Jeff McRitchie

Reviewing The Spiral Coil Hand Crimpers

Spiral coil crimping pliers are used to finish binding documents with spiral coil. They cut off the excess coil and bend the ends over in a single motion. This helps to ensure that the spirals don't spin back off the book.Special crimping pliers make the finishing process much easier. If you don't have them you will need to cut off the coil and then manually bend the end over so that it won't come off the book. This can be pretty difficult.

• Spiral coil crimping pliers are used to finish binding documents with spiral coil. They cut off the excess coil and bend the ends over in a single motion. This helps to ensure that the spirals don't spin back off the book.
• Spiral coils are usually purchased longer than the edge of the book that you are binding. For instance you would purchase 12" coils for an 11" binding edge. This extra is to allow for the crimping process.
• Special crimping pliers make the finishing process much easier. If you don't have them you will need to cut off the coil and then manually bend the end over so that it won't come off the book. This can be pretty difficult.

Features / Strengths:

• These pliers have a red dot on one side of them. This red dot is to help you align the pliers during the crimping process. The important thing to remember when using them is that the red dot should always face the ceiling when you are crimping coil.
• They offer a standard throw length (the length of the piece of coil that is bent over). This is ideal for 4:1 pitch and 5:1 pitch coil which are the two most common sizes.
• The plastic coated handles of these pliers make them easy to hold and easy to use.
• Crimping with coil pliers isn't really that hard provided you remember to keep the red dot facing upward and the spine of the book facing you.

Weaknesses / Limitations:

• The throw length on these pliers is ideal for standard 4:1 pitch and 5:1 pitch binding. However, binding documents with 4:1 pitch oversize oval holes, 3:1 pitch holes or 2.5:1 pitch holes will be difficult. With larger holes the throw length may not be long enough which will still allow the spiral coil to spin off the book. For these applications, premium oversize oval hole crimping pliers are suggested.
• You need to squeeze the pliers hard enough to bend the end of the coil over but not so hard that you end up cutting the end off. This can take a little bit of getting used to.
• High volume spiral coil users can sometimes find the coil crimping process to be tedious and labor intensive. There are several automated crimping tools available on the market that range in price from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars. These are designed for high volume users and often require significant amounts of setup time.
• Some new coil binding machines are including a small crimping tool on the machine itself. These new tools are actually fairly easy but are still very expensive. Still they are a good alternative for people who greatly dislike crimping documents with these pliers.

Recommendation:

• I would recommend that every user of coil binding have a pair of coil crimping pliers. Many machines come with a pair. If yours doesn't you should make sure that you add one onto your order.
• High volume users might consider other crimping options. However, it is best to consult with a document finishing specialist about these options to know what option will work best for your application.
• Customers that are using non standard pitches of coil or who are using an oversize oval hole pattern should consider a pair of pliers with a longer throw.

Article Tags: Spiral Coil, Coil Crimping, Crimping Pliers, These Pliers, Throw Length, Oversize Oval

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