We Need More Typewriter Pics!

[TheWonderBubble]

Realized recently that I like keyboards because I like typing - not the other way around - so I picked up an old typewriter to do offline projects.

I feel like I got lucky with a near pristine condition 1960 Olympia SM4, including all original accessories as well! Just needed a new ribbon and I'll get it a slight cleaning here soon, then eventually some new rollers of course. The last typewriter thread went quiet 5 years ago, but I'd love to see what the rest of y'all are using for off-computer typing, manual or electric!

[Olumin]

[tp4tissue]

do you guys use thisin modern day pen pal situations?

[Olumin]

I used to collect, restore & sell some of them years back. I haven't bought one in years. These are just the ones left in my collection along with some not pictured. 
The Hermes 3000 is already gone too, wasn't too impressed with it action wise. Maybe my expectations were inflated. Went to someone in greece.

The only ones that get use these days are the Olympia SG1 & Report De Luxe for longer texts.

Better then keyboards? Not better then beamsprings.. but then again nothing is.

[Olumin]

This probably wont mean much to anyone, but I I'll share it regardless. This is a Erika model 20. Ive seen very few of these machines, there aren't many of them out there, so I thought It might be of interest to someone.

[TheWonderBubble]

I used to collect, restore & sell some of them years back. I haven't bought one in years. These are just the ones left in my collection along with some not pictured. 
The Hermes 3000 is already gone too, wasn't too impressed with it action wise. Maybe my expectations were inflated. Went to someone in greece.

The only ones that get use these days are the Olympia SG1 & Report De Luxe for longer texts.

Better then keyboards? Not better then beamsprings.. but then again nothing is.

You have an absolutely gorgeous collection, it looks like they're in immaculate condition! That Groma and SG1 especially are just such good looking machines.

Really need to try out a beamspring board someday, I keep hearing so much about them but I don't know that I've ever even seen one IRL...probably outing myself as part of the younger crowd with that.

[TheWonderBubble]

Show Image

This probably wont mean much to anyone, but I I'll share it regardless. This is a Erika model 20. Ive seen very few of these machines, there aren't many of them out there, so I thought It might be of interest to someone.

I can't say I've ever even heard of that one, going to have to look more into it!

do you guys use thisin modern day pen pal situations?

I don't yet, but I'd like to at some point. So far mine is for journaling, notes, and just personal enjoyment, but I'd love to get to the point of sending letters to friends and family. Letter writing I believe is a bit of an art, and it's one I want to get good at.

[hvontres]

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This probably wont mean much to anyone, but I I'll share it regardless. This is a Erika model 20. Ive seen very few of these machines, there aren't many of them out there, so I thought It might be of interest to someone.

Ahh, the old QWERTZ layout I grew up on :)

[Olumin]

Only QWERTY typewriter I ever had was the H3000. I got it from a couple of which the wife was originally american who purchased it there & brought it with her to Germany. US layouts are not overly common here, in great parts because US machines aren't very common here. German made typewriters were very popular in the states, but not so much the other way around.
Apart from the Selectric/Wheelwriter of cause and those sold here were also made in Germany.

Out of all machines I ever had only 3 were/are american made. Remington Quiet-Riter, Remington portable and a royal portable. Always wanted to try a Smith-Corona silent super tho.

[Pretendo]

Here's my 1957 Olympia SM3:



This was a $25 Salvation Army find about five years ago. It was missing its signature silver case; after a few years of searching, I was forced to buy an SM7 case and modify it to fit. I also removed the vinyl wrapping on the ends and refinished the underlying plywood in garnet shellac, to a pretty good effect:



The keycaps on the SM3 are extremely dark brown (almost black.) As far as I can tell they're made of Bakelite, and appear to be double shot with a cream colored plastic which I can't identify (which seems prone to cracking, but this is only an aesthetic issue.)



