Tonight I spent about three hours disassembling and cleaning the carriage portion of my 1971 Olympia SG-3. I really love the fact that flipping two levers inside the shell allows the entire carriage to lift up and off for easier servicing.
The grinding/sticking I was originally getting mid-carriage was due to a piece of the right carriage cover being bent back and over itself. Removing it and forming it back remedied the situation fairly quickly. I cleaned and treated the rear body panels which show signs of rust developing underneath the paint. (Rust on other portions of the machine indicate it was kept in a less-than-ideal location for years.)
Just as I was nearing completion, the draw band managed to slip off its mount and the mainspring’s unwinding broke the draw band at the metal attachment to the carriage. It took a while to remove the old material, form the cleat open, reseat the draw band and then close it back up. Fortunately re-tensioning the mainspring was pretty simple and straightforward.
The platen action is now so smooth that with the variable lever in the open position, the entire platen will spin freely in a way I’ve never seen a typewriter manage before. Sadly it shows that the right platen knob has a small eccentricity, though it’s so minor I think I’ll leave it alone for now.
In cleaning it, I also noticed that the carriage return arm apparently used to be chromed, but it was done so badly it’s all been peeled off at this point. As a result, the return arm has a galvanized appearance which isn’t ideal. I’ll have to consider some options to improve it in the future.
The toughest part of the operation was the insane amount of degreaser (acetone tonight) it took to clean off the margin rail to get the margin sets to work properly. I have a feeling that someone managed to get Scotch tape stuck up underneath the left margin set, and it took 20 minutes to flush it all out. Now they’re as smooth as butter. I really appreciate the easy-to-use form factor of these margin sets.
Body serial number: 7-2663226
Carriage serial number: 8-2710434
Custom Basic Writing No. 67 typeface; 6 CPI (4.2 m/m), 3 lines/inch
Body cover in Saturn White with Slate Gray bottom shell.
An observant friend knew I was looking for either an Olympia SG-1 or an SG-3 typewriter and got an SG-3 for me for my birthday on July 8th. It arrived on Friday the 11th. Naturally I was excited to open it up, but I was even more surprised to discover that it was hiding a relatively rare typeface, particularly for an Olympia. (The sender confirmed they had no idea about the typeface, they were just trying to snag an SG-3 for me.)
Basic Writing No. 67 Typeface
None of the Olympia typeface catalogs I’ve ever seen include this particular typeface. The closest I’ve seen to a match for it is the Basic Writing No. 67 (6 CPI) which was available as a custom order for Smith-Corona machines in the 60s onward. The 1964 NOMDA Blue Book includes it as does the Smith-Corona Typestyles catalog from 1968. Slug/foundry marks I’ve seen for the Smith-Coronas have a “29” on them while mine reads “2985”. I’m suspecting the 29s have something in common via the foundry while the 85 might be indicative of the length of the rule on the carriage.
In comparing exemplars, I’m reasonably certain that they’re identical due to the nature of the distinctive numbers 4, 9, the letter t and the sharply angled connectors on the u and the n.
While it was surely a custom order, Olympia apparently did it often enough that they bothered to have Perspex carriage rules custom made for the size. The rule on the back of this one has a “42” in the left rear corner which was surely an internal indicator for a 4.2m/m typeface. (4.2 m/m = 25.4 mm/inch x 1 inch/6 characters). It’s common on most Olympias for their rules to be either stamped or marked with the rule size like this most likely to ensure the correct rules were put onto the appropriate typewriters during manufacturing and assembly.
This particular machine has a very wide 15 inch platen and the rule only measures up to 85 characters! For type this large, you’re sure to want wider paper to actually fit something on it. As a comparison, my 1977 Olympia SG-3 with a shorter 13″ platen has a rule that measures up to 145 characters. That machine is also marked with a 21 in the left corner to indicate that it’s 2.1 m/m or 12 pitch (elite) machine.
Because of the large format typeface, this machine does not accommodate bichrome ribbon like most SG-3s. As a result, the ribbon color selector on the left side of the keyboard which would typically be labeled blue, white, red (from top to bottom) is labeled white, white, blue. I’ve spooled it up with a new monochrome black ribbon on universal spools. Though it’s from the early 70s when it was more common, this machine also has a 1/! key to better differentiate the numeral 1 and the lower case letter L.
The custom modified ribbon color selector on the SG-3 keyboard.
To show just how large this typeface really is, I’m including a sample of it along side of the standard Royal pica and elite typefaces.
Condition
The typewriter itself is in reasonable condition for its age. Someone has obviously left it in a somewhat humid environment where it was neglected for a few decades. The spacious area underneath the carriage had the cobwebs and skeletons of at least four nice sized spiders. Some of the metal pieces inside have some surface rust that will need to be mitigated. I’ve wiped off the exterior shell and given the interior a preliminary blow out with the air compressor. I’ve oiled the carriage rails lightly, and I’ve put a new ribbon into it and the alignment seems reasonable, though I’m sure to make an adjustment or two when I get to giving it a full clean, oil, and adjust. The carriage has something slightly out of alignment as it binds at about the midpoint, but I’m sure I’ll find it when I’ve stripped it down for a full clean.
In the meanwhile, it’s in good enough condition for general use.
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?
