Cameron Kopf, are you reading?
Last week I received from Germany this gorgeous Gossen Tippa (B).
It is a beautiful machine with a very responsive action. However, it had one quite serious flaw. It skipped and skidded about the place like a bar stool seems to under you, after you’ve sunk a few too many beers – or if you’re inclined as I am, red wines or vodkas.
Cameron Kopf’s Gossen Tippa B was also suffering from the skiddies as well, so he may be interested to read this.
I was able to type on on the Tippa, but every so often it would just fly off a few spaces. I popped off the base and a bit of a look underneath, but I couldn’t seem to really diagnose exactly what the problem was. Despite that, I still tapped out the typecast for my last blog entry quite happily – even with the skipping skidding problem occurring
I figured out the operation of the space bar escapement dog, but I couldn’t quite see why it kept happening. A few days later while I was riding to work, a thought occurred to me… This may not actually be a parts failure.
A few people had suggested that they needed to bend back parts with some needle nosed pliers, but all the parts in my escapement looked perfect. Not only that, they had been serviced at some point by someone who had used loctite to hold the tiny nuts in place – which implied it was in the last decade or so.
So…. with a few cotton-buds, I ventured into the inner sanctum of the Tippa; the escapement.
I sprayed the escapement dog with a little de-greaser, and then wiped it away. I then dipped the cotton bud into a little cup of de-greaser and then proceeded to clean all the parts to make sure I had cleaned everything off. I gave the escapement a bit of a blast of air to try and clear any other muck that was left in place.
I then pushed a brush across the teeth of the escapement rack to move out some muck that I had observed had wedged into place.
After I fastened the bottom of the machine back into lace, I fed some paper in and gave the machine a good run. There was no observed skipping that occurred when I used the space bar, and you could feel that it was catching with much more certainty.
Now…. for a little bit more Massive Attack….
It seems like a great deal of problems we experience that might seem like mechanical faliure only need the right cleaning. Congratulations!
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Thanks for the tip. I have a couple of “skippers” that will get this treatment.
Tony
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clean machine is indeed a happy machine. thanks for the Massive Attack, I had forgotten how much I like them – kind of lost track after Tricky left.
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Sweeeet! Nice score on the fix 😀 Time to get me some de-greaser and use it on them skippies!
P.S. You're using a normal oven de-greaser?
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I wonder if this method would work on my QDL? And “Unfinished Sypathy” is one of the top five songs of the '90s, as far as I'm concerned. Remove Shara Nelson's brilliant vocals and you're still left with music that would not feel out of place in a spy movie. Absolutely brilliant.
Nice work with the Tippa, Scott!
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Adds new meaning to the phrase, “Gone to the dogs”.
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Congratulations on your successful repair! You have given me a few ideas to try on skippy and sticky escapements.
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Greetings, Scott! Yes, I did read this very helpful post on the Gossen Tippa, and am very grateful for the information.
I sent my Tippa to Ken Coghlan awhile ago to see what he could do about the skipping problem, and will direct him to this post.
Thanks for sharing. I'm very glad that you figured out the issue and that your Tippa is working well!
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This was definitely to be my first move with Cam's Tippa. Thanks for showing me the success of it! Now, if I could just muster up the time and enthusiasm to actually FINISH it…
Very helpful, Scott. Thanks for the post.
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I agree. I think that is too often overlooked.
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Best of luck. Some machines have really difficult to access escapements.
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Honestly, I don't think MA made anything worth listening to after Mezzanine.
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Yeah, standard engine de-greaser – $2.50 a can from Supercheap auto.
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I think cleaning the escapement on the QDL would yield results, as they are all very filthy. Mind you, they're all filthy because the escapement on that era of Royal portables is so damn hard to get to. I agree with your sentiment on Unfinsihed Sympathy, and I just with there was more out there of this quality! Spy movie? I like your thinking.
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Are you referring to Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony”? this is a lovely dramatic work that has intrigued musicologists for nearly 200 years, did he finish it or did he just lose interest?
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I was thinking more along the lines of: new tricks on an old dog.
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I think we too often overlook how much crud gets ground into these critical parts.
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I love this little machine. One of the best small typers I have ever owned. I see that Ken has had a look! Glad it will be of service to someone.
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Best of luck. Keep in mind that you'll need to keep the star gear moving, and you'll probably have to go over each 'prong' about 4 times to really clear off the ground in muck.
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I’ve got a lot of work to do. Great article!
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