How to Bind Documents with Spiral Coil

If you want to make your documents look more professional, binding them with spiral coils is a great idea. Using coil is pretty easy, especially once you get the hang of it. Here are some instructions so you can successfully use this binding method:

• First, prepare your document by proofreading and printing it. Gather up some covers, index tabs, etc. so you can properly organize it.
• Now you will need to determine the thickness of your documents. You can do this one of two ways. First, you can measure the thickness with a ruler and then choose a coil that's large enough to accommodate the pages. It's important to use a ruler that has metric measurements on it since coil size is measured in millimeters. You can also use your machine's coil selector. Just insert your document into the selector's slots to measure its thickness. Keep in mind that coils come in a variety of sizes with the largest ones being suitable for documents up to 440 pages long.
• Now it's time to punch holes in your document. Your coil binding machine might need to be adjusted a bit before you start punching, especially if it has a depth of punch margin control and disengageable dies. The depth of punch margin control feature helps you control where the holes are punched in relation to the edge of the paper. Meanwhile, the disengageable dies can help you produce the right hole pattern for different sizes of paper. It's a good idea to punch some pieces of scrap paper to make sure you have the settings just right before punching your document. Also, your machine can only punch a certain number of sheets at a time. (This is known as the machine's punching capacity.) Try not to exceed the punching capacity. If you do punch too much paper on a regular basis, the punching dies can become dull and it's more difficult to produce cleanly punched holes.
• After you've punched holes in your document, it's time to bind it. If your machine has an electric coil inserter, just spin the coil through the first few holes in your document by hand. Then use the inserter's rollers to finish the job. If your machine doesn't have a coil inserter, just spin the coil through all the holes in your document manually.
• Finally, you will need to crimp the ends of the coil once your document is bound. Crimping the coil secures the binding. You can do this with crimping pliers. Although it can be tricky to use crimping pliers at first, it gets easier with practice. Just make sure the red dot on the pliers is facing up and you should be okay.

That in a nutshell is how you can bind your documents with spiral coils. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy and having the right equipment can make the process even easier. Try coil binding so you can make your documents look more professional.

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Written by Jeff McRitchie
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