1971 Olympia SG3 #7-2663226

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Chris Aldrich (chrisaldrich)
Created: 07-13-2025 at 03:32PM
Last Edit: 08-08-2025 at 01:08AM

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Description:

2025-07-11 Received as a birthday present. It was hiding a Basic Writing No. 67 typeface at 6CPI making this the first large typeface in my collection.

2025-08-05 Spent about three hours tonight disassembling and cleaning the carriage portion of this machine. The grinding/sticking I was 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 well. 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 drawband managed to slip off it's mount and the mainspring's unwinding broke the drawband at the metal attachment to the carriage. It took a while to remove the old material, form the cleat open, reseat the drawband and then close it back up. Fortunately re-tensioning the mainspring was pretty simple and straightforward.

The platen action is 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.

In cleaning it, I also noticed that the carriage return arm apparently used to be chromed, but 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.

The toughest part of the operation was the insane amount of degreaser 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.

Typeface Specimen:

Links:

• Acquired 1971 Olympia SG-3 Standard Typewriter with a Story Book Typeface
• Cleaning of the carriage
• Cleaned, Oiled, and Adjusted 1971 Olympia SG3

Photos:

Notice the 42 on the left side of the paper table's ruler. This indicates the machine's pitch is 4.2m/m or 6 CPI.

Notice that the ribbon selector only has two real options: blue and stencil. The 6 CPI typeface is so large that it requires a monochrome ribbon to accommodate the type.

Hunter: Chris Aldrich (chrisaldrich)

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Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 1242

Hello! I’m a Johns Hopkins trained biomedical and electrical engineer with a variety of interests in the entertainment industry, information theory, evolution, big history, genetics, signal processing, transgenetics, translational medicine, and theoretical mathematics. I’m a strong advocate of the IndieWeb movement.

I have a love for analog office equipment including library card catalogs and typewriters. As of March 2025, I've got a segment of 45 typewriters, mostly portable and manual models along with several Royal standards, a Remington Standard, and one SMC typebar electric. I have been learning how to completely overhaul all of the machines in my collection, all of which work well aside from one or two machines which need some parts. I have a burgeoning collection of typewriter tools for continually repairing, maintaining, and upgrading my machines.

2024 was broadly a year of collecting portables and 2025 seems to be shaping up to be the year of the standards. I'm slowly morphing my TWdB collection photos so that the "hero" photos of the machine facing to the right (with the left side of the typewriter facing front generally with the carriage return in the front) are those that have been generally cleaned /restored while those facing to the left (with the right side of the typewriter facing front with carriage return in the rear) are those that still need cleaning, oiling, adjustment or a major repair. Those facing forward generally need work as well. Certainly some don't fit this pattern, but I hope to fix them all shortly as I get the requisite photos.

I've got more than half a dozen card catalogs including a Gaylord Bros. and a Steelcase along with several Remington Rand and some Shaw-Walkers. I've lost count of my index card collection once I passed 10,000.