Repair of the right margin lever and reattachment to the 1053 - part 1

SPECIAL MARGIN LEVER DIFFERENT FROM STANDARD SELECTRIC TYPEWRITERS

The 1053 Console on the IBM 1130 has a print only I/O Selectric with a front panel that features some pushbuttons and sixteen toggle switches. Because of the room necessary for the toggle switches, the front panel is further from the typewriter mechanism that is the cover of an office Selectric typewriter.

Thus, the shorter margin levers on an office typewriter stick through a slot on the cover and are moved side to side by the typist without opening any top covers. On the 1053, however, there is a plastic window through which the tips of the longer margin levers can be seen. The operator must open the top cover and reach down to move the margin levers. 

Left margin lever tip visible above red arrow

When you compare a typewriter margin lever to the 1053 lever, the typewriter part is wider and shorter than the 1053 part. This makes it impossible to substitute an office typewriter lever. If it had not been wider, it could have been mounted inside and moved by the operator but the window on the front panel would not show the margin position because the lever was too far back. 

GLUING TOGETHER THE BROKEN PIECES OF THE MARGIN LEVER

I did a test glue-up of the two levers of the donor Selectric - they bonded well. However, when I tried the same glue on the 1053 levers, it didn't soften or melt the plastic surface at all. Definitely a different type of plastic. 

The break is in a narrow section thus there is not a large surface area for bonding. I used some Cyanoacrylate ('super glue') which has provided a pretty weak connection but the two parts are together at least. This is not strong enough to use as it is.

Lever with first bonding completed

My plan is to add a bit of material to span the flat areas over the repair, using epoxy to hold everything together. Hopefully this will result in a strong enough part to re-attach to the printer.