This is for anyone who wishes to demo the museum's punch (for as long
as it works).

Mike Loewen mloewen@...
Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/

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The Compleat Idiot's Guide to the IBM Model 29 Keypunch
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1. The power switch is located under the desk top, to the right of the chip
box. Flip it up to turn on power. You should hear the motor running and
gears turning.

2. On the keyboard unit, locate the CLEAR switch (momentary toggle) on the
upper right. Lift it up and release it. This initiates a clear cycle to
flush any cards from the feed path and reset the machine.

3. Load a stack of blank cards into the card hopper (top right), face forward
and 9-edge down, in front of the spring-loaded pressure plate.

4. Set the remaining toggle switches on the keyboard to the following
positions (On is up, Off is down):

AUTO SKIP DUP - Off
PROG SEL - One
AUTO FEED - Off
PRINT - On
LZ PRINT - Off

5. On the keyboard, press the FEED key to bring a card down from the hopper,
then the REG key to register the card at the punch station.

6. Punch any desired characters. The card will move one column to the left
after each punch. The NUMERIC key is equivalent to the Shift key, to
punch the upper characters on the key tops. You may punch up to 80
characters on a card.

7. When you're done punching a card, press the REL key to release the card.
You may now either toggle the CLEAR switch to send the card to the
stacker, or press the REG, REL, REG keys to move it to the read station
and then to the stacker.

8. Some of the keys stick. If a key does stick, hold down the ERROR RESET
key and gently try to pull the stuck key upward. Do NOT pull too hard
on the key top, or you may break something. Also, the keyboard may lock
if you press the A or Z key while the NUMERIC key is pressed, or under
other error conditions. The ERROR RESET key should clear the lock.

9. For automatic feeding, set the AUTO FEED switch to ON. Press the FEED
key twice to bring two cards down from the hopper. There is no need to
press the REG key, since the first card automatically registers when the
second card comes down. After punching a card, press REL. The first
card moves to the read station, the next card registers at the punch
station and a new card comes down from the hopper. To move all cards out
of the feed path into the stacker, use the CLEAR switch.

10. If you wish to put multiple punches in a single column, first turn the
PRINT switch off. FEED and REG a card as usual, then hold down the
MULT PCH key, then press any number of numeric keys, ampersand or hyphen.
Release the MULT PCH key when you're done with a column, and the card will
advance to the next column. Repeat as desired. The numbers 0-9 will punch
the corresponding row, while the ampersand (&) punches row 12 (top row) and
the hyphen (-) punches row 11 (second row from the top).

11. When you're finished with the punch, use the CLEAR switch to clear any
remaining cards, then turn off the power. Replace any unused cards in the
hopper.

12. If a card jams in the punch station, be VERY careful in trying to remove
it. Pull open the cover over the program drum mechanism and locate the
Pressure Roll Release Lever immediately to the right of the column
indicator. Push down on the lever and try to pull the jammed card out.
It may be necessary to use the IBM 129 Card Removal Tool (card saw) to
remove portions of the jammed card. Do NOT use the toothed edge on anything
except the card.

13. If we don't have a printed copy, it would be useful to print the relevant
sections from the IBM 29 Card Punch Reference Manual and keep it near the
punch:

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Keypunch/029/GA24-3332-6_Reference_Manu\
al_Model_29_Card_Punch_Jun70.pdf