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



16-6-2016 17:08:08  #91


Re: SG Owners Club

Uwe wrote:

Could you post the serial number?

I have a few Olympia models with the Made in Canada label, and although I'm still working on proof of it, my theory is that it was only final assembly that was performed here, perhaps to get around something like import taxes or other for other financial reasons.

Thanks for the insight.  My unit serial number is 7-1866172 and the carriage serial number is 8-1945303.  I also thought that maybe final assembly was performed here, but if that was Olympia's strategy, would not the US have made more sense from a business standpoint?  Given its much larger population and distribution potential, I would theorize that, barring some weird import situation between the US/Germany/Canada, it would be more beneficial to service the larger, more lucrative US market directly, instead of using Canada as an intermediary?.  Perhaps some additional research on the pre-NAFTA trade relationship between Canada and the US on my part is necessary.

Just my $0.02, I could be entirely off base here - I really have no idea.

 

16-6-2016 18:17:00  #92


Re: SG Owners Club

You're assuming that the Made in Canada Olympia models were sold in the U.S., but I don't think that they were, at least I haven't come across any evidence that suggests that they were.

Also, you shouldn't forget that Remington, Royal, Underwood and Smith-Corona had typewriter factories in Canada. And there were other manufacturing/assembly brands in Canada too such as IBM and Commodore. With so many different manufacturers producing typewriters within Canada you can bet that it made financial sense for them, so it shouldn't be a surprise that Olympia found some arrangement to its benefit as well. 

Thanks for posting your serial number. I was confused as to how an all-grey model could have been made in '67, but your serial number confirms that it's actually a '68 model, which makes a lot more sense. Early '67 models had the complete green trim with white keys, and late '67 models such as mine below had minimal green trim, grey keys, and a perspex margin scale.


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

17-6-2016 05:33:07  #93


Re: SG Owners Club

That is the most incredible looking machine. Now I know I'll plow endlessly through the www until it is mine... There goes my nights again.

 

17-6-2016 07:31:36  #94


Re: SG Owners Club

Uwe wrote:

Yeah, 7,6 is for the motion, and not what I was after. However, 87 is for the standard Olympia elite typeface. There's nothing micro about it, it just looks smaller because it's a European-sized elite. Thanks for looking.

Well, I decided to do a little comparison with some of my Olympia typefaces because I had really been convinced this machine had a font smaller than usual.
As you can see, I measured out an inch and counted how many characters (and spaces) were in each typeface in the space of an inch. The "micro elite" type face was a fair deal smaller than the regular SG1 elite, and a lot smaller than pica.


 
 

17-6-2016 17:51:01  #95


Re: SG Owners Club

Once again, someone resorts to actual physical evidence! Oh, the shame. 

Let's calculate with the evidence - the micro font is 10/14 = .71 the size of the pica. It looks dramatically smaller than that, so perhaps what the brain perceives in the ratio of areas - .71^2 = .51? My brain perceives an even smaller ratio than that though: gotta lay off those designer drugs.
 


"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
 

17-6-2016 19:32:11  #96


Re: SG Owners Club

Uwe wrote:

You're assuming that the Made in Canada Olympia models were sold in the U.S., but I don't think that they were, at least I haven't come across any evidence that suggests that they were.

Also, you shouldn't forget that Remington, Royal, Underwood and Smith-Corona had typewriter factories in Canada. And there were other manufacturing/assembly brands in Canada too such as IBM and Commodore. With so many different manufacturers producing typewriters within Canada you can bet that it made financial sense for them, so it shouldn't be a surprise that Olympia found some arrangement to its benefit as well. 

Thanks for posting your serial number. I was confused as to how an all-grey model could have been made in '67, but your serial number confirms that it's actually a '68 model, which makes a lot more sense. Early '67 models had the complete green trim with white keys, and late '67 models such as mine below had minimal green trim, grey keys, and a perspex margin scale.

Whoops, clerical error on my part reporting the serial number - need to read closer next time!  

And that's true, I hadn't considered that the number of other makes with Canadian factories could potentially include Olympia as well. I suppose just because it's new to me doesn't make it new to everyone, haha.  All part of the joy and journey of discovery that is typewriter collecting.  Any chance you can provide information on your best guess at how long Olympias were made in Canada?

Nice SG3 though, hopefully mine will look that good when I'm done with it.  Mine will pair nicely...  SOMEWHERE... with my SG1.  (Lack of) space will dictate where I actually park them, as both currently live on the floor.

One last thought:  I'm toying with the idea of respraying the top cover a brighter shade of white, like the later redesigned models.  That way, I could have the nice script logo on a brighter-coloured machine.  The current colour is really quite dull.  Thoughts?

 

17-6-2016 19:52:30  #97


Re: SG Owners Club

Ampelmann wrote:

 I'm toying with the idea of respraying the top cover a brighter shade of white, like the later redesigned models.  That way, I could have the nice script logo on a brighter-coloured machine.  The current colour is really quite dull.  Thoughts?

I'm not a purist but I would not do it, and here's why: the original finish on this machine is in good shape. It is off-white. At the moment you are not completely enraptured with off-white and think perhaps brighter white would be better. You can spray it, and perhaps do a decent job, but I don't think you can ever reproduce the factory finish (Unless, that is, you have some auto body painting skills... and your avatars is the side of a car. Hmm)
Nevertheless my semi-purist position is that I would not repaint a machine whose factory finish was in very good or better condition just because I preferred a different color! I'd save such a thing for machines whose original finish was not in very good condition so the irreplaceable loss of the as-built finish is not so great.

Since you got me to look carefully at your photos, interesting damage to the leading edge. Lots of typewriters are worn at the front edge from palms and handling but I don't recall seeing pits like that.
 


"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
 

18-6-2016 10:38:01  #98


Re: SG Owners Club

Point taken in the robustness of the factory finish.  I'm no autobody expert, but I do use an airbrush to paint while modeling on occasion.  With the appropriate level of care, I imagine one could do an OK job.  On a machine for resale, I would absolutely leave it factory - but I would be OK with experimenting a bit on a machine that I know I'll be keeping.  At any rate, I need to get the inside of the machine cleaned up before I worry one way or another about the exterior.

However, another thought just crossed my mind while reading your comment; the top panels on an SG3 are quite easy to remove.  If one could procure a worn shell and refinish it, it would only take a couple of minutes to swap out the ribbon cover and the piece under the carriage, and then you could have as many colours as you had shells available...

FYI I'm not actually about to start hunting for clapped-out SG3s, but imagine if you could market designer typewriter shells that you could swap out like smartphone cases?

 

18-6-2016 15:05:23  #99


Re: SG Owners Club

Loving this new acquisition and had to post it up here.

SG 3
6 CPI, not sure of the typeface, looks like number 29, but I can't find the name associated.




 

 

10-10-2016 11:23:14  #100


Re: SG Owners Club

I would nominate Danielle Steele for membership: http://www.wsj.com/articles/danielle-steels-favorite-things-1474903381

The SG1 she's used takes front and center place. She's used it for 155 (!!) books. (Note that hers does have the paper support....) I'm comforted that I paid the same amount for mine as she did.

 

Board footera

 

Powered by Boardhost. Create a Free Forum