#analog-office-equipment — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #analog-office-equipment, aggregated by home.social.
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Acquired Vintage Personal Document File by
Purchased at Acts Thrift for $2.20.Made of steel; in green; with original key
The green paint is almost an exact match for our vintage Stanley thermos and my 1958 Olympia SM3 typewriter.
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A clever affordance of card index filing cabinet drawers
Someone recently mentioned to me that the small, portable 1,000 index card capacity cardboard box with lid that they use as a zettelkasten felt more like it was for deep storage rather than daily use. Perhaps it's a result of the fact that this is how most people have been using these cheaper cardboard boxes for the last 30+ years? They said they'd prefer to have a drawer or a box with an attached lid. It dawns on me that I've never mentioned one of the great affordances of many of the […]https://boffosocko.com/2026/01/07/a-clever-affordance-of-card-index-filing-cabinet-drawers/
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Filing Index Cards with a C-Line Document Sorter
Not surprisingly, I don't always file away my index cards as quickly as I probably ought to. Every now and then I go through my deck of unfiled cards and try to sort them into my card index/zettelkasten. The end of the year seems like a pretty good time to clear the decks. Because I haven't documented some of this portion of my process before, I thought I'd take a few photos of my C-Line document sorter which I use to do a fast sort of cards before filing into my card index. I bought it a […]https://boffosocko.com/2025/12/27/filing-index-cards-with-a-c-line-document-sorter/
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Breaking News: Brodart No Longer Manufactures or Sells Library Card Catalogs
With no advance notice or apparent fanfare, Brodart, one of the major library supplies and furnishing companies in the United States, has quit manufacturing, distributing, and selling library card catalogs and library charging trays. This seems sad news for analog library enthusiasts coming just two days after Melvil Dewey's 174th birthday on December 10th. I've got word in for specific details about end dates for manufacturing and the last sales on some of these products. Apparently the […] -
Need a pick-me-up heading into the weekend? Enjoy this free article from The New York Times about a guy who learns typewriter repair from a master and eventually takes over the business. This is feel-good reading. I loved it.
#typewriter #typewriters #typewriterrepair #feelgood #analog #analogofficeequipment
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Acquired Dazor work lamp c. 1940s (Dazor Lighting Technology)
I had the ballast replaced to work with modern LED replacement bulbs and the switch upgraded to be able to control each of the two bulbs independently. I also cleaned of decades of grime and polished it up a bit.a steel task lamp in gray paint with a dual pipe adjustable arm and art deco fluting
Thrift purchase for $24.98 from Goodwill on 2025-10-02.
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Acquired Vintage Copy Holder (Unknown Manufacturer)
I picked this copy holder up at a thrift store in early 2025 for about $2. Along with a binder clip or some small magnets, it’s great for transcribing notes using one of my typewriters.A mid-19th century typing accessory in steel with putty colored paint.
9" x 7" x 4 3/4" -
Acquired File Tab 3 Inch Punch (McGill Incorporated)
I had been considering getting a custom punch made several times, but never looked to see if one already existed commercially. Today, while doing a 5 minute peruse of the thrift store, there it was!A punch for making file tabs of 2 1/4" x 3/4"
P/N 68500When you use as many tabbed index card dividers as I do, this can be incredibly useful. It’s just the right size for doing 1/3 cut tabs on 4″ x 6″ index cards.
Acquired at Acts Thrift Store on October 7, 2025 for $2.50.
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Acquired Hummer 3 hole punch (Wilson Jones Co., Chicago, IL)
Anna Havron recently mentioned that she had a Bates Hummer punch from years back, so it only took a second’s thought to pick up this $3.99 purchase at the local Acts Thrift store when I ran across it on June 28thHeavy steel punch in gray enamel with chromed handle
It was in pretty solid shape with some heavy dust, light pitting on some of the steel, and some hints of rust on one of the bars. A quick cleaning today with some degreasers and anti-rust solution along with a brass bristle brush has brought it back to its original life. It really is stunning how solid this piece of office equipment still is all these years later.
Wilson Jones Co., one of the largest office supply manufacturers in the United States, was purchased by Swingline Inc. in 1959 and is now a part of ACCO brands who boldly state that Wilson Jones was the inventor of the 3 ring binder, though evidence indicates its origin predates this. The “Hummer” was one of their original and storied punches.
I’m unsure of the date of manufacture of my punch, though it was made in their Chicago, IL plant.
With the grey enamel and shiny chrome, I’m thinking this 4 pound 13 ounce punch will match nicely with my 1949 Henry Dreyfuss-designed Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter.
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Acquired 3 Hole Punch (Master Products Mfg. Co., Los Angeles, Calif.)
