Wire binding is a frequently used document
finishing method and with good reason. It's one of the best - and
easiest - ways to make your documents look professional and
sophisticated. However, it can seemed intimidating because a lot of the
wire binding machines out there look like they're really complicated to
use. They are actually not, as long as you know what you're doing. Here
are some tips on how to use one of these machines:
Wire binding is a frequently used document
finishing method and with good reason. It's one of the best - and
easiest - ways to make your documents look professional and
sophisticated. However, it can seemed intimidating because a lot of the
wire binding machines out there look like they're really complicated to
use. They're actually not, as long as you know what you're doing. Here
are some tips on how to use one of these machines:
Before
you begin binding a book, you need to punch holes in it. You should
adjust your machine's side margin control before punching to ensure that
the holes will be properly centered. Most side margin controls are
marked by paper size, so just select the one that's right for your
document before punching.
Some
machines have disengageable punching dies. These allow you to punch the
right number of holes for various sizes of paper, such as half-letter
and legal-size. Be sure to disengage (or engage) the appropriate dies
before you punch your paper, if necessary.
Now
you can punch your paper and covers. Depending on your machine, you'll
either pull a handle to do this or press a button. Don't exceed your
machine's punching capacity. Doing so can dull the punching dies.
A
lot of wire binding machines have spine selectors. If your device has
this feature, you can use it to measure the thickness of your document
and then pick out the appropriate spine for it. Depending on your
machine, you will be either working with 3:1 or 2:1 pitch wire spines,
or both. (Pitch just refers to how many holes there are punched per inch
of paper. The 2:1 pitch spines can bind thicker documents, including
ones that are up to 250 pages long.)
Place
the wire spine on the hanger on the front of the machine. You can start
threading the tines of the spine through the holes in your book. Don't
forget to add the covers. In fact, the back cover should be the last
sheet you add, and its interior should be facing you. Once your book is
bound you can rotate the cover to hid the seam in the closed spine.
Now
you're ready to close the spine. Place your document in the spine
closer and make sure the open part of spine is facing down. Close the
spine and flip the back cover around. Your document should look great.
Repeat
the above process if you have other documents to bind. And if you have
an electric machine, make sure you turn it off when you're done to
prevent the motor from burning out.
Keep
in mind that these instructions are fairly general. While they will be
helpful for using most of the wire binding machines out there, your
machine may have device-specific instructions you need to follow. You
should always check out your machine's instruction manual just to make
sure you're doing everything you need to.
Wire binding is a great way to bind your documents and it's not that hard to do. Give it a try today.
Jeff McRitchie is the Vice-President of Marketing for MyBinding.com.
He regularly writes articles, reviews, and blog posts on topics related
to bookbinding, laminating, paper shredding, and office equipment. More
than 2,500 of his reviews have been published in thousands of locations
on the Internet. If you're looking for information about wire binding machines, his articles are a great place to start.
