Mechanical Arithmometer Restoration - Felix M a Maze of 400+ Pieces
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ย. 2024
- In this restoration video, you will see me restoring a mechanical calculator/arithmometer, Felix M.
The calculator is made of tin and many aluminum parts. It has over 400 pieces that needed some cleaning and care. It also had broken parts that I managed to remake and replace.
The machine was in an advanced stage of decay, not functional, stuck, and with broken parts. I've tried to give it another chance, and I think I have succeeded. Now, the mechanism seems functional, even though I'm not sure I know how to use it properly. I will do research on how to calculate stuff with it.
I found this object very interesting and challenging to restore. Based on Leibniz's technology, it could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and, with some more elaborate user involvement, division. It was trendy and sold for 90 years. In contrast to the modern calculator's credit card size, the Arithmometer was large enough to cover a desktop.
The restoration process took me almost a month due to the many pieces that needed to be restored/repaired and cleaned.
If you know how exactly I can use this machine, please let me know in the comments section.
I hope I have caught everything, but if you have any questions, you can comment, and I'll get back to you!
Cheers! Johnny.
Become a member of the channel: / @rustyshadesrestoration
#restoration #restorationvideos #calculator #howto
Hi folks! It is one of the most complex restorations I have ever done, and I enjoyed working on this old Felix calculator/arithmometer a lot. I still need to learn how to use it correctly, and If you do, please feel free to write me a comment and not only! I respond to every one! I hope you like the video, and please give it a thumbs up for more! Cheers! Johnny
Как Вам техника из СССР?
If I could play with for a couple days I could probably figure it out, sorry. I pretty good at these kinds of things.
Have a look at 1stSpyGuy, he demonstrates how to operate machines similar to this one.
You still have some signifikant binding in the mechanism, and it looks like the revolution counter reset was inproperly installed, I would start by posetivly drenching every mechanical part in mineral oil for an extended time, both to disolve old oil and to lubrikate everything
Thank you. I'll take a look.
I'm fairly certain I could take this machine apart. I am confident that I could clean it. I am absolutely certain I would never get it together again. Great video.
Ha! Absolutely!😂
One of the best comments I have ever read on TH-cam. Concise, to the point and so very,very true. This restoration deserves many likes.
Most of the time when you find one of those they are actually in working order, just that all oil have hardened and ceased it up compleatly, so for those cases its unessesary to disasemble any if the intrecate parts, I would even recommend against dissasemble too much
Easiest repair is to just put it in a large bucket of minneral oil for a week than carefully moving things around, that usially diesolve the old grese and lubricate the parts, if some parts are still seased up you might have to put them under solvant for a few day and then lubricated.
If that dont work something might actually be broken or rusted but thats rare
😂😂😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣
The mere fact that somebody came up with a concept to design something like this is remarkable let alone what it does. All the intriguet parts...it blows my mind.
I agree! I was mesmerised all the time while working on this project. Those who designed this machine deserve all the credit.
@@rustyshadesrestoration and last but not least...you did a phenomenal job yourself working on it and restoring it to it's former glory
A vintage mechanical calculator ~ before their digital counterparts existed
Same. It’s incredible.
Check out the Curta calculator
Wow! A mechanical abacus. I'm so glad the printed numbers weren't ruined with time, they're so unique. This like one of the very first precomputers. I'm glad I decided to watch you again. Your work and consideration to detail has definitely improved.
Thank you for watching my work! I'm always trying to improve what can be improved. We are all learning by doing stuff 😀
I think this is your most difficult restoration so far. Not only for the cleaning, brushing, painting...but just assembling it again must have been awfully hard!!! Incredible job!!
It took a lot of time, and I admit I was overwhelmed a little, but I managed to find my zen and continue the project. Now I'm pleased about that decision.
@@rustyshadesrestoration That´s what life is about!! Congratulations again!
When I was a child, some 50 years ago, my grandfather had one similar to this. When we visited him I always played with it. It worked perfectly but I had no idea what it was used for.
Hi Johnny. I'm over 70 but havenever seen one of these calculators. You did a magnificent restoration on it. I hope you can learn how to use it!
Many thanks! I will!
I am just under 60... and I HAVE seen one of these (or very similar)
This is very cool...
And I am impressed that you got it all back together... let alone back together AND working!
😳😁👍
Maybe because this is an adding machine made in the USSR
Мне почти 50 и я помню как играл в детстве с таким. ✌🏻
I'm 85. In 1959 I used the Swedish version of these to calculate quotations for pension schemes. There was on every desk
A brilliant piece. I studied accounting but operate equipment. I really love seeing this old computational device brought back to life.
