Typewriter Talk / Service manual for Olivetti Studio 44

**Posted by vitalspark** 19-7-2014 17:28:37

HI folks...well, I'm a self-confessed newby typewriter junkie it seems (14 maschines and counting). Mainly Olympias, Olivettis and Smith-Coronas. I like fixing things and fixing typewriters is as big a challenge as any I've found...but where to find either a general typewriter service manual or one specific to, say, the Olivetti Studio 44 (my latest acquisition which has a problem with the margin release mechanism). Does anyone know what happened to all the service manuals? There must still be some in existance, surely!

**Posted by ProfessorC30** 20-7-2014 17:32:38

There is no central source for typewriter service manuals. There were very few service manuals ever made in relation to the number of machines produced, since they were only for authorized dealers. Many were discarded as dealers closed, further reducing their numbers. Many of these old manuals are in the hands of people who are not internet-savvy, and they have not been scanned and uploaded.

I did find a user manual for the Studio 44.
http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/olivettistudio44.pdf

Ernie Jorgensen offers reprints of lots of office machine manuals.
http://officemachinemanuals.com/

Or check with Jay Respler. He sells manuals.
http://abmco.webs.com/

**Posted by vitalspark** 21-7-2014 04:16:37

Thanks for that good info. I realise that service manuals are as rare as proverbial rocking horse teeth! Didn't find anything on those links that I can use, but I'll keep looking. I've actually largely figured out the rather odd margin release mechanism on the Studio 44, but need a photo of the underside of another one to compare in case there's a linkage missing on mine, but that would be another post I guess. Thanks again, John.

**Posted by ScottO** 26-11-2014 10:27:45

I'm not sure that any exist. I did an exhaustive search when I acquired my first, including writing to Olivetti. I will check my notes but I'm pretty sure they only had the operator's guide and some old advertising materials.

The only thing I didn't try was reaching out to current or retired typewriter repairmen in Italy. If there's anyone on the forum who speaks Italian, that would be worth a shot.

**Posted by ScottO** 26-11-2014 10:33:21

Clark,

I have been collecting service manuals with the intention of scanning and uploading. There does need to be a central source, because there are getting to be fewer by the day. So far I have about 15-20, including some parts catalogs whose detailed drawings are also helpful in repairs.

My challenge is finding a decent scanning solution - a document feeder that doesn't chew paper and a decent solution for OCR so text can be searchable. I may have to stay with image scanning just to get them up, we'll see.

Scott O.

**Posted by Uwe** 26-11-2014 18:44:02

Scott, we can definitely host them in the Reference section here. As for scanning, I use a flatbed with OmniPage 18 OCR software and it works quite well.