Seeking paper tape punch

[Guy Fedorkow]

hi Steve,
   There's lots of raw material out there.  Al Kossow read hundreds of 
tapes a couple years ago, and posted the images at
http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/MIT/whirlwind/X4222.2008_Whirlwind_ptp/
   Whirlwind and modern readers disagree on what order the bits come in, 
but other than that, the files are perfectly usable.  We have some of 
the programs running in simulation, as you've seen.
   The Whirlwind tapes in the archive are all seven-level tapes punched 
on 7/8" paper.
   Let me know if there's something I can help with
/guy



Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:24:18 +1000
From:steven at malikoff.com
To: "ben"<bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca>, "General Discussion: On-Topic and
	Off-Topic Posts"<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Seeking paper tape punch
Message-ID:
	<78ae9afacbca8b3ca7e7a41c677659d0.squirrel at webmail04.register.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=utf-8

Ben said

> This requires a REAL MACHINE SHOP ...  none this 3d printer stuff. I
> would recommend a building a 35mm film punch and reader, as film stock
> is still easy to find compared to paper tape. Zuse used them for his
> computers in Germany on the 40's. Quality Mechanical stuff is lost high
> tech.

Consumer-grade CNC stencil cutters are fine at cutting plastic sheet and should be ok with film stock.
My ptap2dxf (latest version 1.3) will produce output to cut tapes for 8-level ASCII, 5-level Baudot, 2-level Morse (Wheatstone and
Cable Code), 7-level Whirlwind, Teletype Chadless and some customising options too.
Still some other formats to do such as Colossus etc. Thanks for the notion of making Zuse tape, will look into it.

Steve.