12 Jul 2011

A real Olympia & A typewriter makeover





Typed on my new Olympia SG3.
Sorry for the messy room. Yes that's a cigar box.
The Paymaster I forgot to mention in the typecast much; it still works with ink in the ribbon and everything. Fun to make pretend checks...

5 comments:

  1. These really were steals. Good going!

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  2. ahh, I see you fell for the PayMaster check writer! I almost did myself, as they are somewhat typewriter-like and mechanically fun. The one I saw used an inking pad rather than a ribbon, and had setting to emboss the word "BONDED" above the check amount with a selector lever.

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  3. Degree symbol - that almost trumps a pilcrow. But the 1/? That's hard to beat, especially in the US where I THINK the metric system is a long time catching on? Don't you amaze yourself when you realise how long you can spend just 'tinkering'? I do.

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  4. My room is much more messy. :P
    Your typewriter lacks the paper holder. xD
    I also have the same machine, but with a square type style. xD
    You may visit my blog: http://joshbeta1.blogspot.com

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  5. I also just found and fixed up a $5 Olympia SG3.

    Mine is a little bit earlier; it has the old script Olympia font, but the newer color scheme, so probably 1967-68. It's also an elite typeface with a wide carriage and lever paper injector! (Incidentally, that paper injector is 85% of the reason I bought it.) It also has the degree, 1/, ^ and 'th' symbols, as well as a double spacing feature.

    This is the first standard typewriter I've ever owned. My frame of reference to compare against it is a 1957 Olympia SM3, which was the last typewriter left in my collection after I sold or gave away all others in preparation for a cross-country move. Even against the SM3, which it a fantastic typewriter, it's a noticeably faster typer. I find that I'm getting way less jams with the SG3. The keys stay perfectly square to the table and it's such a heavy monster that it refuses to move anywhere, which also helps to make it feel just a bit more confident than the SM3. At the lightest setting the SG3's touch sensitivity is almost as light as SM3 on a medium setting, my default preference, so I'm not sacrificing anything there either.

    Overall I'm very impressed with the SG3. When serviced, it types about as perfectly as anyone could expect from a manual machine. People who like typewriters owe it to themselves to at least try one of these at some point. The only downside is how absolutely massive it is; they require dedicated space, but man do they type nice.

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