From: W2HX <w2hx@w2hx.com> -- Sunday, March 30, 2025 7:31 PM
> I just wonder if there is any hope of converting this to 8 or 5 bit

See the end of this web page for enough information to manufacture the parts needed to convert your 6-bit punch block assembly to a 5-bit punch block.  I think it was nick@navyradio.com who worked this up, but the metadata on the PDFs say John Poulton:
-- https://www.navy-radio.com/tty/brpe.htm

(the notes on the plans suggest he might have made 6 kits.  To use one, you need the cast-iron center part of an old 6-bit block, plus most of the small parts removed from that block except the actual punch guide plates and die plate.)

If you want an 8-bit block, you'll also need to have the cast-iron center part machined.  I've been working on drawings of that:
-- https://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/pdp8/UI-8/log2025.shtml#2025-03-20

Once, several years ago, a lot of 10 8-bit BRPE punch blocks showed up on eBay.  Despite a serious effort to get it, someone not on GreenKeys got it.  We tried to contact the buyer to get a block and got no reply.  Who knows where those blocks went.  I haven't seen an 8-bit punch block for sale since.

              Doug Jones
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