Congratulations on your find!

It's a shame that the paper injector lever was bent, but from the photos, it looks like it should be able to be straightened easily.

I was surprised to find how much the touch on my SG-1 improved by giving the segment and linkage pivots a really, thorough cleaning, and tuning up the trip points. I ended up doing two passes, ending with a mixture of mineral spirits and sewing machine oil (10:1 ratio). Using it a lot helped, too. In fact, it may have trained me as much as I loosened up the typewriter: when I started writing on a Smith Corona 5 series after 4 months on the SG-1, I had to turn the touch control all the way up because I was pounding the keys.

Thanks for the comments!! Fortunately, the reparation of the lever have been very easy. It´s not 100% straight, but I don´t want to stress the material any more and it´s 100% functional and is moving free. This small residual bent will remain in the machine as a scar from the Germany-Spain trip.



I have already tested the machine with peace of mind for a while, everything it´s perfect and loose and this antique is ready for a new life. You can see the machine face to face the Olivetti Línea 98. I have noticed that typing in the Olympia with the same strength than the Olivetti, I almost pierced the paper. And it´s not because the Olivetti is tougher, I believe the type bars in the Olympia are sharper.

robmck wrote:

Congratulations on your find!
...I was surprised to find how much the touch on my SG-1 improved by giving the segment and linkage pivots a really, thorough cleaning, and tuning up the trip points...

Excuse me robmck, I´m spanish and I´m not very acquainted in the english technical vocabulary about typewriters. By "segment and linkage pivots" I understand all the parts and mechanism between keys and type bars, am I correct? And I have no idea about the meaning of the sentence: "tuning up the trip points". Can you take me a picture of this work? Thanks for the tips.

Pete E. wrote:

If your platen rubber is very hard...you might try some backing sheet with your typing paper.

If you are in the USA, look for this Avery product...softer laminating plastic sheet.  I use it as  backing paper for all my machines that have hard rubber.  No punching holes in the paper, after that.

You might also adjust your "touch adjuster" so it does not have the type-slugs hit the platen so hard (if you haven't tried that, already).

Thanks for the precise analysis of the problem, Pete. I'm not a top end typewritter user and I had 0 idea about the synthoms of a age hardened platen rubber... Yesterday I tried put the touch adjuster in the 8th level and the problem persisted.... I will try the plastic sheet. Thank you very much!!

p12palof wrote:

robmck wrote:

Congratulations on your find!
...I was surprised to find how much the touch on my SG-1 improved by giving the segment and linkage pivots a really, thorough cleaning, and tuning up the trip points...

Excuse me robmck, I´m spanish and I´m not very acquainted in the english technical vocabulary about typewriters. By "segment and linkage pivots" I understand all the parts and mechanism between keys and type bars, am I correct? And I have no idea about the meaning of the sentence: "tuning up the trip points". Can you take me a picture of this work? Thanks for the tips.

My apologies. The "segment" is the semi-circular part that all the type bars go into. It is the center piece in the diagram below:



The diagram below is a bit complex, but it shows the mechanism from the key cap (19) to the key bar (18), some links (17), and pivot (16), another linkage (14), and the type bar (which doesn't have a number). The segment is #35 in this diagram.



In these parts, any place there is movement between two parts, there is the possibility to slow the action of the keyboard. So, these are great places to concentrate cleaning with denatured alcohol, mineral spirits + oil, or in tough cases, strong solvents like PBlaster. Sometimes (as in my case), it takes multiple tries.

The above images are from the Olympia SG1 Typewriter Repair Bible edited by Ted Munk (The Typewriter Repair Bible Series). It's quite useful as it has the repair manual in it.

It's also interesting in another way – it also has the official sales manual, including example dialog:

"How do you do, Mr. Doe. My name is Smith. I am with the Acme Typewriter Company. We are the distributors of Olympia Typewriters for this area. I don't know whether or not you have ever seen an Olympia. If not, I am certain that you will be pleasantly surprised, as the Olympia is an entirely new office typewriter. It is economical to use, requiring very little service, and just as important it enables the user to increase
their productivity and to Operate at peak efficiency at all times."

Or:

"These spring tempered typebars (snap bar so that it vibrates) will always assure a perfect writing line alignment. The specially constructed escapement eliminates the possibility of crowding or piling typebars (type a line or two to illustrate alignment) and the responsive touch and action of the typewriter will enable the typist to turn out a quality of typewritten work that is unequaled by any other typewriter."

Th key-tops have cushion springs on each of their undersides.  Many times these will be rusted/gunked up to the point where the spring does not depress when you strike a key-top.

I used PB Blaster to free mine up and then used denatured alcohol and my air compressor (to blow things dry) to get rid of the PB Blaster smell once it dissolved the rust. and gunk.
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