That is incredible how you restored that arithmometer to working order. It looks much better too. I have never seen anything like that before. Excellent work.
Thank you so much for your kind words and for watching my videos. Cheers!
Hi Johnny! Great work, nicely done. A few words about this device.
It was produced in the Soviet Union since 1929 and up to 1978. The price of yours is 15 roubles ( written on the back side). The factories were situated in 3 towns - Kursk, Penza & Moscow . Why it has name Felix? It was named after Felix Dzerzhinsky- Russian and Poland revolutionary.
My best regards.
Thank you for the information, Oleg. Now that I know a bit about its history, it is even more interesting.
Me again...just came to my mind. Also, it was a photo camera named after Dzerzhinsky - ФЭД ( Russian abbreviation) stands for Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky.
Just for the information!
I apreciate it! Thanks! :)
Amazing. I could have taken hundreds of pictures, hours of video, pages and pages of notes, and I'm pretty sure I still couldn't get that thing back together. Great work!
I've never seen something that small contain so many parts and pieces. Good job on getting it back together.
Here, I confess that I'm hesitating between praising the exceptional restoration and expressing concern through a soft form of masochism! What an incredible amount of work! This object now belongs in a museum...
Когда шел процесс разборки -у меня была тихая паника ,казалось всем деталям в обратном порядке не суждено собраться ! И Какой же восторг видеть механизм в идеальной форме!
One thing I have to say that I admire is how you can take all of this apart and remember how to put it back together. I’d have to record everything from the beginning just to see how to put it back the right way
Could I have taken this apart? Yes.
Would I have been able to reassemble it? No way in heck… 😑
Awesome job!!! ❤️❤️❤️👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
For addition:
1) zero the machine.
2) write the first number to add using the levers at the top.
3) turn the handle in the add direction until the first number shows in the window to the bottom. 0 + first number = first number.
4) write the second number with the levers at the top.
5) Turn the handle in the add direction. Results show at the bottom window.
Substraction is the same, but in reverse.
For multiplication: multiplication is repeated addition. For example 10 X 5 is 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10.
1) zero the machine
2) write the number to multiply using the levers (10 for example)
3) turn the add lever 5 times.
4) read the result on the window.
The Bottom left window is a counter, it will say 5 when you have turned the handle 5 times. Useful ehwn multiplying, say 124 * 36 so as not to have to manually count 36 turns of the handle. Just check the counter window.
Division is the same but in reverse (division is repeated substraction)
The sliding tabs are for your reference so you can put decimal points wherever you want them.
That's a great piece of information! Thank you for sharing it with us! 🫡🙏
@@rustyshadesrestoration Also I forgot to say that moving the carriage left or right changes the multiplication, for example to multiply by 300 instead of turning the handle 300 times you move the carriage 3 places and turn the handle 3 times.
i guess it. was very practical in the case. you were performing. a very large balance sheet
Wow! I'm in awe. That's an incredible restoration. Bravo, sir.
Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Watching these cool old machines get cleaned up and brought back to life is one of the most satisfying things to watch on the youtubes. Great job.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Thank you! 👌
Great restoration, Johnny!
I always look forward to seeing you put out a new video. I'm amazed!👍
Thank you so much for watching my videos. I highly appreciate that!
Когда у папы в отделе, в 79ом, заменили Феликсы на калькуляторы Быстрица, десятка полтора их оказалось в моем распоряжении... Ностальгия...))
У моей бабушки был такой. Огромное восхищение вызывает такой аппарат, его изобрёл очень умный и талантливый человек. Считает не хуже современного простого калькулятора. Что же касается работы, то я очень жалею, что нельзя поставить десять лайков. Только механизм немного заедает, можно было немного смазки добавить.
Wow! I would have ended up with a pile of parts! As always I always read the description to find out what information you have about the project and I like seeing how long it took you. Thank you for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it!
Tremendo trabajo. Felicitaciones 👏
Saludos desde Valdivia al sur de Chile 🇨🇱
Gracias 🙂
Благодарю мастера за отличную работу. Все сделано с душой. Спасибо за труд. Удачи вам на канале. 📹🛠️👍🔥
10 out of 10 for just remembering where all the bits go 😊
Hahaha! Thanks!
