Royal Model "O" Typewriter Adjust Ribbon Lift for each Type Bar Lever, Works on Quite Deluxe too. by [[Phoenix Typewriter]]

Forming individual type bars, particularly for capital letters to get the tops to print evenly when they're more faint than other similar typefaces.

You can certainly keep them out on shelves and rely on occasional dusting.

If they're in a dustier-than-typical room or you have compounding factors, like the presence of cats or dogs (like my German Shedder, I meant German Shepherd), and don't want to go the route of traditional fabric-like dust covers, you might consider doing a thicker plastic/acrylic cover which will give you a clear plastic layer of protection, but still show off your machines.

I live in Los Angeles and there are half a dozen places that do this sort of custom plastic work all the time for very reasonable rates. Searching for "plastic fabricator memorabilia case" along with variations of plastics (acrylic, lucite, plexiglass) should get you what you want locally. (Here's a few examples I've used in Los Angeles before to give you an idea: https://solterplastics.com/, https://www.plasticfactoryinc.com/, https://www.customacrylicproducts.com/, https://plexidisplays.com/). Search for something similar in your area for easier communication and cheaper pick up/shipping.

If you search around for companies that make plastic displays, particularly for memorabilia (baseball bats, baseball cards, etc.), you can have them design and make a custom sized clear plastic box/enclosure that will keep the dust and dirt out, but still allow you to see the machine inside. If done well it may actually make them appear more precious because you've taken the additional precaution.

Enclosed glass shelving is also a potential solution as well, but requires a larger investment and also requires more work to rotate machines out for regular use.

Most of my machines get daily use, so I'm not really using them for display or presentation purposes (except for one machine which sits on our library card catalog, but even then, it is frequently used as a standing desk, for occasional poetry by everyone in the family, or for guests who want to try their hand). I go through lots of index cards, so I'll usually temporarily protect against dust, dirt, and fur by slipping an index card on top of the hood or slightly into it to protect the segment.

But at the end of the day, as long as you haven't used WD-40 or some other lubricant on your segment and typebars (and what typewriter monster would do such barbaric things?), you should easily be able to go long periods between dustings and still have a highly functional machine. After all, who hasn't bought a machine full of dirt, dust, White Out, and eraser shavings/crumbs that still works like a dream?

It may bear brief mention for those who display their machines and forget, that you might also disengage the paper lock/paper release lever which will release the tension on your rubber rollers against the platen so that they don't go "flat" or become misshapen when not in use for long periods.

Expansion of https://hypothes.is/a/NjoVMA1REe-f47d0T4ZOkg

Reply to u/Styr0foam at https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1djgjv2/how_to_display_typewriters_properly/

Set of levers and leverage points identified by the authors.

Creating an open public network for radical collaboration, which we will call the Indyweb, can facilitate bottom-up engagement to both educate the public on these levers as well as be an application space to crowdsource the public to begin sharing local instantiations of these levers.

An Indyweb that is in the form of an interpersonal space in which each individual is the center of their data universe, and in which they can see all the data from their diverse digital interactions across the web and in real life all consolidated in one place offers a profound possibility for both individual and collective learning. Such an Indyweb would bring the relational nature of the human being, the so called "human INTERbeing" alive, and would effortlessly emerge the human INTERbeing explicitly as the natural form merely from its daily use. One can immediately see the relational nature of individual learning, how it is so entangled with collective learning, and would be reinforced with each social interaction on the web or in real life. This is what is needed to track both individual inner transformation (IIT) as well as collective outer transformation (COT) towards a rapid whole system change mobilization. Accelerated by a program of open access Deep Humanity (DH) knowledge that plumbs the very depth of what it is to be human, this can accelerate the indirect drivers of change and provide practical tools for granular monitoring of both IIT and COT.

Could we use AI to search for levers and leverage points?

leverage points and levers can bring about disproportionately large positive effects.