| IBM 029 Card Punch, circa 1968 | |
| Model: | 29A |
| Hopper Capacity: | 500 cards |
| Stacker Capacity: | 500 cards |
| Technology: | Diodes, wire contact relays, SMS cards |
| Notes: | I acquired this unit along with a model 59 verifier. It had been in storage in a non-temperature/humidity controlled environment for quite a while and the owner was not familiar with these machines. On power up, the motor ran, but even attempting a clear cycle resulted in nothing more than a relay latching. After cleaning all the (wire contact) relays with DeOxit along with the keyboard contacts, it would feed and register cards, although the clear still didn't work. There was a lot of corrosion around the aluminum parts, especially around the control card drum assembly. After a marathon weekend work session which included cleaning the cam-operated circuit breakers and more contacts, it now feeds and registers cards, clears correctly and punches 80 columns with perfect alignment. I checked out the drum control functions during another session, and it senses all card columns, and skips and dups correctly (although it does stop occasionally during auto-dup fields). The print mechanism doesn't quite work: it prints incorrectly and the ribbon doesn't advance. I'll continue to work on it. For more information, see my VCF East 2007 poster. |
