You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?



23-12-2014 20:50:04  #1


Olympia SF ribbon vibrator adjustment?

I've acquired an Olympia SF that seems in very nice condition.  The only significant issue I've found so far is the ribbon vibrator.

It sits too high both at rest (it obscures the clear plastic type guide and the things I've already typed) and when typing the lowercase descenders miss the ribbon when typing with the lower half of the ribbon, or are typed on the wrong color when using the upper half of the ribbon. Can you point me to how to adjust this or to a maintenance manual? I'd love to get this in top working condition!

The vibrator doesn't seem to be binding or sticking.  At rest if I press down on it gently, the linkage flexes and it goes down a bit but then springs back up when I let go.  There are a lot of pieces to the linkage so I'm having trouble figuring out what adjustments there are.  Also, some of them disappear underneath the right-hand ribbon spool mechanism so are hard to figure out.

The Olympia SF's side-swinging vibrator design seems a bit unusual so the standard maintenance manuals I've found online aren't helping me very much.

My daughter is looking forward to receiving this for Christmas so I'd sure like to figure this little detail out soon! :-)

I could add pictures, if that would be helpful.

Many thanks for any suggestions!

--Rob

 

31-12-2014 14:47:57  #2


Re: Olympia SF ribbon vibrator adjustment?

How did you make out with your Olympia, Rob?


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

01-1-2015 15:51:13  #3


Re: Olympia SF ribbon vibrator adjustment?

Uwe wrote:

How did you make out with your Olympia, Rob?

Thanks for asking, Uwe!  My daughter loves her typewriter and it's amazing to watch her compose stories at it.  She took a little while to figure out the kind of stroke that makes a good impression -- it's a little bit of a challenge for a 9-year old -- but she's got a reasonable two-finger technique now. :-)

I thought I'd attach an image showing a type sample to see if you or others have any thoughts on how to improve it, but I guess I haven't yet qualified to add images to postings...perhaps I can do that in a follow-up!
 

     Thread Starter
 

01-1-2015 15:59:35  #4


Re: Olympia SF ribbon vibrator adjustment?

Here's a sample.  Some of the things I notice:

* Faded tops of some capitals, both with the red and black settings, on the 'MERRY CHRISTMAS' and the 'D' of 'December'
* Exclamation points too low
* Red descender on the black 'p'
* Faint shadows to the right of some characters (most visible in the left parenthesis, where the shadow appears next to the following 'a'
* Missing lower parts of some red letters (the 'S', 'n', and 't' on 'Santa')

Also, on two occasions the vibrator rose high enough on a stroke that it came down between another piece and the platen, jamming up pretty badly and taking some work to get back out and into place again.

We're happy enough as-is, but there's always room to make things better!

     Thread Starter
 

01-1-2015 16:33:45  #5


Re: Olympia SF ribbon vibrator adjustment?

I wonder if the ribbon is installed correctly. If it's binding a bit, it may not be letting the vibrator drop all of the way. Also, I wonder if some of the fading at the top might be the result of a hard platen.

 

01-1-2015 23:59:49  #6


Re: Olympia SF ribbon vibrator adjustment?

If you look at the 'S' in your type sample, the top of the letter was faded in one spot, yet fine in another (where the bottom was suddenly faded). Old, well-used ribbons are sometimes responsible for such inconsistent type, but the ribbon seems to be alright as it's nice and dark in some sections. Still, it's one thing to look at. And like Mr. Greene pointed out, it could also be a problem with the way it has been put in the vibrator; close to 50 percent of the typewriters that I buy have incorrectly installed ribbons. A photo of your vibrator would help determine this very quickly. Another potential problem is inconsistent use of the shift key (very common with those who are only used to using computer keyboards). Lock the shift key down and type some of the letters that are giving you problems for half a line each to see if the type quality varies at all. The exclamation key could be out of alignment. I'd type a full type sample to see how everything looks:



One other thing, as this example type sample demonstrates, it never hurts to thoroughly clean the type slugs. Built-up ink and dirt can case all kinds of type issues.


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

Board footera

 

Powered by Boardhost. Create a Free Forum