Forget gasoline. Dismiss lighter fluid. Let slip the idea of lacquer thinner.
When I clean my type slugs, I only use bourbon.
I usually type up a short introduction card for the handful of typewriters sitting around the house so that visitors will have an idea of what they’re appreciating. It’s almost like having a museum card on a work of art, but usually mine have a call to type on them. Naturally there are either index cards or paper close at hand to encourage both touching and typing.
Above is the brief introduction to the 1955 Royal HH I finished repairing, cleaning out, and re-assembling today.
Ready to type at the end of the day, a Royal HH sits next to a Negroni.
Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their party.
You see photos of standard typewriters, but you’re never ready for what shows up. To provide some scale, here are my 12.8 pound 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe portable and my 29.8 pound 1955 Royal HH standard next to each other. The Royal HH is a substantial typewriter. (I think I’m in love. 😍)
I got a 1958 Olympia SM3 De Luxe typewriter in a gray crinkle finish for my birthday. Naturally I’ve been doing some research and working on cleaning it up for regular use.
Along the way I’ve been aggregating some related Olympia SM3 (and other SM family) resources and videos which include several on use, a few comparing them to other machines (for those considering buying them), and a variety on taking them apart and adjusting them to peak performance including doing rack, ring & cylinder, on feet, motion, silent return spring, trip timing, and spacebar adjustments.
I’ve tried to place the videos in rough order of introductory to more advanced as well as in order of adjustments. They’re now available as a Olympia SM3 playlist:
Special thanks should go to Duane Jensen of Phoenix Typewriter and Gerren Balch of The HotRod Typewriter Co. for the bulk of the work in creating and generating most of these videos.
Surely there are other excellent videos out there, but this list makes a pretty solid crash course which can be used as a jumping off point.
Hopefully this aggregated list of resources will help the next Olympia typewriter enthusiast who finds one in grandma’s basement or who wants to kick off a writing career following in the footsteps of fellow SM3 typists including John Updike, Woody Allen, Frank Herbert, Patricia Highsmith, Robert Penn Warren, Harlan Ellison, Carson McCullers, John Hughes, Louis L’ Amour, William Gaddis, Stan Laurel, Ryan Adams, Ruskin Bond, Evan S. Connell, Kevin McGowin, or Anaïs Nin.
If I’ve missed any truly important resources, please do let me know.
Cheers!
Spending part of the day cleaning up the 50th birthday Olympia SM3 typewriter. It’s “fuzzier” than I thought it would be initially.
If you’ve gotten a terribly dusty and dirty typewriter and don’t have an air compressor or canned air at home, a quick trip to the car wash might not only get your car clean, but allow you to blow out your typewriter too!
(They might not smile much on your use of mineral spirits while you’re there, so use caution.)
I used a hand towel underneath the typewriter to capture any springs, loose screws, or pieces that might pop out just in case. You don’t want to loose anything at the carwash.If only the car mat platform was horizontal for typewriter cleaning…
Usually I don’t make typewriter acquisition posts until I’ve done some reasonable work to get them cleaned up and working well. I’m going to make an exception with this one because it’s in much rougher shape than others I’ve picked up. It’s going to take more work to clean up and get functioning properly again. I’ll try to document the work I do on it to get it back into fighting shape.
I suspect it’s either going to be this or an Olympia SG1 I’ve had my eye on which will be my daily standard machine.
The Royal HH
First, it’s a Royal HH. It’s one of Royal’s standard desktop machines which they started manufacturing in 1952 and which ran until at least 1957.
This is my first standard typewriter as most of the others in my collection are portable typewriters which accompany one ultra-portable. “Standard” indicates its a big machine that was meant to be placed permanently on a desk. At about 30 pounds, it wasn’t meant to be carried around like the portables, but on the other hand, being built with more weight and internal space, it was designed to work smoothly forever with modest care. Thirty pounds is a lot of typewriter. For comparison, my Smith-Corona Silent is just 12.8 pounds.