Swung through the thrift store today and found this fantastic beast. $3.82 was absolutely too little for such a lovely vintage piece. Not sure of the age, but definitely manufactured to last. Twenty minutes of cleaning and a light oiling and it’s almost as new as the day it came off the factory floor. Handles up to 20 sheets of paper and slices through them like butter.Black cast iron and metal
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Acquired Steel Desk Drawer Paper Organizer (Hunt Manufacturing Co. (Fresno, CA), Lit-Ning Products Division)
In an effort to slowly improve my analog office proficiency and productivity, I have heeded Lenore Fenton’s advice to have all my supplies organized at my fingertips. Toward that end I’ve picked up this excellent paper organizer for the top desk drawer of my executive tanker desk. This mid-century marvel is perfect for storing a variety of paper types and envelopes to have them easily to hand. (For ease of viewing and use, you’ll see photos of it sitting on my desktop right next to my typewriter.)Six slots for organizing your typing papers and envelopes as well as space for your stapler, tape dispenser, and various other desk drawer implements.
In the 1943 film Basic Typing Methods, in the very opening seconds of the film, you’ll see the woman in the foreground pulling paper quickly from her desk drawer for typing. While it’s not immediately visible, she’s surely got a similar paper organizer in her drawer. (Pardon the heavily gendered references in the film.)
Photo Gallery
Ultimately, the paper organizer came to live in the top drawer of my executive tanker desk.
Acquired at the local Acts Thrift shop for about $2.00, this organizer was a no-brainer purchase.
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Acquired Solari #606 elite typewriter erasing shield, letter counter, line counter, 8 inch ruler by
Amidst all the typewriter paraphernalia I come across, the curved typing shield doesn’t get enough of its due. While it has some useful measurement functions, its primary functionality is as an eraser shield for erasing errors in carbon copy packs. You would move the carriage to the far right or left (to keep eraser crumbs out of your segment and machine), place the shield behind the first page and then behind each subsequent page to erase the errors from each one at a time. The smooth, curved aluminum would allow you to erase without causing the carbon papers to transfer smudges to the pages behind the shield.A curved metal typing ruler for a variety of purposes including:
* curved erasing shield (especially useful for carbon copy packs to prevent carbon transfer)
* elite spacing letter counter
* line counter
* 8 inch rulerThe curved ruler comes with a convenient tab (here labeled “Elite”) for grabbing with one’s thumb and forefinger for placement into as well as removal from a carbon pack. They obviously came in both Pica and Elite versions to cover various typewriter typefaces.
Our friend Joe Van Cleave cleverly uses one to cleanly tear off paper from his Kerouac-like rolls of typing paper.
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Acquisition: 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter with Royal Vogue Typeface
On Sunday September 22, 2024, I picked up what appeared to be a boring-looking, run-of-the-mill, ubiquitous, mid-1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe in brown frieze crinkle paint from ShopGoodWill.com. These typewriters pop up everywhere and regularly sell in the $10-25 range. Of the 3163 typewriter models in the Typewriter Database, the Royal QDL is easily the most collected machine in the typosphere by a margin of 1.5:1 to the next closest model (the Smith-Corona Sterling) on the long list. I [...] -
Acquisition: 1958 Olympia SM3 Portable Typewriter
The Purchase
On Saturday, August 3rd, after a patience-trying wait, I picked up this lovely green 1958 Olympia SM3. It's the first typewriter in my collection with both an exotic character set as well as a typeface that veers outside of the standard pica and elite typefaces.
It was a Facebook Marketplace purchase for a better-than-reasonable price. I had made a middling offer to someone out in Rancho Cucamonga not knowing what sort of condition the machine was in. I should have headed out [...]
https://boffosocko.com/2024/09/02/acquisition-1958-olympia-sm3-portable-typewriter/
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Acquisition: 1940 Corona Zephyr Ultra-Portable Typewriter
On Friday, August 16, 2024, I picked up a dreadful looking cur from GoodWill. On Sunday, I spent several hours the afternoon and then again in the evening pulling the machine apart, cleaning all the external and internal parts and flushing it out with lacquer thinner. A quick and very light oiling and a rubdown with WD-40 to make the exterior shine later, and I'm now the proud owner of a wonderful, and sparkling little Corona Zephyr.
Design
The Corona Zephyr manufactured by L. C. Smith & [...]
https://boffosocko.com/2024/08/20/acquisition-1940-corona-zephyr-ultra-portable-typewriter/
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I spent a chuck of the early morning and the past hour finally cleaning up my Shaw-Walker filing cabinet. I can’t wait to move it into the house and start using it. Photos of the finished product soon…
#20GaugeSteel #analogOfficeEquipment #filingCabinets #ShawWalkerFurnitureCompany #vintageFurniture
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If you’re going to punch holes in 3 x 5″ index cards for your new library card catalog and want something to match your 20 gauge office furniture, you really ought to have an era-appropriate hole punch. Presenting the industrial strength Mutual Centamatic Punch No. 250 (Made in Worchester, Mass. U.S.A.), which I picked up today at the local thrift store for $0.75.
#analogOffice #analogOfficeEquipment #atomicEraFurniture #holePunches #libraryCardCatalogs
https://boffosocko.com/2023/10/03/mutual-centamatic-punch-no-250-made-in-worchester-mass-u-s-a/