Interesting. All the ones i used, including some teletypes, needed pre-punched tape, ostensibly to ensure proper alignment. We used to buy pallets of prepunched tape.
Sent from my iPhone > On Jun 24, 2025, at 12:10, Tony Duell <ard.p850...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Tue, Jun 24, 2025 at 8:04 PM Wayne S via cctalk > <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: >> >> There’s really a disconnect on between reading and punching paper tape. >> For making blank tape that can be used in a punch, you can cut a roll of >> something down to a proper width, but the paper has to be thicker than >> cashiers paper. The real trick is that the paper has to be perforated in the >> middle before use. That’s how it’s “dragged” thru the punch/reader. I >> haven’t seen anyone mention how to do that. >> >> If you can manage to do that, then you could also oil the paper and use it >> on a punch. > > Every paper tape punch (Teletype, Friden, DEC, Facit, Data > Dynamics...) I have punches the sprocket holes along with the data > holes. Some need a bit of help (pull the tape by hand) to get started > on a new roll of tape, but once it starts punching properly it will > continue to do so until the roll runs out. > > -tony
