The 1952 Olivetti Lexikon 80 that I brought home from Goodwill looked pretty bad on arrival. It was covered in grime and dings and scrapes and sticky tape residue. To me this is evidence of a very hard worker who really used his/her typewriter – and who took lunch breaks at the desk (bologna sandwich, a cup of black coffee, and a cigarette) .
Fortunately I had come across Typewriter Heaven’s post on Lexikology which details how to remove the cover and carriage from the typewriter so that I could pursue a good cleaning.
I followed the steps and pretty soon I had a neked typewriter.
There was a lot of debris behind the segment – including a shard of white pottery.
The stripped-down machine innards are pleasantly alien. I have been submerged in pre-war cast iron for the past few weeks and the Lexikon 80 is a blast of fresh modern air. I would assume that for 1952, it was very cutting edge.
I scrubbed the type slugs and type bars with denatured alcohol and the grease dissolved beautifully. I was careful to drape plastic and painted areas.
I cleaned the segment with denatured alcohol first and because the keys still felt sticky, mineral spirits afterwards. The keys on the right were particularly sticky. Did someone spill a Slurpee® into the segment?
The margin release key was sunken – I followed the connector down and found that the lever had migrated out of its slot – popped it back in and all was well.
I don’t understand the tab mechanism very well. While cleaning the keyboard, I pressed on the tab key and it got stuck in a depressed state. I found that a small metal piece attached to the tabbing mechanism in back was bent to the side. It didn’t look right, so I straightened it out and it seemed to be work better. However, the tab key still felt gummy and the tabs weren’t working reliably.
“Not working reliably” is an understatement. After I put the machine back together, I tested setting and using tabs. It seemed to be working gummily but OK. Then I made the mistake of clearing all the tabs and hitting the tab key. Bad idea. the carriage whirled to the end of the line and upon return, did it again and again. I ended up manually lifting up on the gummy tab key and that seemed to correct the problem. I immediately set a tab so it wouldn’t happen again.
After the fact, I stumbled across Rob Bowker’s post on Graphika and Lexikon tabulator eccentricities. Good to hear that I’m not the only person to experience the strange tab behavior. My tab key felt stiff and gummy, so maybe gunk was causing a problem.
So I took the cover and carriage off again and examined all the moving parts of the tab mechanism. I applied PB B’laster Penetrating Catalyst to all the areas below and worked the tab mechanism with my hands. The gumminess receded and the tab key began to move freely.
No set tabs – no problema! Works great now that it’s a bit cleaner and lubricated.

I applied PB B’laster to these areas. I had to hold a flat plate down with my finger so that I could freely work the tab key.
And more cleaning: I cleaned the cover with a little Soft Scrub – it’s a mild abrasive. It did a great job on the scaly grime, but I found that it was the Scrubbing Bubbles that really tore through the discolored dinge-colored grime. The hard enameled paint withstood the Soft Scrub and Scrubbing Bubbles treatment. I was cautious because some typewriters have very delicate paint. I used Goo Gone for thick areas of rubber and tape residue. Areas of the cover that I thought were scraped and damaged were actually just scaly with grime. After cleaning, the Lexikon looked a little vulnerable and naked without her covering of scaly grunge, so I gave the cover a good protective coating with Renaissance Wax. I love the pretty greenish-taupe that was hiding under the dirt.
The originally washers were sticky globs of melted goo – a horrible mess. I scraped them off and cleaned the areas with Goo Gone and denatured alcohol.
I found replacement rubber washers at Home Depot that were sort of hard to the touch, but they did the job.
I was able to reattach the carriage without much drama. A good wiggle and it was back on. I inserted a new ribbon and fired up the machine.
I wanted to give the keys some exercise and began a letter to a fellow typospherian. I got halfway through the first page when I heard a snap and a zing and found the draw band snapped. Good Grief, Charlie Brown!
I sighed, pulled out my 80lb fishing line (suitable for deep sea ocean fishing and typewriter repair) and got to work. I decided to salvage the end hook that attaches to the carriage frame.
I wound the mainspring 3.5 rotations and tied the fishing line to the mainspring. I did it by myself, but it would have been easier with a second pair of hands. The typewriter is happily typing again.
