Okie doke, I’ve got three of ’em done, one more almost in the can and one out for proof copy. Here’s the three that are done, and ready for you to purchase and enjoy.
The Manual Typewriter Repair Bible
478 Pages, Professionally printed and coil bound to lay flat on your work table!
Includes:
- Basic Mechanical Theory and Indoctrination on how mid-20th Century manual typewriters work.
- Step-By-Step Typewriter Symptom Troubleshooting Guide.
- Complete 1946 OAMI Service and Adjustment Manual Covering: Standard Manual Typewriters: Remington * Royal * Underwood * Woodstock * L.C. Smith, Portable Manual Typewriters: Remington * Royal * Corona * Underwood.
- Typewriter Tools, Ribbon Spools, Ribbons, Platens, Springs and Ball Bearings Reference.
- Typewriter Typeface and Keyboard Reference.
The Olympia SM 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 Typewriter Repair Bible
206 Pages, Professionally printed and coil bound to lay flat on your work table!
Includes:
- Olympia SM-7 User Manual and Olympia SM-3 User Manual
- Complete 1955 Service, Troubleshooting and Adjustment Manual Covering: Portable Manual Typewriter: Olympia SM-1, SM-2, SM-3, SM-4, SM-5, SM-7
- Complete 1962 Tools and Exploded Parts Reference Manual Covering: Portable Manual Typewriter: Olympia SM-1, SM-2, SM-3, SM-4, SM-5, SM-7
- Olympia/ITC Technical Service Bulletins
- Reference Catalog: Olympia Typewriter Typefaces and Keyboards
- Illustrated Olympia SM Model Age Guide
The Olympia SG1 Typewriter Repair Bible
256 Pages, Professionally printed and coil bound to lay flat on your work table!
Includes:
- Olympia SG-1 User Manual and Salesman’s Training Guide
- Complete 1955 Service, Troubleshooting and Adjustment Manual Covering: Standard Manual Typewriter: Olympia SG-1
- Complete 1962 Tools and Exploded Parts Reference Manual Covering: Standard Manual Typewriter: Olympia SG-1
- Reference Catalog: Olympia Typewriter Typefaces and Keyboards
- Illustrated Olympia SG Model Age Guide
The one that’s nearly in the can is on the Smith-Corona “Floating Shift” 1 through 5 series, Squarelines, Speedlines and Super-5’s. Should clock in a bit over 300 pages. Stay Tuned! (:
Ted, you’re doing a fine service to the typewriter community, well done.
Thank you Reverend. Just placed my order!
Thanks Ted!
Just finished placing my order.
Mine are on the way. Can’t wait!
Thank you so much. I look forward to getting the books. :)
You’re a legend!
Just ordered mine! Viva la Qwerty!
Perfect for my kitchen counter work bench. I love that they are coil bound and will lay flat.
Mr. Polt suggested the coil binding, a very worthy idea :D
Thanks Ted! This is a great use of all that Knowledge you’ve amassed.
I have an Olympia SM3. the tops of the letter “l” and some other taller letter ( b, d, h ) are very light to fading out completely. The “l” is certainly the worst and the bottom part of upper case “L” is fading out.
All the letters type evenly and there are no wavey sentences.
I have replaced the ribbon and tried different finger type pressure settings with no difference. The original ribbon was heavy and I went to medium, once again no difference. What can you suggest and would your book cover anything like this?
Thanks,
Frank Wolff
That’s called a “Motion and Shift” adjustment, and yes, it is covered. You’d be adjusting the position of the platen at the top and bottom of shift travel to square the type slug to the center of the platen face.
Not having much luck with the offer code I’m afraid, just reports back “The code you entered is not valid”. May be not applicable to UK lulu store maybe?
Cheers,
Richard
protip: if you are not in the US and the discount code doesn’t work, you can fix it by setting the Lulu Site language to English. I’ve been told by buyers in Germany and Italy that this trick works to enable the coupon code to work again.
Hi thanks but I couldn’t get that trick to work either, never mind, ordered it anyway. Arrived today from lulu but only 5 pages out of the inch thick spiral bound book had anything printed on them!
