thetypewriterman wrote:

Never, never use silver solder as Mary has.  The correct alloy is tin/lead.  To be fair, she didn't realise.

What is the problem with using silver solder for type slugs?

del20nd, welcome to this forum. You'll find it useful.

Did you read this thread from the beginning? Your observations are covered pretty thoroughly in the early part, before the skills, knowledge, and ethics digression. That part references a still-earlier thread with yet more detail about your observation, at https://typewriter.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=3327. Check it out and let us know whether it covers your concerns about the Olympus SG3 right margin design.

I'll grant that it does not go into the actual mechanisms that accomplish this operation but at least it may put you at ease about what is happening even though it may leave you wondering whether yours is physically adjusted properly.
 

I hope this will help with this question:

**Typewriter Ribbon Sources**:
 
FJA Products: https://www.fjaproducts.com/ , and 1 - 800 - 982 - 9989.
 
Baco Ribbons makes ribbons in many sizes, colors, and materials. Contact Charlene Oesch, Baco Ribbon & Supply Co., 1521 Carman Road, Ballwin,MO 63021, 314-835-9300, fax 636-394-5475, e-mail bacoribbon@sbcglobal.net.
 
Ribbons Unlimited, https://www.ribbonsunlimited.com/Default.asp,  or write to lanie@ribbonsunlimited.com
 
Tony Casillo of TTS Business Products in Garden City, NY, carries many varieties of ribbon and can advise you on the correct spool, ribbon material, etc. Call 516-489-8300 or e-mail typebar@aol.com.
 
Jay Respler of Advanced Business Machines Co. in New Jersey carries ribbons for virtually all typewriters: Phone 732-431-1464 after 11 AM Eastern,or e-mail jrespler@superlink.net."I offer nylon, cotton, silk, and all colors. I can get many odd sizes.I stock newer cartridges as well as older spools. I supply pictures of spools to help determine what the customer needs. We ship anywhere in the world."
 
Earl De Barth, of www.debarth.org, telephone number 215-855-6851, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm ET, e-mail imanager@debarth.org,has the material for the 25 mm and wider ribbons. He has no spools, so requests that the purchaser send him a spool on which to wind the new ribbon. He can sometimes provide ribbons in colors other than black or black/red. Prices vary according to length, number of ribbons purchased, etc.
 
TypewriterStuff: see Tony at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TypewriterStuff
 
Other US manufacturers are Fine Line Ribbon in Ennis, TX and Bushnell Ribbon in Santa Fe Springs, CA.. Other sources include Royal, Scantracker, ....
 
Of course, someone will suggest Amazon and eBay but I would rather support the guys who do the work and need the support.
 
In addition to the sources above, you might find some in office

skatermem wrote:

Basically what I'm trying to get at is, the margin release button does nothing (other than spring back out smoothly when pushed lol) when the carriage has stopped on the first stop point on the left margin block, is there a spring missing? or does anyone have any pictures of the area so i can compare?
Thanks

Unclear about "the first stop point on the left margin block". The test is this: push the carriage against either margin, then hold down the Margin Release key and push the carriage further. It should go, past where the margin stop had stopped it. The margin release key will do nothing unless there is a force to push the carriage beyond where the margin stop had stopped it. (And if the margin is set at the extreme end of carriage travel, then the MR key cannot do anything.)

There is not a spring involved in releasing the stop; there is a spring to return it to its rest position.

OlivWriter wrote:

Thank you, but there is also another difference that I notice, the "W" on some models has the central bar that goes up to the top, and other models have the central bar that stops halfway up...
What does this represent ?
 

That represents a design choice by the typeface designer, a variation for style reasons. You can see a similar, tho opposite, variation in some "M" designs. In fact, once you begin looking closely at typeface design, you will see a tremendous number of such tiny differences in all the characters (though not in every pair of characters every time). Such variations show up often in the numerals and such alpha characters as G, g, Q, f, K, R, and so on. You will see dollar signs with one vertical line and others with two.

This is the same phenomenon you see when you compare typeface designs on your computer: Times, Baskerville, Garamond, Palatino, Cambria, Bookman, Courier, Goudy, Minion, Bembo, Wiedeman among serif designs and Arial, Avant Garde, Avenir, Comic Sans, Eras, Helvetica, etc. among sans serif designs.

None of these designs have anything whatsoever to do with pica and elite in typewriters which are solely measures of pitch and not even the height of the characters.

HTH