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14-8-2018 18:20:42  #1


Olympia Splendid 66 carriage locked?

Hi all,

I'm a complete newbie to typewriters. I'm a photographer and got into analog photography about a year ago and my fascination with the non-digital has stretched over to typewriters and I picked up an Olympia Splendid 66 today from a thrift store.

Since I knew practically nothing of typewriters when I bought it I was only looking for sticky keys. It had a few but I had seen a video or two of how to fix that by cleaning/bending. What I didn't look for was what I've come to learn is the carriage, it doesn't advance when typing or pulling the "carriage return lever"(googling names over here). I'll show a video of what I'm talking about.




In regards to fixing the sticky keys I've also run into issues there and wondering if there are any tips. I've been using a toothbrush and alcohol to clean the keys and it was working alright for a while. I had a key here or there still sticking which is when I found out that some might stick because they need to be bent slightly. This works for the sticky keys but what seems to happen is that when I bend one key, one close to it seem to get bent too. I'm cleaning/bending and doing the "lazy fox"-sentence. I'll go "the quick brown" and it'll be fine until say "n", I'll tinker with N until it works properly and I'll go once more: the quick brown, only to find say "B" to be sticking all of a sudden. This practically makes it impossible to make all the keys work and I feel like I have more sticky keys now than I did when I bought it. Any tips on what to do here?

Sorry for the long first post - my entire body hurts from sitting for hours trying to get this thing to work and I'm very frustrated and would very much appreciate any help I can get regarding one or both of my issues!

Thanks all


Yours,
Simon

 

15-8-2018 03:30:50  #2


Re: Olympia Splendid 66 carriage locked?

'Advice' on the internet has a lot to answer for.  Because you are bending the typebars (which are hardened on this model and shouldn't normally need bendind at all), you are acutally pulling the segment slots open. This then closes up the adjacent segment slot which makes that typebar stick.  Keep pulling the machine about in this way, and you will break the segment, or maybe a typebar in no time at all - thus completely ruining one of the best models of flat portable ever manufactured.  The carriage problem will be something to do with the escapement (the mechanism that allows the carriage to move one space at a time)  If you are not sure what you are doing, consider taking the machine to a professional.  Yes, it will cost you money and effort - but you will have a really nice typewriter once it has been repaired.

 

16-8-2018 09:28:15  #3


Re: Olympia Splendid 66 carriage locked?

thetypewriterman wrote:

'Advice' on the internet has a lot to answer for.  Because you are bending the typebars (which are hardened on this model and shouldn't normally need bendind at all), you are acutally pulling the segment slots open. This then closes up the adjacent segment slot which makes that typebar stick.  Keep pulling the machine about in this way, and you will break the segment, or maybe a typebar in no time at all - thus completely ruining one of the best models of flat portable ever manufactured.  The carriage problem will be something to do with the escapement (the mechanism that allows the carriage to move one space at a time)  If you are not sure what you are doing, consider taking the machine to a professional.  Yes, it will cost you money and effort - but you will have a really nice typewriter once it has been repaired.

Thanks for your reply. In regards to the carriage I got a comment on reddit saying: "Try this, push the carriage carefully, with a bit more force, your other hand as a preventer on the opposite side of the carriage. Push gently, and slowly ramp up the force you use. See if it moves at all with a bit more force. If it does, the main gear is partially frozen"

I made a 4th attempt to fix the typewriter even though I had deemed it dead for now, but since I hadn't tried this I did and it wouldn't move. It always felt as if it was locked somehow but as I was pushing it and genlty increasing the force it sort of snapped and it started working! It does lock up every now and then as I type but so far I've been able to recover every time by pulling the lever on the right side and moving the carriage left to right and eventually it'll start working again.

With this in mind I decided to dive into the keys again. Did the whole "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" and interestingly enough "only" about 6-7 keys were sticking(this is after me bending them quite hard on my previous 3 attempts), so I proceeded to bend away, with caution of course, and now all the keys work just fine!

So all in all the machine works good enough for now!

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