Olympia SM3
This old, German machine had no serious problems. It just needed CLA and replacement of few rubber parts.Most typewriters on the market really need only that - cleaning, very moderate lubrication and alignment. They were build to last and withstand years of heavy beating. Unlike computers or mobile phones…
The main issue was that carriage assembly was scrubbing body panels on the sides. It is a common issue with these machines and is caused by rubber cushions being compress to much or decomposed due to age. Most owners do not recognise that there is a problem until the carriage does not want to move any more and side panels have deep, ugly dent. This machine, luckily, was not used when the problem occured. Side panels have just a bare sign that the carriage got too close.
The second issue was misaligned position for capital letters. Easy to fix.
I started by cleaning disassembled machine, to blow away all dust and dirt accumulated through the years. Font bars of few letters were a bit stuck so chemical degreasing of the whole basket was needed. Keyboard and platen covered with rags, to protect them from nasty chemicals.
Font slugs were dirty, filled with dried ink.
Cleaned that - now they look properly and leave clear, crispy imprint.
Keys were a bit grouse and dirty but suffered no damage. They are chocolate-brown, matching nicely sea-foam green body.
Luckily this machine was not treated with WD-40 or similar pseudo-oil. There are many folks who believe that this is lubricating oil. It’s not. WD stands for water displacement and it does exactly that. After a while it hardens and solidifies. If precise mechanism is sprayed with WD-40 it will work for a while but then it will stall!
Someone attemped service on this machine and greased most part of the mechanism with thick lithium grease. I needed to remove all that - even though it does not stall the mechanism it accumulates dirt and will cause problems. These portable typewriters really should be dry. There are only few places where a drop of thin, machine oil (literally, very small drop) is needed. Otherwise - no lubrication!
To get inside the basket I lift type bars with a rag. Spraying solvent onto the mechanism and blowing all gunk out with compressed air.
I then attended aligning the carriage, starting with small letters. Olympia SM3 is a carriage-shift machine meaning that to get capital letters one lifts the carriage. More modern machines have mostly segment (basket) shift meaning that the heavy carriage stays in the same place and font slugs are adjusted up and down instead. As the segment is lighter than the carriage such machines are usually quicker and easier to write on. Some refined machines with carriage shift can perform equally well, carriage shift is assisted by spring mechanisms.
Regardless of the construction the goal is to get the best imprint by aligning the assembly so that font slug lands on the proper part of the platen’s curvature.
It is an iterative process. This machine has adjustments screws on both side, accessible after body panels are removed. We start with small letters, aiming for even imprint on both upper and lower part of the letter.
Screw for small letters adjustment visible in the frame opening
Once happy with the result we move to capital letters adjustment. This is controlled by screw positioned close to ribbon holders. Again, both sides need to be adjusted on Olympia.
Each adjustment is checked by typing test, until we have capitals aligned and good quality imprint. I use old ribbon for that - new ribbon, with its abundance of ink, will not show clearly enough if the font has weaker imprint on one side.
Several iterations later the adjustment was finished.
Carriage supports can now be slid into place and tightened.
After last adjustment - for Caps Lock - the machine was ready to get her body panels.
These got proper cleaning. Felt sound dampening was blown from dust and dirt. Metal panels got proper scrubbing and cleaning and were drying in the sun before assembly. WD-40 applied on their surface removed humidity rests and added some gloss to this crinkled, green paint.
Rubber cushions were flattened and almost decomposed. I’ve made new ones, circa 5 mm thick, from rubber pressure hose.
They are installed on shoulder screws, with corresponding washer.
With panels installed I check “under the hood” if nothing was missed or left inside the mechanism.
Typing test follows.
Ready for service for another 50 years!