According to Richard Polt’s well-researched compilation, writers who were known to own and use the Royal HH include: William Buckley, Charles Bukowski, George Burns, Herb Coen, Truman Capote, Bruce Catton, Patty Chayefsky, Don Dellilo, Alicen Denham, James T. Farrell, Paul Russell, Hugh Heffner, Elia Kazan, Sterling North, Robert B. Parker, Syliva Plath, Mario Puzo, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, and William Zinzer.
The serial number stamped on the right side of my machine just underneath the carriage when moved to the left is HHE-5765903, which the typewriterdatabase.com places as a late 1955 machine. (The grid for the Royal serial numbers starts 1955 with 5,500,000 and the 1956 model year stars with serial number 5,787,000.) The HH portion of the serial number identifies it as an HH model and the E indicates that it’s an elite typeface with 12 characters per inch versus the P which was reserved for pica typeface (usually 10 CPI). Like most typewriters of this vintage it also types at 6 lines per inch.
Based on the available original colors listed at the Typewriter Database, I’m going to say that mine is done in Royaltone Light Gray wrinkle. Other HH model paint colors included: Charcoal Grey smooth, Nile Green smooth, Horizon Blue smooth, Coral Rose, Gray Frieze, and Royaltone Dark Gray wrinkle.
Purchase and initial observations/testing
I got this typewriter in an uncontested online auction for $5.99, so in my book it’s already a steal. It had sat on the site for weeks, slowly coming down from a price of $30. Sadly as is almost always the case with online auctions, shipping is the true ordeal. Even moreso when you consider that this typewriter is 2-3 times the weight and significantly larger than portable machines. It also doesn’t help that these machines never had cases.
Naturally the seller chose a poorly sized box, put in some heavy padding, threw the typewriter in, and put some modest, but heavily inadequate padding around it. That’s it… ugh. They made no effort to secure the carriage, so when I opened it up, it was all the way to the right. They didn’t even bother to do padding for the back of the machine.
How not to package up a typewriter for shipping.
Worse, it definitely took some hits in shipping so the right side Magic Margin lever is bent and isn’t working. Not having the carriage in place, the left side also took a major hit and the frame in the back left corner is bent so that the carriage doesn’t move freely. It’s going to take some heavy work to get it back into alignment if it can be done at all.
With a screwdriver as a lever and some significant manual help, I was able to eke out a short typing sample. The key action is gummy at best though none of the keys were too sticky. I expect a thorough cleaning will revive a more snappy typing action.
It’s definitely going to need a serious cleaning both inside and out. Someone wrote a large “50” on the back of the machine in the left rear in thick black magic marker. (Perhaps it was from a large typing pool with at least 50+ machines?) This seemed like a a propitious “sign” when I bought it as a 50th Birthday present, so let’s hope for good luck as a result. The decals on it are mediocre at best, so maybe it’s a good candidate for redoing the exterior even though the rest of the paint is in really good condition.
The alignment of the type is generally okay, but it’s going to need at least a motion adjustment. There’s some occasional piling of letters in my short test. Hopefully some of it clears up in cleaning, but knowing my terrible typing technique and Royal’s famous finicky touch, it may also need some adjustment afterwards to the timing.
The platen is as hard as they come, and will need replacing.
The all black ribbon isn’t totally horrible, but is a tad old and on the drying side. It came with original metal standard spools. I’m sure I’ll swap out the ribbon for a new bichrome black/red which the machine supports. It’s possible that the ribbon reverse mechanism may need some help.
The right platen knob is loose. It’s going to need a screw tightened and/or replaced. The variable spacing mechanisms seem to work, but could be cleaner in their functioning.
Hopefully I don’t run across any additional internal damage or issues as a result of the poor shipping.
Favorite Feature
Because I do a lot of typing on index cards, I can already tell that the most interesting feature on this machine are the spring loaded card fingers. They’ve got tiny little switches on them, which—when pressed—flip them over and out of the way.
Complete 1946 OAMI Service and Adjustment Manual Covering:
Standard Manual Typewriters: Remington * Royal * Underwood * Woodstock * L.C. Smith,
Portable Manual Typewriters: Remington * Royal * Corona * Underwood.
Typewriter Tools, Ribbon Spools, Ribbons, Platens, Springs and Ball Bearings Reference.
Typewriter Typeface and Keyboard Reference.
