Please don't think I was offended in any way.  On reflection, I should have put a 'smiley' next to my comment about fixing typewriters since 1975.  Sometimes things come over in writing as being harsh when they are not intended as such.  I just didn't like to see someone going wrong when they were 95% of the way there, having sucessfully stripped the tab brake.  It has probably part-siezed through lack of use, and the old lubricant gumming up.  If cleaning doesn't work, by all means try oiling it - it won't do any harm.

There are as many variants of tab brakes as there are manufacturers !  The classic Imperials (50 through to 80) also have a centrifugal tab. brake - this time with leather facings on the shoes - but the same diameter as the huge spring drum and driven by epicyclic gears !  Very old Underwood standards had a thin steel strap (think hacksaw blade without the teeth) at the back of the carriage.  It was pinched, finger and thumb style, between two leather faced levers.  The Olivetti Lettera portables simply used a spring loaded linkage, faced with a tiny cork disc, which pushed on the underside of the carriage rod (L22) or tab rack (L32 and variants).  I have recently seen a tab brake rather like a car clutch on a 1930's Hermes Four.

I reaplaced a couple of the cork pads even though I doubt I really needed to. I put it back together and it's fine. Sometimes you just need a reboot... 

I'm still trying to decide which I like better, the 8 or the 9. The 8 is actually a much more precise machine (read: I don't fumble the type bars as much and the spacebar works much better on the 8), but the 9 is so much cleaner and well perserved. 

the 8 has some pretty nasty gunk buildup just about everywhere in the machine and I'm thinking about taking the platen off and dunking it.




"have you tried turning it off and on again?"

Uwe wrote:

Would you mind posting a few photos of the SM8? I've never come across one in the wild and am trying to put together a guide for the differences between all of the SM models. And where did you source the replacement cork from? Details please!

I just spent an hour resizing photos and editing and posting only to press the back button and lose it all. dammitalltohell

First off, thanks for going through the effort and posting those photos. I wish the differences between the SM models were as simple as those that you pointed out. They aren't, which is why I'm compiling as much info as I can about the various models. Some of your points are valid identifiers, others aren't. The problem is that the SM models changed over the years and with those changes some of the features that you used to differentiate between the two machines changed too.

For later model SMs, Olympia lists these as the primary differences between the SM7, 8, and 9:
1. SM9 only: Left hand carriage release, touch adjuster (under machine cover), tabulator setting key on left hand side of keyboard.
2. SM8 only: Manual tabulator stops on back side of carriage.
3. SM7: No "line space plunger" (platen release), tabulator, or touch control.

Clearly there are other differences too, which is why I'm slowly putting a definitive guide to SM spotting together. Muddling all of this even further are the variations of the SM that existed such as the Monica (see below). Olympia could have made life more simple if it had just bothered to include the model number somewhere on the machine!  

Look at just a few of the differences between your earlier model SM9 and my later model SM9:

SM9 (note the lack of tab controls on either side of the space bar)

Monica (note the carriage lock on both machines to the left of the 1 key)


 
SM9 Tab Set Lever (not the touch control, which is located under the ribbon cover - how clever was it of Olympia to keep the same +/- cutouts in the case?)


Paper rest on SM9 vs. Monica


SM9 Carriage End Plate (no longer chromed)


Monica Carriage End Plate (also not chromed, but lacks the tab master clear lever and paper rest release button)