Kentucky Typer: Olympia

Margin Release on My Olympia Typewriter - Update

First of all, let me say THANK YOU for all the assistance I received from the typosphere on my last blog post about this Olympia typewriter. It means a lot when people take the time to respond and even create a video (thanks Scott!).

I've still not been able to make the margin release work. I made another quick video to help explain what I think the issue might be. Take a look.

If you have more ideas on what I might do to repair this, I'd love to hear them!

Dec 14, 2013 4:23:59 PM | Olympia, Typewriter Repair

Margin Release on my Olympia Typewriter

A few weeks ago, I bought what should have been an Olympia SM9 in excellent shape. I've been wanting a SM9 after owning a SM3 and really enjoying that particular typewriter. I've been looking for one and ran across what I thought was going to be a great example of this particular machine. After all, the photos looked great! However, when it arrived at my house, it was in less than ideal condition. As is often the case, the packing job was very poorly done and as a result, I had a typer that looked like it had been dropped. The typewriter was only secured on one side inside of its case and therefore was banging around. Let's just say I was not a very happy person when I surveyed the damage.

Somehow, we've managed to get the typer back in working order all but for the margin release. I'd really like to get that working and wanted to get some help from you typewriter repair experts out there.

Take a look at this video.

Dec 7, 2013 6:06:03 PM | Olympia, Typewriter Repair

Florence Antique Mall - My Finds

I took a vacation day today since I had a couple of routine doctor's appointments scheduled. Since I had one early appointment and one late appointment, I had plenty of time to head back north again to the Queen City.

I met my brother for lunch at El Rio Grande Restaurant in Newport, KY. I hadn't eaten there in years and it's still as good as it ever was. (I lived in the Cincinnati area from about 1998-2003). My brother, who now lives in Northern KY, had been good enough to pick up my typewriter from WordPlay (Richard had already repaired it!) on Tuesday evening and we orchestrated the hand-off today at lunch.

After a delicious lunch, I drove to the neighborhood where WordPlay is located. I had two typewriters for them and was able to leave those next door since they hadn't yet opened for the day. With lots of time yet to go before my last doctor's appointment, I spent some time in Florence, KY at the Florence Antique Mall. Nice place. I had never been there before. And boy, did it ever have some good typewriters!

I hadn't been in the store for five minutes, when I saw this . . .

Is it a . . . Royal, I thought to myself? No......upon a closer look, I saw this:

Interesting! Pretty machine but two problems: It's a desktop (and I don't have space for desktops) and at $175 it was too rich for my blood. I was feeling good about this place . . .

BUT . . . in the same booth, in the bottom of a display cabinet, my eyes caught sight of this:

A beautiful Smith-Corona Sterling. Price: $129. Ouch. It quickly became evident to me that this wasn't going to be a place to find bargain prices. I'm a sucker for those 1940 Smith-Coronas and it was hard to let that one go.

On to the next machine. . . .

A nice Smith-Corona Silent Super. Price? $20. Ohhh, did I just hit a bargain??? I checked the carriage . . . it moved, seemed to work as it should. The bell worked. Looking good . . . until . . . I started striking the keys. Nothing. The majority of them seem to be frozen into place.

Oh well . . . . perhaps it could be repaired but I decided to see what else I could find. And the next machine was a . . . .

Oliver #9. The first one I've EVER SEEN in person. But, again too rich for my blood at $138. Is that pricey for an Oliver? Since it was behind glass, I have no idea if it functioned or was in need of repair but it was fun to run across it.

So, inside of an hour, I found four typewriters. Not a bad afternoon at all. Although I didn't buy any of them, just finding those beauties was lots of fun. And it's nice to share the story with you!

Which one would you have bought?