The typewriting gods obviously don’t want me to do any repairs; perhaps they’ve witnessed my handiwork on other projects. Anyway, I’ll take it up with lulu,
Cheers,
Richard
Yep, if you get one that’s printed wrong, you should be able to get LuLu to ship you another as replacement. Let me know how that goes – I think that’s the first one I’ve heard of being wonky from the LuLu printing centers. The 10 or so I’ve ordered so far have all been printed nicely. Good luck! (:
Hi, replacement copy arrived today from LuLu, but only 12 pages this time and mostly different ones. Very odd as LuLu confirmed they couldn’t see anything wrong with the print ready file.
To be clear – I’m not complaining at you, its clearly something LuLu need to sort out, just thought you’d like to be aware.
Cheers,
Richard in Salisbury England
very weird. Yeah, so far you’re the only one who’s gotten a badly-printed copy. Does your receipt say which printing facility did them? I do know that customers in Australia and Japan get ones printed at a facility in AU, so I wonder if there’s a particular UK facility that’s having issues.
Hi Munk,
(apologies if this text appears out of order – there is no ‘reply’ button for your question about where my copies were being printed, guess its a nested reply limit on the webpage or something.)
I’ve heard back from LuLu and to give them their due, they were very prompt to respond after the second printing failure. They think their UK printer may have a problem with the 1.1GB file size so they’ve ordered me a copy from their US printers instead.
Cheers,
Richard
Ok, so we can note that UK customers might have problems with the larger books, and should request them printed at the US facility if possible. That’s an unfortunate wrinkle. Hopefully the sub-400 page ones are ok, though.
Heh, it’ll be worth the wait, though – it’s a hefty tome packed with everything a beginning typewriter mechanic interested in tinkering with post-war American machines should know – everything I could fit within the spiral-bound 470 page limit, anyway. The 1940 AMES parts manual is a good companion piece to the Manual Bible, as it covers the same machines illustrating and enumerating all the parts along with lists of “high mortality” parts compiled just after WW2’s hard experience. It’s also a big one, 400+ pages, so you’d have to order that printed in the US too. /:
Quick question: I have a 1960’s Underwood Touchmaster 5, and I can’t seem to find any kind of specific repair manual on it anywhere. I’m thinking it’s not that different than previous models, so a generic manual would probably work. What are your thoughts on that?
well, how about the TM5-specific service manual? https://sellfy.com/p/WMgT/
That’s awesome! That’s exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again!
HI I have a royal empress. I need any documentation –user manual and service manuals that are available. Please let me know what is available and cost- It would be awesome to get this information. Thank you!!
well, you’re in luck. Here’s the owner’s manual:
http://munk.org/typecast/2013/02/13/royal-empress-typewriter-owners-manual-1961/
an Empress service manual is included in the 1968 AMES Standards book:
http://typewriterdatabase.com/1968-Ames_Standard_SVC.royal-repair.manual
if you want that on paper, professionally printed with a coil bind, wait about a week. I have the proof copy of the edition coming in a day or two, so it should be available before the week is out.
Hi, do any of your repair manuals specifically cover the Smith-Corona Super Sterling? Thanks!
Super Sterling is a 6-Series, so you’d want this one:
https://sellfy.com/p/7Kkk/
That’s the PDF version. If you want to wait for the coil-bound printed workshop version, it’ll be a bit. I have to re-set up my supplier.
Thanks!
Bought the PDF version a while back, but would like to get a coil-bound printed workshop version as well, if possible. I searched, but couldn’t find a link to buy this one in hard copy. Do you have a link to where I can purchase one? Thanks!
not yet. hasn’t been enough interest to put one ou on paper..
Okay, thanks. Count me as +1, though, for people who would buy a hard copy. I guess I’ll just keep checking back periodically to see if it ever achieves critical mass.
Well, dang. The links take me to a “not found” message at Lulu. I tried a variety of searches at Lulu with no luck. Perhaps the iNet gods are unhappy at the moment – I’ll try again later
These links are all dead now, I’ve moved from Lulu to a different printer:
http://thebp.site/121020
Looking for a manual for a 1940 lc smith super speed typewriter. Looking for basic upkeep and repair. Will this Bible have it.