Interestingly, the keys on this generation of Olympia portable (SM2/3/4) are spring cushioned to take some of the harshness out of bottoming out.  It has a noticeable effect on typing. Olympias were some of the better made typewriters in their day, and tended to have features like this. 

Other nice features for a portable include a multitude of line spacing settings including the ability to release the line with or without resetting the indentation, a spring loaded paper holder which shows you how many lines are left on the page (accurate if you're using 8.5x11 paper in the US, can be adjusted for smaller sized paper but not larger), line indents for table creation, half spacing for error correction, 6 adjustable tab stops (the sm2 had none, while the SM4 had infinitely adjustable tabs,) key weight selection lever (increases spring tension on the carriage advance rail) and two color ribbon selection.  It also, oddly, has an exclamation point (most typewriters from this time omitted this) but you still had to use a lowercase 'l' for the number 1.



My SM3 has the Congress Elite typeface, which I love. It looks quite a bit like a justified Times New Roman, and is one of my favorite things about it:




Overall, this one arrived to me in fair condition, with some paint issues.  It was completely out of alignment and required a full servicing to get working.

If you ever come across an Olympia SM2, SM3 or SM4 in the wild for cheap (even in bad cosmetic condition) and are interested in owning a typewriter, I highly suggest buying it and learning to fix it.  These Olympias are some of the best feeling typewriters I've experienced, outside of their desktop SG1/3 counterparts, and the later SM9, which has a better feel at the expense of looking very dowdy. 

I used to have a fairly extensive typewriter collection, but multiple moves forced me to part with all but this one. It stuck around for a good reason.

[Olumin]

A Olympia SM4 was the snappiest & lightest typer I ever had. I prefer the more "hydraulic" feel of Erikas, my favourite being the Model M, but they aren't the fastest to type on in comparison.
Olympias are fairly common in the US, Erikas unfortunately not from what Ive seen. The Erika 10 (seen in my 1st picture) is a great all-round machine, with its only downside being the heavier carriage shift.
The Model M is the best & highest quality typewriter Ive ever used, including my SG1.

[Pretendo]

A Olympia SM4 was the snappiest & lightest typer I ever had. I prefer the more "hydraulic" feel of Erikas, my favourite being the Model M, but they aren't the fastest to type on in comparison.
Olympias are fairly common in the US, Erikas unfortunately not from what Ive seen. The Erika 10 (seen in my 1st picture) is a great all-round machine, with its only downside being the heavier carriage shift.
The Model M is the best & highest quality typewriter Ive ever used, including my SG1.

I really like the look of the Erika M, and have always been enamored with Erika as a brand. You're right that they're not common at all in the US. I've never seen one in person. If the right deal came along I'd probably snap one up, especially if you're saying it's more satisfying to type on than an SG1.

Other typewriters I've owned (unfortunately never took pictures):

- A 50s Royal Quiet Deluxe.  This was in excellent condition and another thrift find. It was a decent typer and only needed minor servicing (roughing up the rollers the tiniest bit to make them grip the paper again.)  I wound up gifting it to a cousin who wanted a good starter typewriter. She still uses it.

- A 1920s Smith Corona desk model.  This belonged to my parents and is still at their house. It was the first machine I messed around with to get working, and thankfully it was tough enough to put up with my fumbling around when I really had no idea what I was doing. It typed fairly well from what I remember, but I honestly don't remember much of it.

- An early model Smith Corona Skyriter. This belonged to my grandmother. The typing experience was just okay, but I loved how portable it was.  This is also at my parent's house now.

- An Underwood 319.  Gifted to me when I was about 10 by a family friend, fully working but beat to ****. This was a very late model Underwood, built in the early 80s, and was essentially a plasticized, cost cut clone of an Olivetti Lettera 32. It was absolutely hideous, but a surprisingly good typer due to its lineage. My initial thought was to give this to some of my young cousin-in-laws as a toy. Their parents vetoed that and it got donated.

