Oliver no.5 typewriter
This fellow occupied me for many evenings. I’m not yet done on it but it types now reasonable well to be fully usable.
I bought it from Swedish collector. The machine is more or less complete but was not working due to thick layers of dirt in the mechanism.
The first thing to do was to blow out most of the dirt. Hard brushes and air compressor came in handy.
This is my first and, so far, only Oliver. They are much different from other machines I worked on but their mechanism is fully accessible and hence easy to understand.
I removed as much as I dared, starting from front panel.
That gives access to bar links and vibrator connectors.
“Patina” goes a long way as how much wear can be accepted but these keys are simply dirty. That will need to be addressed later.
Carriage on Olivers is easily removable, no tools needed. Smart catch mechanism is catching draw band which is attached to the main spring. On all other machines one needs to first detach the draw band and secure in some way before carriage can be removed. Oliver takes care of it by design.
Body panels, type bars protector with felt rest pads and carriage left aside for later. All the rest of the body is a solid iron cast.
Back side of the machine. Cover housing up & down shift adjustments is removed.
On the bottom-middle can be seen catch mechanism holding draw string in the absence of the carriage. Smart!
Ribbon vibrator, luckily complete and not damaged. It allows typing on one colour ribbon. Later, with Oliver 7 & 9 it is equipped with shifting tab, to allow typing on dual-colour ribbons.
Three-bank keyboard, Swedish language. I document the layout before I move to the next step.
Here we go with removing keys for cleaning. No lousy press-fit, each key has its screw and washer! This machine was built to allow easy service.
Patina? Should I leave it or remove it?
My wife had strong opinion about that so I decide to clean them properly. It is many years of finger dirt and tobacco smoke on them. It will be a tedious work so I leave it for now.
I remove the main spring drum to inspect the spring and be able to clean everything under it. Many Olivers come with broken springs: user-adjustable thanks to knurled knob on the side, they often get tensioned too hard and break with time. Mine is in good condition.
I decided to bite the bullet and remove the whole carriage rails assembly. There are a few links which need to be disconnected first.
Both “towers” are serving as anchor to the rails. I remove the complete arms.
Ribbon vibrator actuator arm is in the way - I disconnect it through the top opening. It is held by springed catch.
This tiny “bird” is a bell hammer. Mounted on a piece of spring, to make it sound clearer. That’s what I call a real engineering catch - unlike in Hermes machines where bell is just dull, metallic “clink”, Oliver has a nice, clear sound to its bell.
I remove it - to remove the actuating rod - to remove the carriage rails - to remove… you get my point.
Shifting mechanism connection, I needed to unscrew it from the bottom. It has a rectangular washer which needs to be placed in the correct position upon assembly. I take a note on that.
Left margin stop - adjusted from the right - needs to be removed, too.
This is the last link holding rails to the rest of the machine. I hope.
Nope! Back space mechanism is in the way. Disconnecting the linkage should make room to move out the rails.
And one more thing: linkage under the Tab key.
It is in fact a simple brake - the link goes all the way to the main spring drum where it presses against the spring housing. The purpose is to slow down fast moving carriage, before it stops on the tab-stop. Very simple and effective.
It was later substituted with toothed gears on more modern machines, to use toothed-gear mechanism friction to slow down the movement.
Cool to see the predecessor sitting on this early Oliver.
With all that disconnected the rail assembly can be lifted up at the angle and removed from the machine.
And off we go for cleaning session outside. Having now good access everywhere I again brush the mechanism with hard brush and blow out the crud with compressed air. Then I move to chemical cleaning: I use 2 parts of white spirit (low aromatic) and one part engine oil. That is more or less what was used in typewriter workshops back in the day, it solves old grease and when solvent evaporates it leaves a thin coat of oil, protecting metal parts from rust.
Rails assembly gets similar treatment.
In the evening Sun it looks like a model of International Space Station.
Back on the bench for assembly.
Paint on most Olivers did not last well through the time, mine is no different. After cleaning it turned out to be quite fine. Bryan calls it “honest patina” which the machine acquired through many years of use and being touched by hands people working on it.
I’ve decided to leave it “as is” and not repaint it.
I polished it a bit and wiped exposed iron with camellia oil. Same as used on samurai swords.
Inspecting and assembling the main spring.
Time has come to clean the keys. One by one. I didn’t dare to use bleach on them, to not damage already faint letter markings. Tested denatured alcohol - didn’t work. Acetone melts them so no use here.
In the end I scrubbed the crud with soft sanding pad.
With keys attached I moved to the second big component: the carriage. It required some serious overhaul.
Nickel plating is gone on most parts, left overs covered with rust, flaking ugly.
Suprisingly decals are in good shape. I proceed carefully, documenting each part’s position before removing.
Ratchet tensioner - for platen’s step-less turning - has its U-spring intact.
Carriage pitch adjustment is sitting on rusty rail. That goes off also. I keep the original position unchanged.
It is connected to two leaf springs sitting loosely on top of each other. I note which of them was in top position.
The roller is in good shape - it was covered with oil. Removed to have the whole rail available for polishing.
Platen can now be removed.
Free-glide tab is spring loaded. I detach the spring before the cleaning.
Chemical cleaning and brushing followed.
Carriage end plates lost most of their plating. I don’t have nickel-plating bath right now so I just polished them to bare steel and treated with camellia oil, to protect them from rust.
Same treatment for margin bar: nickel and rust removed to bare steel, buffed on bench grinder.
Platen was very hard and dented after years of service. It should be recoated but for now I sanded it with 320 grid paper so it is smooth again.
I could not resist to check how it is built inside so I unscrewed one face. Yep - it is wooden pipe in the core!
Very important detail, on every typewriter, are rubber legs. Especially on so heavy machine as Oliver. Old legs were gone - rubber hardened and became brittle, they fell apart when I tried removing them.
I took redundant mooring dumper from Meritaten. It is a modern rubber-like material, very resilient and elastic. I turned new legs on lathe - not an easy job with this material but it turned out quite well.
Installed on the machine.
Adjusted shifting lock and oiled it before putting back the cover.
Last thing to do was to fabricate new rubber spacers which sit under ribbon cans. Old ones disintegrated, rubber remains told me that there should have been something there. Checking on Bryan videos I found that indeed rubber rings are supposed to sit there.
Mine are made from Biltema’s rubber locks, punched to clear the screws. They put up ribbon cans to the same level as spooling mechanism.
Without them spools sit too high. It still works but then spool covers cannot be put on top.
Now was the time for type-test.
This machine had some uneasy years. Printed letters were all over the place. I adjusted general position on both shifts but still many letters were printed at different levels.
One by one I formed each bar to bring all letters - from both towers - into one, common level. It took a few hours and quite a few pages but in the end I managed to get aligned and good quality print.
I’ve put old-stock cotton ribbon, heavily soaked with black ink - from old Facit office supplies.
So the Oliver is back to operation and can serve its purpose for another 100 years!