An early birthday present has arrived!
I’m hoping this 8’x10′ non-slip rug pad can be cut down into enough typewriter pads to accommodate the segment of typewriters in my collection. They’ll both help protect my wooden tables from scratches as well as to keep my typewriters from “travelling” during use.
I may have just acquired a 1958 Olympia SM3 portable typewriter. I suspect it would make a good 50th birthday present come Monday. I’ll spend some time over the weekend cleaning it up.
Two months ago at the end of April, I saw a Royal QDL for sale for $9.99. The temptation was just too much to own what appeared to be a mid-1950s model typewriter for such a pittance. The gray body with the green keys was appealing. I was already a fan of my 1949 Royal QDL designed by Henry Dreyfuss. I was totally unsure of the condition, but it didn’t look half bad from the photos I saw at the time.
Naturally the seller totally botched the shipping, didn’t lock the typewriter into its case or provide any internal packing materials, so it was left it to rattle around inside its case as it wended its way across the country from Indiana to Los Angeles. There was some damage, but I’ve managed to carefully repair the worst of it this past weekend as a way of celebrating National Typewriter Day. This beauty entered my collection on 2027-05-07.
Now that I’ve got it cleaned up and adjusted pretty well with a new ribbon spinning around inside, I have to admit it may be one of the most solid machines in my segment of typewriters.
I’ll admit that the mid 1950s Royals don’t seem to be the most sexy or desirable machines out there from a collectors’ perspective. As a result they’re often available at bargain basement prices like the almost $10 I paid for this one. But on the other hand, they’re sturdy and reliable, and make really great machines for the money. If you’re new to the typewriter game and want to actually type on a regular basis, you really can’t go too far wrong with one like this. I’ve now picked up three for incredible pricing and all of them have been highly workable right out of the box.
If it helps, this popular model of typewriter was the machine of choice for Alistair Cooke, Clifford Odets (ca ’57), Marlon Brando, General Claire Chennault (ca ’57), Stephen King, James Michener (’49/’50), Edward R. Murrow, David Niven, Anne Sexton, and Theodore Sturgeon (’48).
Design
Naturally as a 1955, this machine follows the striking redesign of the QDL by Henry Dreyfuss in 1948. While it doesn’t have the same stark angular shape as the ’48-’50 models it still follows his general template, but with green and white doubleshot plastic molded keys instead of the glass tombstone keys. As a 1955 model it’s got just about all the bells and whistles a manual typist could ask.
Overall condition
Despite the rattled shipment cross country, the machine was generally in good shape for its 69 years around the sun. The keys all worked reasonably well, and the interior wasn’t great, but also wasn’t as dusty and dirty as some machines I’ve acquired. One of the biggest areas of wear is the numerical scale on the paper bail. The exterior was quite dirty, but cleaned up nicely with mild detergent and water. I could probably go back and be more aggressive with it, but there is something nice about leaving a bit of the patina of use. There are a few scuffs and the decals are in generally good shape though a touch faded on the back. My general experience with these Royal decals is that they don’t do well with water or even the lightest cleaning, so generally I leave them alone.
The serial number RA-3010220 places its manufacture between January 1955 (2,977,900) and January 1956 (3,177,500). Based on my very basic, unscientific linear manufacturing birthday calculation using data from the Typewriter Database, I would celebrate this QDL’s birthday as February 28, 1955. For the die hard movie fans, this means it might have been the sort of contemporary machine that George McFly might have used in Hill Valley on November of that year to write some science fiction.
The typewriter came with modern plastic universal spools and a monochrome black ribbon which seemed spotty at best, so I quickly opted to replace it with new bichrome black and red ribbon which better suits its functionality. I do wish I had the original metal spools.
The machine internally was in broadly good shape, but needed some very light cleaning which went fairly quickly with some mineral spirits. I’m generally happy now with the overall alignment of the machine. When typing at full speed I do occasionally get some piling up of letters, but it’s infrequent enough that I’ll let it go for the moment.
I want to play around with both the touch control and the speed control settings before I tinker with the alignment any more. I still want to experiment a bit with the Magic Margins on this machine some more, particularly as it has both left and right and my other Royals only have the automatic functionality for the left hand margins. This QDL has a medium weighted segment shift.
