Jeff McRitchie

Reviewing The Akiles Megabind 2 Plastic Comb Binding Machine

Heavy duty legal sized manual plastic comb binding machine. Made by Akiles who has a reputation for making some of the highest quality desktop binding systems available on the market.The Megabind 2 also includes a wire closer that allows it to be used with 19 loop spiral O wire. This type of wire is also sometimes called ibiwire and is designed for use with the 19 loop comb binding pattern. However, most comb binding machines don't come with the wire closer needed to finish documents with ibiwire. This makes the Megabind 2 fairly unique in its class and provides excellent added value for your dollar.

• Heavy duty legal sized manual plastic comb binding machine. Made by Akiles who has a reputation for making some of the highest quality desktop binding systems available on the market.
• Similar to the Akiles Megabind 1 but includes a built in wire closer for added functionality. This makes it similar to some of the older Ibico binding machines.

Strengths / Features:

• Heavy duty manual plastic comb binding machine with disengageable dies (the ability to punch any length of document up to 14 inch with a single punch), open throat design (punch longer documents with a two step punch process), depth of margin control (choose how far the holes are from the edge of the paper) and heavy duty legal length plastic comb opener.
• The Megabind 2 also includes a wire closer that allows it to be used with 19 loop spiral O wire. This type of wire is also sometimes called ibiwire and is designed for use with the 19 loop comb binding pattern. However, most comb binding machines don't come with the wire closer needed to finish documents with ibiwire. This makes the Megabind 2 fairly unique in its class and provides excellent added value for your dollar.
• Includes a convenient size selector on the binding table to allow you to quickly choose the right size of spine for your documents every time.

Weaknesses / Limitations:

• Although the Megabind 2 can bind documents up to 2" with plastic combs it is only able to bind documents up to 9/16" with spiral-o wire. Documents larger than 9/16" will need to be bound with combs.
• The spiral-o wire is more difficult to come by that either plastic combs or standard twin loop wire. It is important to buy the right supplies for this machine (you can't purchase standard 3:1 pitch wire) if you want it to work.
• The manual punch on this machine is great for low to medium volume users. However, it could become quite tedious in a high volume production environment. An electric machine would be better suited high volume applications.
• The horizontal wire closer is a little bit more difficult to use and to master than the vertical variety included on most of Akiles other wire binding machines.

Construction:

• Heavy duty all metal construction is indicative of the Akiles line of manual binding machines. This equipment is extremely well built.
• The wire closer is solid and should hold up for most users who bind moderate volumes of documents. High volume users might consider a heavy duty stand alone wire closer instead.
• Backed by a 1 year warranty from Akiles. However, it is very doubtful that you will need the warranty on this machine.

Recommendation:

• For the price this is one of the best choices for manual plastic comb binding machines since it gives you the ability to use plastic combs, spiral-o wire and Zipbind spines.
• High quality metal construction means that it should hold up and won't break. However, it should not be used to punch more than 2 clear covers at a time or to punch metal, wood or other non paper materials.
• Great bang for your buck. Get one today.

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