CNC machining in 1960

[rrrr]

This video shows the 1960 state of the art in CNC work. The setup and machining times must have been impressive back then, but laughably slow compared to today.

I wonder how much a programmable turret lathe or mill cost back in the day.

 

[monkeyswrench]

That's so cool! The "program tape" looks more akin to player piano tapes, and the machine still runs a mechanical stop for setting the various turrets.

 

[rrrr]

That's so cool! The "program tape" looks more akin to player piano tapes, and the machine still runs a mechanical stop for setting the various turrets.

I liked the narration..."and the setup took just 54 minutes."

 

[monkeyswrench]

I liked the narration..."and the setup took just 54 minutes."

Sometimes it takes me that long to zero out something on a lathe, to get started
That thing was Flintstone style, but really impressive for the the time and tech!

 

[mjc]

When I was an IBM ce at McDonnell Douglas we had one of these

ibm paper tape drive 1012 at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

The only reason we kept it going was to keep making mylar tapes for the cnc machines to make airplane parts.

 

[AZLineman]

Crazy tech for back then. I dig old machines. There is an art to using them. The lathe i currently make parts on was from a high school machine shop in the 60s. I've got a few friends that are still using old Bridgeport mills from the 50s and 60s.

 

[traquer]

That's way cool!

I heard that the machining for the Manhattan Project and other nuclear programs was bleeding edge and still to this day there's no public video or specifications of how they did it. What I do know is lots of precision required, some materials like plutonium and uranium are crazy difficult to machine, and they did a lot of work in airlocks and mills/lathes with argon atmospheres as oxygen would cause certain materials to explode or corrode, and material was also extremely toxic to humans. Crazy impressive especially considering how long ago it was!!

 

[ltbaney1]

the first CNC machine i ever ran was a paper tape machine at OCC. they still have it and the machine to punch the tape. i remember trying to tape it back together when it broke.

 

[monkeyswrench]

the first CNC machine i ever ran was a paper tape machine at OCC. they still have it and the machine to punch the tape. i remember trying to tape it back together when it broke.

Don Knotts "Reluctant Astronaut" I think?

 

[Racey]

My 1980s Mori lathe is setup to run on tape,

All of the memory functions are "forward / back" there is no such thing as a "file" and the internal memory is measured in feet of paper punch tape not bytes.

To send a program into the machine you press "Read" and then play the program from a laptop over serial

To send a program out of the machine you press "Punch" after setting up the laptop to listen and record. Punch refers to "punching tape"

You can plug a tape reader/puncher in instead of a laptop if you want.

 

[Travmon]

I was at Boeing in the eighties and because of who we were every cnc tool maker would give us machinery to try , it was a very exciting time for technology. Some of the very first self traveling part dollys following mag tape on the floor to move raw materials to cnc load center were in my building. Fun stuff

 

[rrrr]

When I was an IBM ce at McDonnell Douglas we had one of these

ibm paper tape drive 1012 at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

The only reason we kept it going was to keep making mylar tapes for the cnc machines to make airplane parts.

I have a good story about an IBM CE. In the early 90s, I owned a business repairing large data center UPS systems. My customers were on service contracts that specified a response time, usually two or three hours.

I received a call that a UPS I had on contract had failed. Apparently there was a huge utility power surge from an outage that was followed by a couple of recloser cycles. I arrived about an hour later. I had to change a couple of 400 amp blown fuses and an SCR pack and put the unit online again.

There was an IBM CE onsite, he was trying to resuscitate a 3083 mainframe that had failed when the UPS quit and wouldn't power up. He had all of the big blue service manuals open, trying to figure out the problem. I had an idea where to look, and checked out the front end power supply schematic. There was a 5 amp slow blow fuse in the circuit, and I suspected that was the problem.

I pointed it out to him, and he said something like "If that's the issue, I can't fix it. The book says the power supply module is an FRU (field replacement unit), and not field repairable. It must be replaced if there's a failure, and I will have to go back to my facility to get a new one.

Despite his reservations, I talked him into removing the cover on the module, which exposed the motherboard. Yep, the fuse was blown. It was an MDL-5, same style as an old automotive glass fuse. I rummaged around in my tool bag, and whaddya know, found one.

Ten minutes later the 3083 had finished its initializing start and was online. The CE thought I was a god.

 

[Dana757]

My first cnc had Bandit control with a display that looked like a TI35 calculator.

 

[ltbaney1]

My first cnc had Bandit control with a display that looked like a TI35 calculator.

I hated those bandit controls. finiky bastards, oddly enough i do like the green text on the black screen.

 

[Dana757]

I hated those bandit controls. finiky bastards, oddly enough i do like the green text on the black screen.

Mine had red LED display.

 

[OCMerrill]

What an awesome thread. My Dad lived that world on the plastics side. Designing Injection Mold tooling and having molds built to owning a large tool and die shop.

Took me into all of it when I was 14 and to this day I still miss it. Hard to make decent money as a Mold Designer.
I wound a ton of reel to reel tape back in my early years.

 

[rrrr]

I'm enjoying the comments from those that have experience operating the tape commanded equipment. I had no idea these products using machine programming existed.

Thanks for sharing your memories.

 

[arch stanton]

in the early 80’s i took a CNC machine class at Palomar college in San Marcos we were using punch cards that we punched out to program the machine and then feed them in the reader in the correct order

 

[monkeyswrench]

Watching that video made me wonder if my grandpa ever used anything like the model they were demoing. He passed before I was born. I know he started at Vard in Pasadena, then went to Rocketdyne, Aerojet and finished his career for FMC I believe. I always think of what someone like him, that started a career turning dials on an old LeBlonde or Cadillac lathe, would think about the concept that my 16yo has a 3D printer in his room.