I wouldn't ever have the patience to do all of that. Many kudos to you. Watching restoration videos like this has always intrigued me. They don't build anything to withstand the test of time like they used to...
Planned obsolesce
Hats off to a magnificent piece of work. I've never seen anything like this before
Glad you like it! 🙂 Till I saw it at a flea market, I also didn't know that such a thing existed.
A great video, wonderful skills. Also in awe of whoever designed it.
Thank you! Yes, the person/s who designed this deserves all the applause 👏
Hello mister beautiful restoration beautifully restored good job well done
Thank you very much!
Стал, как новый! Даже немножечко лучше!!! Класс!!!
The restoration was beautiful and perfect. Congratulations!😀💜💜💜
Thank you! I'm happy that you enjoyed this project too. 😊
@@rustyshadesrestoration 😀💜
"Hey, great work with the number wheels! But maybe you could make the plastic frame white so that the numbers are easier to see. A simple trick: put the wheels in a solution of water and UV agent, then shine a UV lamp on them for a few hours. This will make the yellowing disappear and the numbers will really stand out. Just a tip that I would recommend!"
Hi, thank you. I know the technique, but that is paint, not white plastic. The wheels are made from aluminium. Cheers!
The amount of detail you went into with this is insane!…Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it! 😃
Отличная ресторация 🎉
really wild somebody engineered this. so many little parts. I couldn't imagine building one of these from scratch on how difficult that task would be
♥️♥️♥️ so many parts! Just wow! Beautiful restoration, but I don’t know how you kept track of all those parts! ♥️♥️♥️
Thank you! Cheers!
U are a genius, by putting it back together ❤️ again😊
Świetna robota stary👍 Kalkulator wygląda jakby wyszedł dopiero z fabryki.
Dziękuję bardzo!
You're a braver man than me! I wouldn't touch this thing with a 10 foot pole, I'd never be able to get it back together, lol. I'd just throw the entire thing, still assembled into rust remover, and hope it still works
Looks amazing! Im sure i would lose at least 50 pieces before i even finish cleaning let alone put it together!
Glad you like it! 🙂
As I was watching you take this machine apart, I was wondering if you were brave or crazy. I've come to the conclusion that you are neither. You, sir, are a master of your craft with the confidence that comes with it. Great job and great video.
Thank you so much! 😅
O maior respeito por quem tem essa paciência e dedicação. Eu de minha parte fiquei cansada só de ver...e olha que aumentei a velocidade. Parabéns!!!!😊
Muito obrigado por verem os meus vídeos e pelas vossas palavras simpáticas! Divirtam-se!
Smontare è facile, ce la farei anch'io, ma come fai poi a rimontare il tutto ?
Come fai a ricordare ogni passaggio ?
Chapeau !!! 🎩🎩🎩🎩🎩
This is how restoration should be...top drawer stuff...keep the good work up.
Thank you, Michael! 😀
Bravoooo maestro odlično uradjen posao.Veliki pozdrav od vjernog pratioca Mileta.
Przepiękne maszyny przepięknie jest odrestaurowane ta maszyna Pozdrawiam serdecznie. 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Dziękuję bardzo! Pozdrawiam
В детстве я мечтал о таком, мне он казался очень интересной игрушкой. Но пятнадцать рублей - это было очень дорого для семьи простого советского инженера с тремя детьми.
Reading the description of this thing makes my brain hurt, but your restoration of it is beautiful! But, then, I'm not a maths person. Maths and I don't get along, really.
"Железный Феликс". Легенда. Внешность сделана отлично. Но регулировку, судя по всему, сделать не удалось... Но - респект, однозначно!
This video was fantastic. 😊
Thank you! 😃 Glad you enjoyed it.
О, Железный Феликс!
Я помню те времена, когда они продавались в канцелярских товарах. Стоил, по моему, 15 рублей СССР. Кстати, не так уж дёшево!
Хорошая работа по восстановлению исторического прибора!
Для аутентичности надо было для покраски использовать "молотковую эмаль" (hammer enamel) - она до сих пор есть в продаже.
How much will it cost in these days?
@@rustyshadesrestoration I don’t think it’s too much of an amount - I’ve seen a couple of these adding machines as elements of installations in accounting departments along with wooden abacuses, but it’s all for fun and therefore they won’t pay much
Suuuuuuuuper Food!!!!
You loves this Job ❤❤❤❤
State of the art, Soviet made calculator circa 1989, 17 years after I bought my first Texas Instrument digital calculator.😝 Super nice resto. Love it.
