Old Machine Shop in Canada with this cool old Flexowriter

[MyanRatte]

Hey all, new here.

Cleaning up a bit, we have this old Friden Flexowriter, we were around in the Greater Toronto Area since the 70s, and have kept this guy lugging around.

We want to clear up some space and try to learn more about it. It does turn on and function, we have paper for it, etc. we aren’t sure of its value, where’s a good place to find buyers for it, etc.

Hoping for some tips, and hoping it’s not against the rules to ask.

Thank you

 

[g4ugm]

I think these are a bit unloved, so I think finding a buyer might be a challenge, so unlikely to have huge value...
.. some one in the UK was looking for one on the greenkeys list, so unlikely to want to pay shipping costs...

 

[jdreesen]

On the contrary : these were used as IO device on the earliest computers ( 50'ies) and are very rare and sought after...

 

[g4ugm]

On the contrary : these were used as IO device on the earliest computers ( 50'ies) and are very rare and sought after...

If they are rare and sought after why are there not a bundle of people chasing this.? They are definitely rare, and I know a couple of folks have asked after them, but none in Canada. I suppose the good thing about the Toronto region is that its within a days drive of much of the North East/Midwest USA so if they are wanted it should be collectible. Lets face it, if it was a much less rare Teletype ASR33 or even a KSR33 folks would be fighting over it, but for this no interest outside Europe...

 

[MyanRatte]

If they are rare and sought after why are there not a bundle of people chasing this.? They are definitely rare, and I know a couple of folks have asked after them, but none in Canada. I suppose the good thing about the Toronto region is that its within a days drive of much of the North East/Midwest USA so if they are wanted it should be collectible. Lets face it, if it was a much less rare Teletype ASR33 or even a KSR33 folks would be fighting over it, but for this no interest outside Europe...

From my understanding as well, there was a period where these things were practically everywhere and shops were just tossing them. We embraced NC and CNC pretty early, I have some pics of old custom machines from I believe the 70s/80s.

It seems like a niche to find someone interested in old computer and on top of that, CNC and Machining history

 

[g4ugm]

From my understanding as well, there was a period where these things were practically everywhere and shops were just tossing them. We embraced NC and CNC pretty early, I have some pics of old custom machines from I believe the 70s/80s.

It seems like a niche to find someone interested in old computer and on top of that, CNC and Machining history

As I have said elsewhere on this forum, in my first job, in an insurance company, in the late 1970's we had a room full of these for printing life policies. There were master tapes for each type of policy which printed most of the wording automatically, but stopped when specific details were needed. These were typed by hand and punched onto an output tape that was used to update the mainframe files via a paper tape to mag tape machine. A second output tape was produced that contained the info needed to print the policy wallet.

We eventually updated the mainframe printer to be upper and lower case. The Flexowriters were given away, or scrapped. Some one bought a couple and used they to print running club news letters. Fun days

 

[RobS]

As I have said elsewhere on this forum, in my first job, in an insurance company, in the late 1970's we had a room full of these for printing life policies. There were master tapes for each type of policy which printed most of the wording automatically, but stopped when specific details were needed. These were typed by hand and punched onto an output tape that was used to update the mainframe files via a paper tape to mag tape machine. A second output tape was produced that contained the info needed to print the policy wallet.

The same applies in my case. I also worked for a life assurance company who used one to print policies but we had an added feature. This was the matching Selectadata paper tape drive, which could be loaded with a long loop of tape containing the relevant stock clauses needed to type the basic text. The data pertaining to many individual policies was contained in the data tape loaded onto the Flexowriter itself. Special codes on this tape indicated where to insert each block of stock text, which was located automatically on the loop of tape on the Selectadata by it searching for the matching code, hence the name "Select a data". To speed up the search the Selectadata changed gear and only read every other frame, thus running the tape at twice the normal speed. To make this work the codes at the start of each text block were simply entered twice so that one of them was bound to be found.

Although the Flexowriter and Selectadata machine are long gone I still have the tape punch and readers from both machines, the Selectadata reader still having that unusual mechanical two speed drive mechanism. I also still have all the stock text tapes for our company's standard contracts. I may eventually adapt the paper tape devices to interface with my 1960's Honeywell 200 computer replica. Back in the 1970's I also had the foresight to buy a box of reels of blank paper tape to cover this possibility.

The problem with old Flexowriters and the reason why mine is long gone is that the large number of linkages in the typewriter mechanism wore out and the essential rubber drive components wore down and perished. I think that anyone considering acquiring one would want to know the exact condition of it and wouldn't risk significant shipping costs to find this out. In contrast the punch and reader components appear to have been more durable and mine are still serviceable.

 

[g4ugm]

Back in the 1970's I also had the foresight to buy a box of reels of blank paper tape to cover this possibility.

I also have a few spare reels of paper tape should any one need one...

 

[MyanRatte]

I also have a few spare reels of paper tape should any one need one...

Ours is fully functional, looking through some old pictures we have, we had some cool custom machines. Back in the 70s my grandfather fabricated a machine for auto tapering holes, another for making candles, etc.

We still have an old manual lathe in our shop, but pretty much all of this old stuff is unfortunately all gone