Managed to open up the top and inspect the ribbons on the Olympia SM 9 and Traveller de Luxe typewriters. Ribbons were either dry as a leaf or about to run out very soon. How else would I have gotten them for a song ?
It was either I depend on messy carbon paper or get new ribbons .
Thus my quest began .
For the Olympia SM9 fitted with a DIN2103 spool , I found that online sellers priced these ribbons between MYR 15 and MYR 45.
Bit overpriced if you ask me.
Good carbon paper was going to work out to be pointlessly costly . What to do ?
Even downloaded these vintage instructions hoping to find a solution like re-inking them for instance ?
Fat hopes.
Online suggestions gleaned from forums yielded some results. One of which was to rewind a whole new ribbon onto the old spool.
But I first had to determine if the ribbon had an eyelet or not.
Another was to use printer ink , blot and wait . Yet another suggested the 2 stamp pad method .
All sounded way too messy .
I can tell you this works.
Costs around MYR 5 .
No eyelet. Double spool. Twin colours.
Listed on the back of the box ,are the typewriter models it is also compatible with .
ABC , Adler , Alpina ,
Continental , Erika , Everest ,
Facit , Ideal , Imperial ,
Mercedes , Optima , Princess , Remington, Rooy , Royal , Siemag , Tippa , Torpedo , Triumph
apart from Olympia of course .
If the box is yellow or looks terribly aged , make sure this foil seal is intact.
As for the Traveller de Luxe , I had to find a ribbon with an eyelet.
The eyelet helps the ribbon with the self rewinding mechanism .
Don't get it wrong . It's not the eyelet that does the job but the machine .
Packaging is torn because I actually took the risk and tried this based on instinct .
Around MYR 7.
Works too.
Again , here is the compatibility list for specific typewriter models .
Olivetti 84 , Audit 302 , 502 , 513, 722 ,723 ,732 , 733 ,930 ,
Auditronic 770 , Diaspron 82 , Dora , Lettera , Lettera de Luxe , Lexikon 80 , Lexicon Electrica 80 E , LINEA 88 , Studio , Tekne 4 , Valentine Olivetti .
Can't see the Underwood and Logos models clearly .
For now , after acquiring the cursive Olivetti Lettera 32 , I'm pulling the handbrakes. Gonna enjoy them for a bit .
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