buy a new ribbon just because you’ve reached the end. You can reverse the ribbon direction and get a few passes out of each one. 

I feel ya. My favorite is a GoJo or something else made for mechanics and grease. Rubbing alcohol can work but is not so nice to skin and honestly doesn’t work as well.