Ektagraphic wrote:

the paper holder! Those are few and far between it seems. I really would love to replicate one with a 3D printer or something like that. I suppose I could just make one the good old fashioned way too 

If you're not in a hurry, I could try to scan one for you, or lay out the details in corrected close-up photos, and post it here.

KatLondon wrote:

I love how the design didn't change over years,

There were at least two generations of the SG3. Compare, for example, the right end of the carriage of my 1963 SG3, a perfect match to your SM8,  to your '70s SG3 model. Of note, the early SG3s still had a paper injector system, which was a feature lost on the subsequent generation of the machine.

I guess I am a little delayed here, but I have three functional SGs to prove my club membership 

#1- 1967 Olympia SG3

Despite the clean exterior, this machine is a gunky nightmare to use. It is sluggish in almost all of its functions, because when I first got it in the infancy of my collecting I blasted it with WD-40, bad bad mistake. I have since dunk cleaned it (four screws, and it is apart down to the frame, without the carriage!) but that did not help for long. Now it is even worse than it was before the dunking. I have tried and tried cleaning it first with denatured alcohol, then the stronger mineral spirits, then I got irritated and used penatrating oil to no effect. It is so frustrating, especially because on the first few days post-cleaning it worked like a charm.

#2- 1966 Olympia SG3
This one is the brother to my other, slightly newer SG3. I got them at the same time from my grandpa, so I have no doubt that they were used together and possibly purchased together. This one was much dirtier than my younger SG3 when I got it (not to say the other one was clean, they were both filthy) so I didn't even attempt my WD-40 "fix" and I put this one away to work on later. For that reason this one is fantastic to use. It has lots of tape residue on it, but is otherwise in decent cosmetic shape. This one's carriage had a cracked feed roller, so when I use it I have to swap carriages. Not a big issue, this one is great to use.

#3- 1955 Olympia SG1
This machine sat in the basement of my school for god knows how long. As later research showed, this was not used in the school- rather it was donated later to demonstrate to the students the progress of technology. Nonetheless, it sat there at least a decade or two with an Olivetti Linea 98 and a very clean Royal KMG. All three will be mine in due time, this is the only one in my possesion at the moment. Pardon the messy photo taken on my work table, I am yet to get a proper photo of it.

Saying it is the best of my SGs would not be fair, because the other two aren't 100% working at this moment. However, I can say with confidence that it is the best looking of my trio- you just can't tell from the messy photo.

I love all my SGs dearly, but they are still not my absolute favorite typers. They are pretty far up there, though...

Oh yeah, and ALL THREE have the infamous paper rest! I got really lucky there.

If you count the non-functional (at this moment) electric SG3, then I have four SGs.. (yes, that one also has a paper rest!)

Last edited by JustAnotherGuy (06-4-2015 21:25:20)

I just picked up this 1965 SG3 locally through Craig's List. It is pretty dirty, but everything works nicely. I think after I clean it up it will be wonderful.

I prefer the body style of the SG3 over the SG1. Someone referred to it on a blog as sitting in front of a "Star Destroyer", which I believe is apt. I Can't wait to get this one back in top form!

I paid $10 (£6.75) for it, which I think is a steal. It's worth that much for the paper support.  

I am proud and happy join the club with a 1966 SG3 with Imperial typeface - or whatever that was called on Olympias, maybe one of you know the proper name - and a late 50s SG1 with extra wide carriage - which holds A2 portrait sheets - and decimal tab.

Now that spring has come, I put the SG3 outside my shop, encouraging passers-by to type with it. It does have the originally plasic paper rest, but I removed and stored it safely and replaced it with a "public typing station" info.


The SG3 is quite battered on the outside, and all platens beginning to crack, but it works perfectly, even without any maintenance done by me at all. I got it for an artist friend, who temporarily needs an extra wide carriage machine - and I am really happy, that this came out as the SG1.


As always, you don't want to know the prices we pay for such machines in Germany ;)

By the way, for those of you using Twitter, you'll see there a lot of #typosphere content related to my machines and projects I do with them. https://twitter.com/k_propaganda/

Have a nice weekend!