Dark gray bodied Olympia SG3 typewriter with white hood sitting on a library card catalog. It's got an orange Olympia logo in the front right corner.
Acquired 1977 Olympia SG3 Standard Typewriter by Olympia Werke AG, Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Serial Number: 7-3855889
Elite, 12 pitch, 6 lines/inch
In generally solid shape out of the box. Some paint worn off body along the corners and a bit dusty with some white out to clean up. It’ll need some tweaks to the a few minor spots, but it should clean up to almost new pretty quickly.

The one glaring issue is a needed tweak to the spacebar to trip the escapement properly. The platen is pretty solid, needs new ribbon, screws on carriage tightened, a ring and cylinder adjustment, right carriage release is sticky, and tabs need some minor attention. Beyond this it is pure butter. What a lovely experience to type on. Who’d have thought such a thing possible in 1977?

Front view of a 1977 Olympia SG3 Typewriter

1977 Olympia SG3 Typewriter with the white hood removed so we can see the naked keyboard and type basket. Closer inspection reveals some dust bunnies inside.

View of most of the typeslugs on a 1977 Olympia SG3 Typewriter

Rear of a 1977 Olympia SG3 Typewriter with the carriage and hood removed. We see all the internals of the machine including the escapement as well as lots of dust around the carriage interfaces.

Rear end of a 1977 Olympia SG3 Typewriter with the carriage removed and sitting on a wooden table behind the typewriter itself.

Faint black ink on an index card as a type sample for a 1977 Olympia SG3 typewriter.

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Chris Aldrich

I'm a biomedical and electrical engineer with interests in information theory, complexity, evolution, genetics, signal processing, IndieWeb, theoretical mathematics, and big history. I'm also a talent manager-producer-publisher in the entertainment industry with expertise in representation, distribution, finance, production, content delivery, and new media.

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