1 of 1- steini
- Touch Typist
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- Registered: 12-4-2017
- Posts: 121
Olympia sm 1 keys
Hi, I got a 49' Olympia SM 1, and it types really well in all the keys. Almost in all of them, 2 of them, the first and the last of the segment have a very different feeling, and don't type anywhere near the other ones! I cleaned the segment and but it seems to be a mechanic problem rather than sticky or dirty mechanism. Any clues with what I can keep trying?
- skywatcher
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- From: The Prairies of Alberta
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Re: Olympia sm 1 keys
Hi Steini
I don't have an Olympia SM-1, but I do have an SM-4. How close these two are in design, I don't know, but here's what I've found on my SM-4. The bell crank (the L-shaped link between the key arm and the type bar) of the two outermost letters do come very close to the ribbon advance mechanism under the ribbon spools. If something has become bent or misaligned, I could see these bell cranks possibly catching on the ribbon advance mechanism.
I would suggest lifting the ribbon cover (hood) of the typewriter, slowly press and release the two outermost keys and see if anything appears to be catching anywhere. Press some of the other keys and watch to see if there's anything different in the action. If the key arms are bent, they may be hanging up on the comb. Explore the inner workings of your machine and look with a seeing eye, you might find something really simple, or it may require a trip to the repair shop. Hope this points you in the right direction,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- steini
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Re: Olympia sm 1 keys
Thanks skywatcher, the wires (bell cranks?) can be bended by hitting part of the ribbon hosting or mechanism, seems like it, but they don't seem to touch anything sistematically, I might need a repairman...in Iceland 
I will leave it for the time being before I make it worse.
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Thread Starter- Fleetwing
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- From: Hartford, CT USA
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Re: Olympia sm 1 keys
Steini, I would suspect that the two outermost keys, or rather the typebars (the levers that actually swing up to strike the ribbon) may still be in need of cleaning. Because they are almost horizontal in their motion, they are more affected by rubbing against the sides of their respective slots in the segment. You may need to do something like taking a toothpick to scrape the inside of the slots. Also, thoroughly clean the sides of the typebars where they touch the slot -- I have found the outermost typebars, because they are almost horizontal, tend to catch more dirt than the others.
I hope this helps. Otherwise, I have no ideas to offer!
- steini
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- Posts: 121
Re: Olympia sm 1 keys
Thanks Fleetwing, I triple clean and checked the typebars and slots, I also saw the bars and levers and bell cranks and none of them seems bent. I am thinking that the problems is nomewhere else, and since both are the exterior keys in the mechanism(not only in the segment) maybe there is somewhere where they touch some old oil or another mechanism. The movement of the keys is slightly harder and they don't make it all the way to the platen, unless I press them quick and hard, but thenoise they do is not like snapy keys, is like an old grampa forced to do too much. 
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Thread Starter