GHOST IN THE MACHINE

The Importance of Being Flexible

Help from where you least expect it

A Flexowriter, which is a machine resembling a typewriter used to generate punched ASCII code tapes for use in early computers and numerically controlled machine tools. ArnoldReinhold, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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When I interviewed here at CHH Manufacturing they started bemoaning the loss, by retirement, of their head of CNC programming, who could bang out programs for their old Owens and Shipley VMC on their Flexowriter — manually, as in, on the keys. “That’s why you need me,” I blurted out, “I’ll make those keys fly — automatically!” I was going out on a serious limb with that. How you rig a Flexowriter to accept text file input depends on the exact model.

For a retro-geek like me it was a reasonable enough bet. I’m an Excel API wiz, which is what I figured I’d use to hack the Flexo. Thank God for Stack Overflow! Soon I had it wired up and was making the those keys fly, if that is the right word for a max rate of about eleven characters per second. Not much of a baud rate but error free.

There I was, magical manufacturing engineer and master of the Owens and Shipley, with its old school accuracy, monster table, and rare head clearance.

Management was happy, or whatever it is managers experience in place of happiness. I’d get a first piece in record time then turn it over to an operator. Everything smooth as silk.