Portable labeling machine

A portable labeling machine having a housing extended by a handle with control lever and comprising at least a movable printhead driven by the control lever to imprint by striking movements selected characters on self-adhesive labels supported by a continuous strip, said printhead being provided with a character selection shank rotatively and axially movable along its longitudinal axis from a rest inward position up to outward selection positions and with stop means for maintaining said character selection shank in any one of said positions, and a safety device adapted to prevent the striking movements of the printhead when the character selection shank is not completely in its rest inward position, which safety device comprises a retractable movable abutment and a stationary counter-abutment, said retractable movable abutment having a protruding position in which it engages said counter-abutment in the rest position of the printhead to prevent the striking movements of the printhead and a retracted position in which said retractable movable abutment does not engage said counter-abutment and does not prevent the striking movements of the printhead, wherein one of said retractable movable abutment and stationary counter-abutment is mounted on the printhead and the other is mounted on the housing, spring means in contact with said retractable movable abutment to permanently bias said retractable movable abutment to urge it into the protruding position, wherein an antagonist thrust member is axially bound to the character selection shank to urge said retractable movable abutment into retracted position at the end of the inward stroke of said character selection shank, and wherein the bias of said spring means is lower than the retaining force of the stop means acting on said character selection shank.