The return lever was a bit sticky but easily cleanable and repairable. The space bar was at a bit of an angle, and I had some issues with it when re-attaching the body panels which caused both the space bar and the keys to bind and not work. Forming the spacebar a bit got it not only back into the body, but functioning properly as well as square with the world again.
I also want to properly polish up the keys and give a final tweak to the level of the ribbon so the bichrome is perfectly aligned.
Keys
This Quiet De Luxe has 49 keys all in the same green plastic with white lettering. It has a standard QWERTY-based U.S. keyboard for 1950s typewriter. The left and right shifts, and left shift lock are blank. The “BACK SPACE” key is in the upper left and the “TAB” key is in the upper right. The margin release (labeled “MAR REL”) is sitting between banks 2 and 3 on the right hand side. The spacebar at the bottom spans the length of about 7 of the standard keys.
Other Functionality
It didn’t come with one, so the closest manual I could find online was a 1952 manual via Richard Polt’s website.
The “RA” serial prefix introduced “Speed Control” motor tension control, similar to “Carriage Control” on the Royal standard model HH. According to the Typewriter Database this feature vanished with the end of the RA prefix QDLs in 1956. I’ve only tinkered with this feature a little bit, but hope to circle back on it in the future.
Looking into the right side of the carriage is a worm drive and a numbered indicator numbered 1-5 and controlled by the black thumbscrew on the left side of the machine.
The back of the machine has a spring loaded paper table which is actuated and held by two metal hooks. The right side of the paper table had taken a hit (probably in shipping) and the hook on the right hand side had become disconnected. A bit of forming and patient work got it reconnected and it now seems to be functioning as expected.
This QDL has a tabulator hidden underneath the paper table. It’s set manually using several sliding blocks along a metal bar.
The platen knob on the left hand side has a permanent variable spacing push button on the outside which allows the platen to turn freely. For temporary variable spacing of the platen (often done for subscript and superscript characters) there’s a black thumb switch on the left just to the right of the carriage return. Once those characters are typed, flip the switch back and the platen re-engages at the same spacing set up as before. Just to the left of this switch is a sliding switch to control the single, double, or triple spacing mechanism.
There is no sign of a carriage centering or locking mechanism.
The back of the paper table has an embedded spring loaded pair of metal rabbit ear-like paper supports.
This model has a variation of Smith-Corona’s “Page Gage”, but will require some thinking about to use properly as it doesn’t seem as straightforward as S-C’s version.
This machine did have some felt on the main body panels, but none under the hood or in the paper table, and not nearly as much as some of the 1950s Smith-Corona machines.
Case
The case for the typewriter is a sturdy, relatively thick fiberboard covered in yellow tweed-like fabric on the outside with a smooth green interior. There is a solid metal cleat in the back to which the rear of the typewriter can be inserted and there are two metal cleats with clamps that hold the front sides of the typewriter down. There is a thumb lever on the left rear hinge of the case which allows the top to be separated easily from the bottom. It has some scratches, marks and wear, but nothing out of the ordinary for a case of this age and use.
The top of the case has a traditional U-shaped bracket for holding papers, but there are also to metal brackets on either side to help hold the typewriter in place while the case is closed. One of them is a long flat fin which helps to push the return lever and hold it in while the case is closed.
The hardware on the case seems to be in good condition including the chromed lock and the black Bakelite handle. Naturally, though the lock works as expected, this machine didn’t come with an included key. Finally the case has some rubber feet on the “closed bottom” configuration, but seems to be missing the feet for use with the case open. I’ll see if I can’t pick up something period appropriate to remedy this.
Typeface Sample
This machine has an pica typeface with 10 characters per inch and a traditional bichrome switch as well as a stencil setting.
Sound
Here’s a sound sample of inserting a sheet of paper, aligning it writing a sentence, the bell, and a return on the 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe:
Photo Gallery
Below are some additional photos of this lovely Quiet De Luxe. There are some additional photos of this typewriter taken apart into pieces from a prior post about cleaning and repairing portions.
Ted Munk (Lulu)