This Olivetti Lexikon 80 cleaned up so nicely. I swear I didn’t put Vaseline on the lens.
This typewriter has some special keys I haven’t had the pleasure to possess before: accents – acute and grave – umlaut, and circumflex.
Here are some things that I couldn’t type until now:
Addendum: a family member requested that I include this sample of the creative use of the umlaut:
One final note: be sure to check out Vintage Technology Obsessions’ post on Olivetti Lexikon 80 production lines. There are some fascinating images there – I love the Lexikon 80s rolling along on a conveyor belt. I went to the Italian site referenced in the post and found this great image of Enrico Fermi inspecting the innards of a Lexikon 80. I may hang it above my Lexikon 80.
Ewww, this one really needed your expert attention! But it now looks fabulous.
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Wow, what a stunner. I think the only thing that could improve this shiny whale would be to use some metal polish on the carriage return lever 🙂
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I’ll pull out my Mother’s Mag polish and get to work 🙂
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Another amazing rescue! I bet that Lexikon could do Double Nickles on the Dime now 😀
(er, or was that The Minutemen? the 80’s were so long ago..)
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Minutemen. But hey – the 80s are kind of blur to me as well.
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Wonderful transformation. I bet this one goes up to eleven now!
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Ha! It does, Nigel.
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Thanks for the link to Vintage Tech Obsessions! I’m skimming your entries after seeing a recommendation from Richard Polt. Lovely blog and you are brave to take on some daunting repair projects. The detail photos will come in handy.
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And thank you for your post on Olivetti productions lines – the images are mesmerizing.
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Just found a Lexikon 80 (with W I D E carriage!) after years of looking for a good one that wasn’t ridiculously expensive for either the machine or the shipping, and I’ll be using this as a reference for disassembly and cleaning – looking forward to seeing it all cleaned up like yours.
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Congratulations – what a wonderful typewriter. It’s got beauty and brains.
Make sure you check out Typewriter Heaven’s post on the Lexikon 80:
http://typewriterheaven.blogspot.com/2013/07/lexikology.html
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Hello! I own one of this babies too! ❤ So, I bought one and it was not working that well, so I fixed it ane then it worked perfectly again. BUT I had a problem to place back that moving thing where u put the paper on (sorry idk the name of it in English), DOESNT MATTER WHAT I DO it doesn’t move anymore. It pisses me off cause I’ve opened it three times and everything was ok until the last time and I don’t even know if I broke something or if I’m just not placing it correctly. Cant find any owners manual on the internet or guides. X( I’m very frustrated.
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Perhaps you mean the carriage? Here is an excellent blog post with photos on removing and replacing the entire carriage assembly on the Lexikon 80:
http://typewriterheaven.blogspot.com/2013/07/lexikology.html
As I recall, you need to make sure that the carriage is centered on the machine when you are replacing it.
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Thank you sooooo very much! ❤ I removed the carriage (which is waaaay bigger than yours) without centering it and now I cant make it move – doesn’t matter if its attached to the machine or not. I can position it correctly on the machine, but two things (or both) will happen: 1- The keys won’t move. 2- The carriage still don’t move.
I’m so frustrated! I’ve spent four horus trying to make it work properly today and I failed.
Could you please give me any tips to solve this challenge? I hope it has a solution 😦 Cause I worked on it for so long and I was so happy that I could make it work in the first place
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What might have happened is that the drawband (drawstring) has slipped off the mainspring. This drawband/drawstring is what provides tension and pulls the carriage and moves the carriage while you type. Here is how I replaced the drawstring on my Lexikon after it fell off:
https://myoldtypewriter.com/2015/09/07/typewriter-drawband-repair-on-a-shoestring/
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Cheers from Brasil! I really enjoyed the full reading of this fine article. I have always loved this typewritter and must admit that the whole story made me jealous; discovering her like Moby, taking care of her, bringing it back to life and the ocean of writting – just awesome 🙂
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Hello to you in Brasil! Thank you for the kind comments. That Lexikon 80 is one of my most beautiful typewriters and a very satisfying clean-up project. It was what we in the States call a “diamond in the rough”.
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