Simon Boak's Period-Appropriate Paper Tape Punch Is Powered by Modern Arduino-Compatible Internals
Clever design makes for a surprisingly compact device capable of producing ISO 1154-standard punched tape for classic computers.
Vintage computing enthusiast Simon Boak has built a modern yet visually-appropriate implementation of a classic piece of digital storage technology: a paper tape punch.
"Punched paper tape was once the default way of storing and transferring information, even before computing," Boak explains, referring to the use of punched tape and cards in devices as far removed as player pianos and Jacquard looms. "But in 2025 your options for creating new tapes are limited to digging through eBay for a real punch, one which is large, heavy, surprisingly expensive and in need of mechanical care. Or lasers. You'll find DIY projects for paper tape readers, but not so much for the perforating machinery."
Boak did find one exception to the rule, a project from mononymous engineer Nii — but while it did indeed punch holes into a strip of paper tape, it did not match the ISO 1154 standard that would be required for the tape to be compatible with original readers. "The hole sizing and spacing of paper tape is so small that achieving the tolerances and accuracy of the machinery needed to punch data bits is difficult," Boak explains. "So I set out to see what was possible with a DIY approach."
The modernized paper tape punch Boak has created is based on a punch and die system, with a CNC-milled two-part die and HSS steel rod punch. A 3D-printed lever holds the punch above the paper, which passes between the two halves of the die; when a hole needs to be punched, the lever pushes the rod down and makes a clean hole. These levers — nine, for the eight data bits plus a central sprocket hole — are driven by 12V solenoids, connected to an Arduino-compatible microcontroller using a custom printed circuit board.
"As each solenoid can pull 1.7 amps I currently have this set to only fire one solenoid at a time," Boak notes of the machine's performance. "This is far slower that commercial punches but means I can use a smaller power supply and 3D printed mechanisms. Lastly, finding blank paper tape is almost as difficult as finding the punches. My approach was to use rolls of thermal paper (yes, BPA free). This comes on 57mm rolls but with a simple 3D printed rig with some knife blades I could slice this into two one-inch rolls."
The project is documented in full on Boak's website; source code and schematics have been published to GitHub under the permissive MIT license.