Olympia SM-7 - Repairs

 

 

Olympia SM-7

S/N:  2029804

c. 1962

Many photos to come.

Kobo - Great Customer Service

Olympia SM9

 S/N:  4974366

circa 1972

Selected Business Correspondence....

If you enjoy old letterhead and business epherma -  Selected Business Correspondence, by Andrew Kaufman.
 
From the National Post article...

Or Andrew Kaufman's Selected Business Correspondence, a collection of short stories inspired by vintage business correspondence. "I buy antique letters and letterhead off eBay," Kaufman says of the project. "They're fascinating because letterhead doesn't exist anymore -back in the 1940s and 1950s your corporate image was that top two inches of letterhead so you had very elaborate ones, engravings, really interesting visual design."

The stories were not originally intended for publication: Their genesis, aside from the historical fetish value, was merely as a writing exercise -a morning warm-up, Kaufman explains. "I'm in a little bit of a situation where I'm having my cake and eating it, too," Kaufman says. "God bless Random House. They've done great things for me, but they'd never touch a project like this. And aptly so; their economic model is to sell a lot of copies." The Book Bakery's appeal? "There's something so beautiful about wanting to make a book in a really hands-on scale," he says.

 

See the book here....

Man that's harsh...

 

I realized after, I never really went into why I don't like the automatic carraige return on this mode.  It isn't soft.  I believe it is one of the first power carraige returns developed - and power is the correct word.  It slams from left to right when you press that POWER RETURN key (yes, they capitalized it on the key).  Even with the rubber feet it was sliding around on my desk.  And while I don't mind the hum, and I can get over the volume of the key strikes, that WHAM!!! on the carraige return shakes me a bit.  So much so that I refered to it as a typewirter.  I much prefer the manual return on the Electra 120 model, where it has a closer rhythm to a fully manual with some extra speed.

SCM Smith-Corona Electra 220

6ELE 256787

The Great Ribbon Experiment....

It does make me wonder though, what type of oil is used for the oil based inks in typewriter ribbons.  In a pinch, could one get away with a small application of light mineral oil?  I sure wouldn't want to use WD-40, due to some of the additives, butI have to admit it did work well, didn't dry out quickly on the ribbon, but dried decently on the paper.  Not far off from this wet fresh ribbon.

Off to clean type heads.

Royal KMM

KMM-2351234

No. 7

Letterhead from Writing Ball - part of their Cincinnati type-in gathering.

Underwood Leader (Made in Canada)

H2264212

--

edit:   2011.July.18

I should clarify, as I meant to originally - these aren't the round, glass top key, but a half sphere, cast glass key if what I have read is correct.  When I am able I plan on posting a photo, but until then Machines of Loving Grace has a great picture here.

edit:  2011.Sept.01
I was incorrect - these are a half sphere style key, but upon closer inspection are obviously plastic.  I am pretty sure the platen knobs are bakelite as well, having had the carriage slip out of my hands while I had it tipped, and shattering one. 

the obligatory intro post...

 

(My apologies - I am working on correcting some type alignment issues on this 'writer, and should have replaced this ribbon is it is pretty much dead.)

Smith-Corona Viceroy De-luxe

6YP19494540Z