But you have to admit, this ones way cooler. lol
@@Jack908r In 1972 my friends Bowmar Brain and a year later my TI was way cool.
USSR had digital calculators since 1970s. arithmometers were made not because there weren't alternatives.
I have done exactly the same restoration (without repainting) on the very similar Original Odhner 107. From what I can see, the Odhner is of a much higher quality. Nice job!
I'll check it out. I didn't know about Odhner ones. Thank you! 😀
Awwww HELL no!!! Do you hunt grizzly bears with a salad fork, too? Does anything intimidate you? That was amazing man!
I've never seen one of these and CAN'T imagine tackling that project without a well-written manual, a 1-800 number support line to call, and a PTSD group meeting as an outlet! 🤣🤣🤣
Hahaha 😅 You made my day!
This machine should be used in a mechanical and computer engineering university. Students should know how to disassemble and assemble it and learn the names of the parts. I remember my time as a student, and later as a young electronic engineer, when we learned to thread and manufacture magnetic core memories, we could touch the bits!
My grandparents had one of these on a shelf in their basement. I tried to use it a few times for fun but it was completely seized up
chapeau l'artiste 👍 très beau chalenge
So eine rechen Maschine habe ich auch noch zuhause 👍
Fantastic job! The only drawback... after posting this video, you will become the single-source repair person for arithmometers for the entire planet!!! lol
Brilliance just Brilliance
I'm glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
You wear many hats my friend. Very difficult to do at the levels you do them at.. Very impressive.
Thank you very much!
You're a braver soul than I am.
Thanks for the compliment. 😄
Machined surfaces should be masked for painting to maintain seamless operation. During the assembly process a small amount of oil is needed to some places.
You are a genius mechanic !
and whoever conceived and designed that machine is an ET.
Un travail fantastique !!! Bravo 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Merci beaucoup! 🙂
What's a brilliant restoration! How many pieces did you clean! Incredible
Thanks! Indeed, there was a lot of small parts to clean etc 🙂
Amazing resteration ur a braver man than me for tackling that pheew im glad u got it done it look amazing now well done sir.
Thank you! 👌
Very good job 👍👍👍
Thanks! 🙂
I just took a picture of my cat watching this video with us. He enjoys it as much as we do
Wonderful! I would love to see it.
@@rustyshadesrestoration sent it to you on Facebook Messenger for your page. It was the only way I could figure it out.
Thank you! I'll check it out! 😀
Interesting piece,never seen one or heard of one,but it’s on the internet,so must be true.LOL.very nice work on something that is obviously quite intricate in the day.great video as always.just continue on doing what you do best and carry on.😎😎😎👍👍👍
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed it!
Арифмометр совсем не старинный. Это поздний экземпляр, скорее всего, 1970-е годы. Ручка- барашек была стальная, алюминиевая копия- это плохо, она недостаточно прочная. К сломанной ручке можно было приварить пластинку. Но в целом- хорошая работа.
The adding machine is not at all antique. This is a late example, most likely from the 1970s. The knob handle was steel, the aluminum copy is bad, it is not strong enough. A plate could be welded to the broken handle. But overall, good job.
Thank you. That's hard aluminum 7050; it will survive more pressure than a
welded piece. Cheers
This is such a cool machine
Os genios que criaram deixaram um legado extraordinário. Seres super inteligentes ja passaram por essa terra sem querer ser estrelinhas.
🤩AMAZING👏👏👏✨✨
Glad you enjoyed it!
A lot of repair channels cut corners. They skip repairing some parts or reuse other parts that should be replaced. I think this was very well done. Extra care was taken to replate everything and hammer the sheet steel back into shape. I would have taken apart that second assembly, even if it looks clean, just to make sure it's thoroughly clean and oiled up well since you have it apart. I'm guessing you made that new wing nut out of aluminum. Personally I'm not sure if that would be easy to break again, but machining a new one, or modifying an existing one, out of steel requires extra machining capabilities so I'll give you a pass on that. Also it looks like the left side of that front sheet panel is sloghtly misaligned. Except for the new nut, you were able to keep it all original which is impressive. I would have suspected you'd at least have to change out some screws and springs. My favorite extra care to detail was the replating and hammer forming as you don't see that often with restorations. Nicely done
This was crazy, there were so many parts! It's really fun to watch you restore everything! Your videos are so great!
Just wondering, I'm not knowledgeable about these things, but why did you not need to do a hardening/tempering step after casting the new piece? It almost looked a bit bendy as you were breaking it off the supports.