Yes, this one covers that model: http://thebp.site/121020
I am interested in turn of the last century machines. Will this help me understand their mechanics? Are there other resources? Thanks.
Yes, the basics of the mechanics are covered. (:
Hunting for a service manual for a Royal KMM or KMG (I think they’re basically the same.) Is the repair Bible the one?
I’ve found about 40 ways how not to put the carriage back together. So that’s good. Also a couple springs came loose and I have no idea where the free end is supposed to go.
Yep, the Manual TRB is the one for you (orange cover stripe one) (:
I have an Olympia, not sure of the model. It’s from the early early 1960s, has the sleek lines of the SF or Socialite, just the word Olympia on the right side of the ribbon cover. It has the fiberglas case that snaps on. It types capital letters fine, but only pats of lowercase and they are not on the line. Is there a repair manual for this?
I also have an Olympia SM3 with a similar issue. And I’m wondering if you have a repair manual for the Smith Corona Clipper series.
Thank you. You really are performing a great service for the typosphere!
For the Clipper –
Spiral bound, printed workshop book: http://thebp.site/120305
PDF: https://sellfy.com/p/SSs3/
For the SM3 –
Spiral bound, printed workshop book: http://thebp.site/121245
PDF: https://sellfy.com/p/XJUO/
Rev., hope you see this comment on an old post–I’ve searched for your email address without success. I’ve got an SM2, and I’d like to remove the case for cleaning. I’ve got the SM TRB and it didn’t solve my problem. And the YouTube video I found starts with the case magically removed already.
Basically, although removing the machine from the case s covered on page 17, I find it really hard to follow. I found some of the referenced part codes on page 117, but others I can’t find anywhere. And I’m really leery when I read about making pencil marks on the case so you can put it back just so–I can’t find SSta 1004 and 1007 on the diagram, and is putting the machine back together *that* hard? Check out Section 1B, 4 and 5. They really make it sound that getting the typewriter back in its case correctly is like threading a needle with a rope.
Any guidance? This procedure, which I thought would be simple, is the main reason I bought the book. TIA.
This will be an unsatisfying answer, I’m afraid. I don’t know – I don’t have an SM2 and have never needed to remove an Olympia from the shell, so I have no insight on the operation.
OK, thanks for the reply! I’ll ask around further to see if anyone else can shed some light.
I’m looking into getting a Olympia sm9 typewriter. What bible to you recommend with this particular typewriter?
We don’t have one for the SM-9 yet. sorry (:
Any chance you will create one for the Olympia SM9? I love your manuals! Thank you for all you do!
if I can get the documentation, yes.
Hello reverend, I hope this get to you. I’m a mexican physician, we use the typweriters because it’s a cheap and fast way to work without a computer. I own 3 Olivetti Lettera, 25, 32 and 35i, and wanted to give them a good clean and know how to fix them if anything happens, and I can’t find the Service manual of any of those, until I found your bibles, but you have only for the Lettera 22 and 44, do you know if those could help me? I mean the mechanism are pretty much the same but not identical. Thanks you!
The Lettera 25, 32 and 35i are all mechanically a Lettera 32. Unfortunately, I don’t have the service manual for that yet (still looking).
Greetings, Reverend —> I have an Olympia SM3 whose left ribbon-reversal mechanism won’t work. The machine otherwise works perfectly. Does the manual cover how to adjust this assembly?
Yes. Generally speaking though, flushing the mechanism with something like lighter fluid until it’s clean then applying a small amount of light oil will probably fix it, if you haven’t done that already. It’s almost always dirt or old oil that is the problem.
Thanks, Reverend! I tried a little shot of PB Blaster but will give the mechanism a bigger taste of Zippo and see what happens.
Rev. Monk,
I see that a few others have enquired about an SM9 repair manual. I would be a buyer were one available. Thanks for all that you have done for typewriter users and enthusiasts!