Repartee wrote:

Spazmelda wrote:

The Erika cleaned up nicely Repartee!

Even better than that, it's healthy!

My daughter's friend came over today and I went ahead and gave her the typewriter.  She was absolutely thrilled! 

Spazmelda, thanks for sharing that! That's a wonderful photo. It's refreshing to see not just a disembodied typewriter but an actual human being using it. I like your typewriter collection - or that little corner of it. I believe I can count nine machines, not counting the one your daughter's friend is using. I have a feeling there are more... 

Yes, when I say cleaned up nicely I was including the function as well!  Very nice.  Don't you love cleaning and fixing one like that?

I think my collection is up to 23 manuals now (not including the little Sears which is now passed along), and the 2 electrics that are in their cases you can see in the picture I posted. Most of them are displayed on shelves behind where my daughter's friend is sitting so they don't show up in the picture. Then I have two more that I know I am getting as Christmas presents.  One is an Oliver 3 from my mom, and I think my husband has gotten me something because he is being secretive and smug.

Diane- I have no idea how you'd tell what type that is, at least not without a picture.  If you want to email me a pic from your phone I can post it for you.
 

Spazmelda wrote:

Yes, when I say cleaned up nicely I was including the function as well!  Very nice.  Don't you love cleaning and fixing one like that?

I am picking up what you are laying down, and if you make that comment again I shall understand it fully. 

And, yes... it is a joy, as I know I must be preaching to the choir. The pleasant surprise to me here is, as I'm sure all before me have discovered, that there is a vast area between "It's broken" and "Better find a professional", and that some very large fraction of machines that are "broken" can be helped by very minor interventions. That's a great pleasure to me - cleaning off some residue, reattaching a draw band, modifying or reattaching a spring - and restoring function. And then there are those that are going to require a little more time, but still seem likely to be repairable by a dedicated amateur. I've already put a few of those aside.

I think my collection is up to 23 manuals now (not including the little Sears which is now passed along), and the 2 electrics that are in their cases you can see in the picture I posted. Most of them are displayed on shelves behind where my daughter's friend is sitting so they don't show up in the picture...

I have studiously avoided counting so far, but I know for office machines I am already out of space - maybe one more can sneak in, and then it will have to be one in/one out. But which?

I'm going to say SM3 based on the shape of the case.  I always get the earlier SM models mixed up though!

ztyper wrote:

It's for sure an SM-3. It lacks the tab set/clear keys next to the keyboard, which is only on an SM-4 with this body style. I have to say that I really like the color of this one! Olympia really does a good job of having the whole typewriter just one color, but it looks like many with all of the different shades.

I guess that was a slip of the fingers for "next to the space bar"... which reminds me to get back to my SM-7 with its mangled tab set linkage, still next to the space bar, which seems to be deranging almost every other function of the typewriter.

The other thing 10 minutes of exhaustive internet research came up with was that on SM-4's the "De Luxe" over the keybars has changed to a crowned S.  By both these measures seems indeed to be an SM-3. By Zeitgeist and mis en scene however I'd say it's a 4. It's a proto SM-4 trapped in an SM-3 body. 

Why was the edit button disabled? I wasn't here for that...