The part was still hot when I break it off, after that became very hard. I used 7075 aluminium. Is the most common of the 7000 series grades. It is an extremely high strength alloy; the strongest of all commercial grades of aluminium.
Watching this makes me think of the World War II enigma machine, I would love to see a refurbishing of one of those.
I would love to have one in my hands...
Diese Additionsmaschine, wie wir sie nannten, wurde noch in den 60er und 70er Jahren in Büros verwendet.
Wenn man diese Mechanik einmal begriffen hat, konnte man sehr gut mit ihr umgehen.
Es konnten alle 4 Rechenarten verwendet werden.
Heute allerdings müßte ich es auch wieder lernen.
Mir wurde bei dieser Arbeit schwindelig.
Das Auseinanderbauen ging ja noch - aber das spätere zusammenbauen?
Meine Fresse
Great work man 👌🏻
Thank you! 👌
Some 1 allready explained❤😊
Gute Arbeit Mann!
Damit wurden früher die Zieldaten für Raketen beim Militär ausgerechnet (nach einem bestimmten Algorithmus in der Mechanik).
Can we all agree that zinc is the worst metal to make things out of? I saw that a few of the internal components looked a lot like zinc.
It was that kind of a calculocountomaton that inspired the Finnish mechanical wizard Emil Henriksson (1886 - 1959) to design the first Abloy locks and keys in about 1907. He was working at a mechanical workshop in Helsinki at the time under Vilhelm Falck-Rasmussen. He was 21 years old and kept his innovation under a lid for a while. The first locks were introduced to the market in December of 1918. The country was recuperating after a bloody and dividing civil war and jobs and economic activities were sorely needed. The name Abloy = AktieBolaget låsfabriken - Lukkotehdas OsakeYhtiö (in Swedish and Finnish) was formed. The brand and the new technique had to compete with Yale, Chupp and others, so it was touch and go for a while, which was frustrating for Emil, who finally decided to sell his patent to a J.H Nordquist for 100 marks. Equivalent to roughly 50 dollars today, the price was ridiculously low, and as it turned out Mr. Nordquist was a middle man and soon sold the lot back to the company. Emil remained in the companny as a member of the board, a worker and a minority stockholder. Later the economic crisis in the 30's nearly collapsed the entire brand, but after some rather vexing events the company and the brand were saved. By that time Emil had left the company and started a new career in fine mechanics. He was not bitter, only noted that Abloy's problems were not caused by lacking craftmanship but by poor business management.
Amazing job
I still need to learn how to use it correctly, and If you do, please feel free to write me a comment and not only!
I have sent you a link to the original instructions for the Odhner machine, I don't know why the message does not appear.
Thank you! I'll check it spam. Sometimes, links are considered spam.
Great video. I think it could've benefitted with annotations on what and why you were doing things at certain times.
I was late with everything, so this time I couldn't. Usually, I add annotations and translate them into many different languages. Cheers
Вау, советский арифрометр Феликс. Когда я был школьником в 70х, видел такую штуку в металломе. А теперь это антиквариат.😊
I can tell you this much. It has Russian writing all over it.
I did a little googling. This is the Felix Mechanical Arithmometer, 1920-1970
Yes, it is written Felix M and the price
@@rustyshadesrestoration You can find the exact year by looking up the serial number. Very neat little gadget.
Oh, I have to check that. Thanks for the info.
Isto é trabalho bem feito. O resto é o resto. Parabéns. 😊
Obrigado!
Советский механический вычислитель "Феликс-М", завод "Счётмаш", город Курск. Судя по заводскому номеру, год выпуска 1974-1978й. Вероятно, 1976й, но это не точно.....
EXTRAORDINARIO!!!!
🥰
After doing that I think you can do anything
Nice to see! 👍👍 Great 👍!
Thank you for watching! 🙂
Very complex machine and restoration too.Genius who invented this machine.Where the machine was made?
This one is in Kursk, Russia, but as I understood from folks around here, it is a soviet copy of an American design.
great job!
Thanks!
Сколько же таких ставших не нужными феликсов валялось на площадке для сбора металлолома ! Знать бы тогда...
Genial! Parabéns
Obrigado!
Amazing!😮😮😮❤❤❤
Great. When an electromagnetic pulse fries all the electronic calculators, that arithmometer will still work just fine. One question, though: After civilization collapses, what would be left to be counted? (Other than corpses.)
Damn you’re good 👍👍👍👍👍