In the US, you can get one hundred 4" mascara brushes for around $5. Eye Tees (cottton swabs with a firm point on one end and a flat tip on the other) cost roughly the same. You'll find them at most beauty supply stores or online. These get into tight spaces. Dipped in mineral spirits (or whichever solvent you've come to like), the brush gets the stuff loose and the Tee wipes it away. Blasting air helps as well. Works for me. Others will have other ideas.

Old school repair guys used a lot of different stuff that's no longer available due to being... Not good. Ha. But naphta was one that's still widely available as white gas aka "coleman/camping fuel" Essentially naphtha with stabilizers to keep it from going bad. Mineral spirits works as well, but naphtha leaves less residue in my experience. Lacquer thinner is good for especially stubborn crap and cleaning slugs, but evaporates really fast and the fumes are no bueno. Alternatively; non toxic degreasing cleaners like simple green are usually my preferred method of cleaning up especially gross machines. Typically very safe on paint finishes and internals, just make sure to keep it off the decals. (It can and WILL erase them if it sits for more than 10 secs) Really though, nothing beats air and a long handled "paint" brush. My air compressor and blow out tube are some of my most cherished tools.

I came across this note and saved it for you and all other Olympia SMx users; I do not know who the author is: "Can I just say, having been in the typewriter trade since 1975, PLEASE take it from me that the Group 1 (or Group 1001) ribbon intended for Olympia, Adler, Facit and many other makes DOES NOT have eyelets !! The ribbon mechanism is designed to trip and reverse when the ribbon gets taut as one spool becomes full and the other totally empty. Someone may well have fitted an eyeletted ribbon to a Group 1 spool as a bodge to get over a sluggish or badly adjusted ribbon reverse mechanism - to give the reversing fork an extra 'nudge'. The factory did not intend the ribbon to be reversed this way." In my experience, eyelets will often slip through the reversing arms and then hang up on the vibrator. You don't have to buy eyeletless ribbons; you can just cut them off the ends of your current ribbon and reattach to the spools.

Don't feel bad. Your not the only one. This misconception has been going on for years simply because no typewriter repairman has stood up and said " Now wait a minute! " The collectors have done all the talking and publishing while the typewriter man isn't heard. Consequently, it's the big typewriter collectors that are heard. They never talk about how many times they had to reclean a machine. They often have several and may only use 1 or 2. Also there isn't that many of us real typewriter repairman left to do the talking.