Olivetti Typewriters for the Type-In, Red Lettera 22 and others

The first Lettera 22 I received.  It is the red Italian one.   Outwardly it looks the same before and after cleaning.

One cannot (well, yes I could, but I need to plug one of Ted Munk's excellent manuals) start work on a Lettera 22 without the manual.

This is getting ready to remove the cover from the Lettera 22.  No need to remove the bottom plate. In fact not removing the plate before removing the covers, and putting the plate back on before replacing the covers makes cover removal and reinstallation easier.

When I bought the Lettera 22 the type bar rest pad was loose and laying in the machine.

I cleaned all the old adhesive residue from the mounting channel and used printer's cement (rubber cement will work) to remount the leather pad.

A bit out of place, but this is the pad before reinstalling it.

I need practice to be able to use this keyboard whether or not I use the 2-finger method or not. It is much more difficult to use than I thought it would be.

The 1938 Universal.  No case and a very difficult sticking T type bar.  The T wanted to hang in the type bar guide yet looked like it was properly shaped when compared to all the others.  After hours of honing it and tweaking, I think I finally have it working. As with all the other Underwood typewriters I ever used, this one is a superb typer and nothing was done to it yet except to get the T working.  This is the third Universal that crossed my bench and all were excellent typewriters.

A bit of color shift from the LED lighting in my shop.  This is the taupe Lettera 22 being readied for a cleaning.

Reminds me of an SM 3 or SM4.  The rubber mounting washers for the cover were all deteriorated.  These are actually small rubber gaskets that I had plenty of from working on radios.

Note again, to remove the cover the platen must be fully left as far as it will travel.  The same to replace it.

After cleaning the type slugs and blowing the dirt out of it.  This typewriter typed great and did not require any other cleaning besides cleaning the very dirty type slugs.

Not perfectly clean, but much cleaner than when I started to clean them.

This one is now ready for next Saturday's Type-In.

Here are the Universal and Clipper awaiting repair along with a script H3k I hope to finish for Saturday.

Another superbly fun to use typewriter.  Every time I use an Underwood the only thoughts that come to mind is loads the paper perfectly straight the first time and every time, and nothing beats an Underwood for great typing,  Speedy, Snappy, Fast, Dependable.  Even my No, 3 is a joy to use.

And a preview of my digial imaging hardware. Yes, that is a Panasonic lens on the OMD.  Nice thing about the micro four third format is the lenses are not camera manufacturer body specific and I can still use my 35mm lenses!

Both of these are fun to use for what they are.  I'm still learning, but I'll take my 35mm, medium, and large format cameras and real film over digital imaging for quality any day.