Akiles CoilMac M Manual Coil Binding Machine

Staff Review

Akiles CoilMac M Binding Machine Review

A very popular and heavy duty spiral coil binding machine, the Akiles CoilMac M is aimed at small or medium sized businesses and organizations who want the ability to create their own booklets using ColorCoil. In the following brief review/overview, we will take a look at the various features of this machine and give you what we consider to be some of its strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:

1. The first thing we noticed and appreciated about this machine is that it's built like the proverbial tank. That is no surprise for an Akiles machine, but we found that the CoilMac M was of especially high quality construction. The body and all of the major components are made of metal, and we see no reason why this machine wouldn't last you for years without the need for repair or maintenance.
2. The four to one pitch ratio that the CoilMac M features is one of the more versatile pitches on the spiral coil binding world. With this ratio, you will be able to bind a range of documents from six millimeters (about a quarter inch) to as large as fifty millimeters (two inches). You will want to get some experience under your belt, however, before you attempt to bind books that are larger than one inch. Still, it is important to keep in mind that supplies for spiral coil binding in these size ranges are easy to find, and are available in somewhere approaching sixty colors, so you can hardly find a more versatile binding system to work with.
3. At 17 pages per lift, the CoilMac M has a pretty decent punching capacity for a medium-use machine of this type.
4. The CoilMac M includes five disengageable dies that allow for the punching of all of the most common sized of paper, from letter, to legal, to A4 and A5.

Weaknesses:

1. Though there is an inserting table that makes hand insertion of the coils a little bit easier, you should be aware that there is no electric coil inserter included on the CoilMac M. The binding process goes much more quickly with electric inserters, so if you think that you will need one, you'll have to take a look at either purchasing a standalone unit, or stepping up to the CoilMac ECI.
2. Because they are so important to finishing the binding process, we were a little disappointed to find that the CoilMac M does not come with crimping pliers. You will find that cutting and crimping the end of your coils is near impossible without them, and inexperienced users especially should be made aware of this fact. All in all, it is only about a thirty dollar value that is missing from the machine, but make sure that you order a pair of these pliers when you order the CoilMac M.
3. Though, as we mentioned above, the CoilMac M has some disengageable dies that will get you through the vast majority of jobs, the fact that they are not all disengageable will make it unlikely that you will be able to effectively process documents that are of irregular or custom size. For most users, this won't be a problem. We just thought you should know.