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Thursday, 19 December 2013

The Naked Olivetti Lettera 22 Portable Typewriter - She's 'Armless!







While working on another project, and waiting for things to dry in this scorching Canberra summer, I decided to finally tackle a paint-faded Olivetti Lettera 22 mask which had been sitting out the back for months - it was only adding to the clutter.
This turned out to be a bigger project than expected. Reinforcing that Olivetti, when servicing these machines, offered re-paints of the casing and ribbon spools cover (but not the paper plate), this machine had at least two coats – fawn on top and blue-grey underneath.  So it took lots of paint-stripper and even more elbow grease to get all the paint off.

The original plan was to repaint it in red and green stripes for Christmas, but it looked so good stripped to the metal that I grabbed the guts of a Lettera 22 from off the spare parts heap and assembled the machine. Only then did I realise why the mechanics had been chucked on the spare parts heap in the first place – it has no carriage lever! Ah well, even without the lever, it works greats and looks sort of sexy in the nude – I might just leave as it as it is. We’ll see …     

 PS: Before anyone springs to my aid, I do have a spare carriage lever I can fit to this machine - I just didn't around to doing it.
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19 comments:

  1. Rob Bowker19 December 2013 at 21:32

    Perfect candidate. I also noticed that where my Graphika is rubbed, there's that beige brown paint layer under the green. I think they just resprayed finished Lexikon shells to differentiate it.

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  2. Bill M19 December 2013 at 21:59

    Nice work. I've been wanting to take one of my aluminum body machines and strip the paint and buff out the metal. All I need is time.

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  3. Ray19 December 2013 at 23:30

    But do you happen to have a spare carriage return lever for a studio 44 by any chance?

    Beautiful job though, Robert. I really like how it has come out.

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  4. Richard P19 December 2013 at 23:35

    Interesting discovery about the Olivetti repainting.

    It looks great!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ted20 December 2013 at 05:37

    Heh, Ryan Adney at Magic Margin has an L22 that he paint-stripped back when Richard Polt started the "Silver Surfer" craze:
    http://www.magicmargin.net/2011/06/we-need-more-cowbell.html

    I just recently gave up on a Lettera 22's broken carriage return lever. It's held into the mechanism by a tiny setpin that is really hard to get to, and is really tightly in there. I do not envy you the job of getting the old busted swing post out. Good luck!

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  6. Mark20 December 2013 at 17:03

    Oh man. Nude and armless... and somehow I get to be the first one to suggest calling her the Venus de Milo! I was sure someone would have me beat.

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  7. James4 April 2014 at 19:10

    Did you manage to get the paper plate off? I have a 32 that I am looking to repaint, but can't find how to get it off!

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  8. Robert Messenger5 April 2014 at 23:06

    James, yes the paper paper came off. It may help to get the right side platen knob off, and you need a very small Allen key to do that. Once the knob is off, you can easily remove the platen, which enables you to more easily slip the paper plate out. It will also help to remove the bar holding the margin setters, which requires gripping the nuts while you unscrew the screws at either end. Essentially, the only real problem is a small spring behind the paper plate, which needs to be gently unhooked and then hooked again when replacing the paper plate. The operation varies from Lettera 22 to 32, with variations within the 22 model - it's much easier with the earlier 22s than the 32s. Oddly enough, when Olivetti itself repainted 22s, as an offered part of servicing, it didn't remove and repaint the paper plate.

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  9. Robert Messenger5 April 2014 at 23:13

    James, I should also have mentioned that the whole operation is made much easier if you have removed the entire outer casing. Unscrew it and slip it off at an angle, left to right, clearing the carriage lock switch.

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  10. James8 April 2014 at 06:18

    Thanks for the advice. Mine was quite different, but with your pointers and a bit of intuition I was able to get it. There were two small screws underneath the rollers that needed to be loosened and two clips on the back that needed to be pried off. Thanks again.

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  11. Unknown28 June 2014 at 15:31

    Hi Robert! Quick question. Did you remove the "Lettera 22" and "Olivetti" insert logos when removing the paint off the typewriter housing? If so how did you manage to take those off? I'm assuming they are glued on.

    Thanks in advanced!

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  12. Robert Messenger29 June 2014 at 12:33

    Yes, the badges were removed. Yes, they are glued on. In each case you will find two holes behind them. You gently push a prod (i.e. small screwdriver) through those holes and ease the badges off.

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  13. Unknown30 July 2014 at 13:41

    22Two questions, as I'm trying to strip and paint my L22:

    1. I'm having trouble removing the platen. You mentioned an allen key but on the right platen knob of my machine, there are two nuts that seem to be holding on the knob and won't budge. Is that a different design, or am I missing an allen wrench hole?

    2. There is some padding on the underside of the body plates which I assume is for sound dampening. Did you remove that or work around it? I'd love to find a material to replace it with.

    Thanks!
    Mitch

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  14. My Book Affair11 June 2015 at 05:34

    Hi Robert. I just found a Olivetti Lettera 22 in a second hand shop and it too has no lever/ arm. Are they impossible to come by? When I googled it, your post popped up! Some of the comments suggest that it is nigh on impossible to attach one even if I do manage to find one. Suggestions? I love the sound of this machine and would dearly love to make it sing again!
    Thanks, MBA.

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  15. Robert Messenger11 June 2015 at 13:55

    MBA - practically impossible, I would say. Generally the rod upon which the lever pivots has snapped where the lever rests, so there's little or nothing to work with.

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    Replies
    1. DanMelb24 November 2019 at 00:41

      Hi,
      Thanks for this old discussion.
      I have a snapped off lever as well And I still have the lever.
      I’d love to fit it back on.
      Does anyone here have any tips?
      Thanks in advance, Dan

      Delete
  16. DanMelb24 November 2019 at 00:39

    Hi, Daniel in Melbourne here.
    I have one with exactly this problem - snapped off carriage lever.
    I have the lever, but does anyone here have tips for
    a) getting the pivot rod out of the carriage
    b) getting the little snapped off bit out of the lever
    c) getting another pivot rod!

    I’d love to fix it...
    many thanks, contrasts39@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  17. Atyper13 November 2020 at 15:20

    Well this appears to be a trend, I found an Lettera 22, but with a snapped lever. Not sure whether to jump on it, but I guess there is no fix for it?

    ReplyDelete
  18. DanMelb13 November 2020 at 18:23

    Hi Atyper -
    It’s still on my list of projects to do. I bought a beat up Lettera 32 for $20 simply to harvest the intact lever.
    In the meantime, the 22 is one of my favourite typers. Returning the carrriage manually is not that bad.
    Cheers, Dan

    ReplyDelete

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