- A late 60s "I forget the brand" Japanese model typewriter. This was absolutely dreadful. The one thing I remember about it was that it had an aluminum type bar which had bowed in the center with age.  It took a ton of force to get the center keys to work, and fixing it was not feasible due to some of the assembly methods that they used. It went in the trash. I would've felt bad re-donating it and disappointing somebody else.

I've also experienced the SG1 and Selectric, along with a few other electrics over the years. In that crowd, the SM3 has been the best feeling, outside of the SG1, which I don't own simply because it's a monster. I'd possibly spring for one if it were cheap and had a typeface I liked, but I'm in no rush to upgrade past my SM3.

[yui]

just bought this beauty i wanted a blue Selectric 2 for a long while and one poped up near me, the guy who sold it to me told me that it was a machine IBM used to lend when repairing a costumer Selectric, only issue is that it has not been used in 25 years and is full of decomposed foam. do anyone in here have any idea of a good substitute for IBM #1 and #23 greases they ask for in the maintenance manual?
Thanks
Edit1
My bad i thought it was a Selectric 2 but it is a Selectric 3, and i am having a bit of a problem, the levers that operate the latches on either side are missing do anyone has an idea on how i could open it?
Edit2
Update, managed to open it by grabbing the broken latches with needle nose pliers, now i am left with a machine with 2 springs loose in the bottom tray and a head stuck on c while the keyboard is stuck on K...
Edit3
some more success, manage to free up enough shafts that the motor managed to spin the machine free, and found what the big spring was for, tensioning the carriage movement system, still the case of the small spring and the ball not rotating with typing (can rotate it by hand though) and everything still sticking up because of 25 years old grease.

[TheWonderBubble]

Recently discovered that my Cantor's cable is low enough (thank you single PCB design!) to route underneath the typewriter with no loss to functionality, so I've been enjoying having both worlds of tech at my hands simultaneously!

[TheWonderBubble]

This was a $25 Salvation Army find about five years ago. It was missing its signature silver case; after a few years of searching, I was forced to buy an SM7 case and modify it to fit. I also removed the vinyl wrapping on the ends and refinished the underlying plywood in garnet shellac, to a pretty good effect:

Show Image

Oh that looks lovely, I might have to do that with my case as well! The case still works, but it's clear that it's done it's job of protecting the typewriter inside, and the vinyl is peeling away on the top/bottom. Been torn between trying to restore it vs. harvesting the hardware and building a new one out of some nice wood.

A Olympia SM4 was the snappiest & lightest typer I ever had. I prefer the more "hydraulic" feel of Erikas, my favourite being the Model M, but they aren't the fastest to type on in comparison.
Olympias are fairly common in the US, Erikas unfortunately not from what Ive seen. The Erika 10 (seen in my 1st picture) is a great all-round machine, with its only downside being the heavier carriage shift.
The Model M is the best & highest quality typewriter Ive ever used, including my SG1.

It looks absolutely lovely. You (and others here) seem to have a lot of experience with a variety of models I'm curious if you have any recommendations on a more portable typewriter than my SM4 with a different feel? I want to try more of what's out there so I've been looking at a few of the Remington Noiseless models, but really want something that's easier to take around with me (I use a bike solely for transportation, the SM4 is just a bit...much).

just bought this beauty :) i wanted a blue Selectric 2 for a long while and one poped up near me, the guy who sold it to me told me that it was a machine IBM used to lend when repairing a costumer Selectric, only issue is that it has not been used in 25 years and is full of decomposed foam. do anyone in here have any idea of a good substitute for IBM #1 and #23 greases they ask for in the maintenance manual?

Looks gorgeous! Absolutely love that soft blue color. Not sure on how to work on it, but you may want to check out facebook! There's some super helpful groups on there such as the Antique Typewriter Maintenance Group, and I imagine there's probably a few Selectric-specific groups as well due to their popularity and uniqueness.