Underwood Portable Restoration
Restoration of a 1925 Underwood Portable 4 Bank typewriter 2025-06-17
A month ago, an Underwood Portable popped up on Facebook Marketplace at a good price; I had been wanting a typewriter for a while, so I bought it. The backspace key was broken, the internals were grimy, the action was gummed and the typebars were sticky. I didn’t want to half-ass the restoration, so I decided to take it all apart.
Taking off the outer casing and carriage was a challenge. I imagine someone else tried taking the machine apart at some point, but thankfully they stripped the head of every externally accessible screw so bad that they effectively locked themselves out. You really have to be a special kind of fool to mangle screw after screw without fail and never realize you’re ruining the machine. I was furious. I still am.
For most of the cleaning I used brake cleaner because it’s a powerful solvent that leaves no residue. Carburetor cleaner can leave an oily residue, so it’s best to avoid it. I scrubbed individual parts with a tooth brush and a rag while staying clear of plastics, rubbers and paints. For the casing I used soapy water. Fixing the backspace key was just a matter of bending a lever a little out of shape. Getting the ribbon feed and vibrator moving smoothly, without resorting to lubrication, took some fiddling.
The typewriter has serial number 4B1070. At the time of writing, it’s older than all Underwood Portable 4 Bank machines documented on the Typewriter Database. This means it was more than likely produced in 1925, exactly one century ago.
