Close up of the front of a cleaned vintage 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter
On Wednesday the 6th, I finished up most of the rest of the clean/oil/adjust of my new (to me) 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter. The carriage was probably more involved than the main body, though the main body seems to have made the most difference to have been cleaned out. 

Surely there will be a few subtle adjustments I’ll continue to make as I use it over the coming days and put it thought its paces, but it’s definitely ready for prime time use now. 

While it functions much better now, its action isn’t nearly as fast as some of my other standards. Somehow it manages to be more ponderous, though some of it may be the tremendous size of the 6 CPI typeface. Maybe increasing the tension on the mainspring will help out here, particularly with the oversized platen.

While I love having a larger face typewriter, I can already tell that I’m likely not going to be using this one as frequently as I do my elite and pica machines with more traditional typeface sizes. It sure is fun using it though. I can tell it’ll be a hit at the next local type-in.

I’m including some revised photos of it to compare with the previous “before” photos.

Vintage office scene featuring a large white 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter sits on a vintage steel desk with a glass top. Next to it is a drawer from a wooden card catalog. In the background is a barrister bookcase and several card indexes.

Frontal view of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter on a vintage green steel desk. The main body is in white while the plastic keys are in slate gray with white lettering and the carriage is also in slate gray painted metal.

Oblique angle from the left of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter

Desk level view of the left side of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter with a white top cover and a slate gray bottom.

Angle down on the left side of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter featuring the oversized carriage and a dull metal carriage return lever

Oblique view of the left rear corner of the carriage on a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter

Table level view of the rear of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter. We see a white placard with the Olympia logo on it.

Oblique view of the rear right side of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter featuring the carriage.

Desk level view of the right side of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter. On the end of the carriage we see (from left to right) the platen knob, the carriage release button, and an all tab clear lever

Oblique angle onto the front right corner of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter which has a small orange plastic logo on the right side of the satellite white machine cover.

Close up of the left side of the paper table ruler and the paper bail ruler of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter which features the number 42.

A view into the basket of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter featuring an uncommonly large custom typeface on the typeslugs.

View from behind a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter into the typebasket with the body cover removed and then onto the gray plastic keyed keyboard.

Close up of a san serifed typeface on the slugs of a 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter
The custom 6 CPI Basic Writing No. 67 typeface.

Full frontal view of a topless 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter

Close up of a topless 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter featuring a mottled metal bar under the clear and tab buttons. We also see some rehabilitated rusty metal links inside the machine.

View of the gray plastic keys from the right side of a topless 1971 Olympia SG-3 standard typewriter. We get to see some of the intricate mechanisms of the typebars and keylevers inside the machine.

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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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