Mechanical calculators: FACIT TK
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This machine was manufactured by FACIT in Sweden, in 1948 (see here). It was the first calculator I bought in an online auction site, in November 2010. It was in pretty bad shape, including a bright green painting and missing screws in the cover. Worse than that, the previous owner's attempts at painting the exterior have resulted in mostly erased number wheels. Unfortunately, I couldn't see that in the site's photos.
I partially disassembled the machine, cleaning everything I dared removing, using John Wolff's instructions for the Facit C1-13 (see below), a later model with several improvements. I was able to fully disassemble the registers, and in the process I printed new numbers for the wheels. I designed and printed a thin strip of paper in a laser printer, cut each strip to size and glued each of them to a wheel. I also restored the plastic windows with acetate, and had the main levers and indicators re-chrome plated. Finally, the casing was repainted with the appropriate color, the Facit label was restored, and new screws were used externally – all coming from savings and scraps of old desktop PC cases.
I have no pictures of the partially disassembled machine, since this was my first one and I was unsure as to being able to put it back together, let alone in working condition. But here go some pictures of the final result.
Have a mechanical calculator stored somewhere, and want to get rid of it? Send it to me!
1948 FACIT TK s/n 175713
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