History of NC machines.

[dustooff]

Hi, after trying to dig up some info on a SLO-SYN motor I have, I stumbled across
the Slo-Syn Museum.
http://www.wimb.net/index.php?s=slosyn&page=50
I then tried a search for 'museum, history etc' on the zone, but none found.
Is anybody else interested in NC machine history?
Could this be a useful forum to bring understanding of how various equipment and
techniques evolved?

Andrew Burchill

[laszlozoltan]

I'd love a good historical source of info and pics- not for any practical reason ( I hope I won't ever need it I mean) but purely for the sake of curiousity about how these machines developed and evolved

[mc-motorsports]

Wow, does the late 1700's punch tape still get concidered NC? First machine I ever ran in a shop was a bridgeport with the old IBM punch tape. Had to use the special typewriter to punch up a new tape if you wanted to edit the code.

[Geof]

Wow, does the late 1700's punch tape still get concidered NC? First machine I ever ran in a shop was a bridgeport with the old IBM punch tape. Had to use the special typewriter to punch up a new tape if you wanted to edit the code.

I didn't know Bridgeports went back quite that far.

[Switcher]

That is interesting.

I've ran the old punch tapes myself, I really don't miss the fact that the reader never read the entire tape.

So would that make the old Calliope have NC history.



"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmxcr87uLXE"]YouTube - Calliope Band Organ in 1919 Chevrolet

[mc-motorsports]

Yeah, should of clarified that. Was wondering if the 1725 weaving machine that used punch tape was concidered NC? How was that numeric?

I think brigeport has only been around since the 40's? My first real job in CNC was secondary opps on a '76 with punch tape, that was back in '95. After a week of that, the shop had 2 brand new Mori's delivered, I ran one of them for the rest of the time I was there (the old guys were pissed! They were stuck with thier 80's Mori's and they stick a 18 year old kid on a brand new one...) To the best of my knowledge, I was the last person to have ever programmed and operated the '76 punch tape Bridgeport, it was retired after that.

[Geof]

....So would that make the old Calliope have NC history. .....

Calliope, Player Piano, Jacquard Loom could all be considered precurors to NC and CNC machines if you are flexible in your definitions.

[dustooff]

yeah, I wasn't quite suggesting that we wind our clocks back to the 1700's
but overall the site had a good summary of the the history of NC, more so
this page would be relevant http://www.wimb.net/index.php?s=slosyn&page=51
and as such if anybody else had seen any other sites with historical content of
NC machines.

Andrew Burchill

[Switcher]

http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d8527a.htm

[Switcher]

http://resource.controleng.com/conte...rc020507NC.pdf

[Switcher]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_control