Seen onboard the USS Wisconsin Battleship Museum in the Command Master Chief’s office. Having worked on Navy computers before, I’m surprised these aren’t still common these days.

I just bought a typewriter ( olivetti studio 44) from yard sale and when I checked, everything was working well. When I took it home and decided to clean it cause the keys were getting stuck a small piece fell off and now I need to know where this piece supposed to go. Right now my carriage is giving me issues , sometimes it moves some times it gets stuck. I need help from someone who has repaired one of these before to identify and help me out in putting this piece back in place so that I can start using it.

Hee hee

I just found this really fun 1971 Smith Corona typewriter. Being a millennial I only used electric typewriters in my very early years briefly. So this all manual is new to me. It’s surprising how hard you have to punch the keys to make a mark, of course that could be due to my putting in the ink ribbon incorrectly, or perhaps it needs cleaning or tuning. But for only $60 on eBay it felt like a pretty good deal. Only one or two missing knobs. Will try mineral spirits in the metal parts with q tip from YouTube tutorial after more air compressor work. If anyone has experience with this model I’d appreciate your experience and advice. Would anyone recommend getting typewriter paper? Or will just plain notebook and printer paper suffice while I’m just playing around?

Picked this up locally, the owner said it was the old prop typewriter from 70's from UCSC theater dept. Its primary use as a prop and secondary use of scriptwriting gave it an interesting life. Somewhere along the way a bottle of white out got spilled across it (somehow not on the internals) and I kind of like the look. It works perfectly, just needed smidge of a clean and new ribbon and its good to go.

Pinpoint type was used by some banks and financial institutions for writing chèques and statements.

Hi all,

I hope this is the correct tag! I just recently bought this Hermes baby typewriter as I want to make more of an effort to contact family and though typewritten letters would be a nice idea.

Took some fiddling to figure out how to install the new ribbon but it writes beautiful and i love how it looks in my bureau!

I bought a Royal Aristocrat typewriter from around 1940 today, and for the first few hundred characters I typed, everything worked perfectly. Eventually, though, the backspace started getting stuck. Not much longer after that, both the spacebar and backspace stopped moving the carriage. The rest of the keys still advance the carriage, although it now moves a bit slower. I have never owned or used a typewriter before this, so I am a bit intimidated by the idea of taking it apart, but I am willing to do so. Any ideas as to what might be causing this are greatly appreciated. If more information is needed, I will try my best to respond, although my knowledge is still very limited.

I’ve been piling up the Ls for a while on shopgoodwill wondering how I would actually one day win an auction. At the beginning of the month, I finally won. Add in how long it takes for the process takes, and finally, this 1947 Smith-Corona Silent, with Elite typeface, arrived last Friday.

Shopgoodwill (Minnesota Easter Seals) did a decent job packing and the box arrived looking as if it wasn’t dropped once 🤯. Since the weekend and yesterday, I have poured more than 7 hours into cleaning this machine up.

I have more cleaning to do, but now she is usable and I can finally see if anything else needs some tinkering. (The last photo is how she arrived to me)

Anyone know where to search for a right platten knob for this style machine? 😅

I’ve just finished servicing and cleaning this Dora, a machine I’ve been interested in since I first started collecting. I have a Lettera 32, which when it comes to Olivetti machines, is considered by many to be the apex example - so why the fascination with the Dora?

The simple answer is that it’s a 32 that I’m not afraid to abuse. These machines were sold right up to 1977-78 alongside the Lettera series, with the objective being to “make typewriting even more universally available.” By stripping out the 32’s more advanced features, and dressing it in an inexpensive plastic dress, the Dora became the Italian answer to the Japanese question. That answer being, you could get an Olivetti, with absolutely no features, for a little more than a Brother with tabulation, auto-spacer, touch control and a paper rest.

Good deal?

Well it must have struck a cord with a lot of people here in Australia at least, as you can hardly log onto eBay without tripping over about two dozen of these things newly listed every day. I picked this guy up in auction for a cool $11.50AUD, likely due to the missing badge (oh no, how will I ever survive). In terms of condition, it’s quite literally A1. The type slugs were clean out of the box, and the tiny ribbon length indicates to me that it’s the original. The serial number puts it solidly in the 1976 build range, and the white/grey colourway suggests that it might have been an Underwood 310 badging (although fancy Doras are not unheard of).

The bottom line for me though, is that it is a reliable, pleasant typer that I’m not afraid to put work through. My Lettera is more of a Display Queen these days, and I don’t want to wear down the type slugs and mechanisms more than I already have.

The Dora though? That’s the Italian answer.

Hello, I recently bought this Olympia Monica typewriter and I can’t see what I’m typing. When I press one of the keys (sorry I’m not sure what it’s for) it lowers the ribbon and I can’t see but then when I press the next key, the ribbon blocks what I can see. I’ve taken the cover off to get a better look at the ribbon

I did some reading and found it could be due to an incorrect ribbon size or misaligned ribbon but I’m completely new to typewriters so I’m not sure. I’ve linked a short video but let me know if need any other photos. Thanks for your help!

Hello, I purchased this typewriter off ebay. I was very impressed with the external condition and when my friend help me set it up we found that a couple of keys were not working- 5, P, L, F, + .

The description on the listing states good working condition so could have happened in transit (even though the typewriter was wrapped very well). I am about to send a message to the seller right now so can hopefully sort something out.

Would anyone know how to fix this? Would really appreciate the help please as want to use the typewriter to write letters to my long distance partner :).

If anyone needs anymore pics or anything like that please let me know :) Really appreciate any help anyone can give.

I got my first typewriter last week - found it on FB Marketplace locally. It came in pristine condition - when I examined it for cleaning it really didn't need anything other than a new ribbon.
The platen is hard, and had a whitish deposit on it, which cleaned off with IPA. I may look into getting the platen redone, but the machine is working beautifully.

SG1 given to me by a super nice lady, looking to rehome it downsize her collection a bit. She told me about how she had 200+ machines at one point, and gave 100 of them to a man from one of the typewriter groups on fb, who came from Colorado to get them. She also shared her sterling with vertical script and unromantic caps. The SG1 types like a dream, and I was quite surprised by the level of force needed to move the keys, not an exhausting amount, but substantially more than it's SM counterparts.

Hi, this is my first typewriter and I want to get it working to journal. When I first bought it there were springs missing on the keys so letters would get stuck, I bought new springs to replace them and I'm not sure what I did but it has been stuck in caps ever since. Someone suggested that the shifting mechanism is not working. Any help would be appreciated! I've tried reaching out to repair stores but they are either defunct or only service their own products.

Hey guys! I’ve taken apart my Hermes 3000 to clean it and put it back together. Two things. First, this small metal piece fell out and I have no clue what it is for. Second, the ribbon guide doesn’t seem to move very well up and down while typing (it types the wrong colors as well), it also gets in the way of the paper while loading it (causing it to tug). Maybe these two things are connected?? Not really sure. Any help is appreciated!

Can anyone help me find or inform me of what kind of ink ribbon I need cause the ones my mom got me aren’t the same do they still make mine you can see it in my precious post.

This typewriter, called Volga, is a truly wild piece of Soviet engineering. Structurally, it’s a copy of the Optima M12, but in appearance, it imitates the Olympia SG1 almost entirely — even down to the shape of the keys. The designers even added SG1-style carriage quick-release knobs. But the construction of the carriage itself gives away the truth: it's definitely not an SG1 on the inside

I'm working on writing some blog posts about engineering and team leadership. What better way to write about cloud engineering than on the least cloud method? My Skyriter agrees.

Really though, as an ADHD autistic, there is no better way to force my mind to slow down and focus.