MyBinding Knowledge Base
What are my options for binding legal-sized documents?
Does your company do a lot of Legal Sized Binding? Or maybe you only do a few legal sized documents but you want to make sure that the binding machine that you buy can handle 14″ long documents. Either way, this article is designed to help you understand the options available on the market for binding legal sized documents. Here is a quick overview…
-
Plastic Combs: The most common method for binding legal sized documents is with plastic combs. Combs are available as a standard item in black and can easily be ordered with a little bit of lead time in other colors. There are a also a few different legal sized comb binding punches available on the market including the Tamerica Durabind 242 , the Akiles CombMac and the Akiles line of Combo Machines that bind both wire and combs. However, if you don’t have a plastic comb binding machine that is long enough to punch your legal sized documents you may still be able to bind your documents. You will simply have to punch the documents in two steps and possibly have to insert the five extra rings by hand.
-
Twin Loop Wire: Although many of the wire-binding machines on the market are capable of handling legal sized documents, the trick with wire is getting the elements in 14″ lengths. Fortunately, wire can be ordered cut to almost any length including legal size. However, in order to ensure that the element matches the punching pattern on your document you will first want to punch one legal sized document and count the number of holes. You can simply order your spines so that they are cut to the exact number of holes you need.
-
Spiral Coil: One of the least expensive methods of binding legal sized documents is with spiral coil. Coil can be purchased in virtually any length and is available in more than 60 different colors. If you want to bind legal sized documents with spiral coil you will probably need to order 15″ long spiral coil to ensure that you have enough coil on each end to easily crimp your books. Not all of the spiral coil binding machines on the market have the ability to punch 14″ long books. However, the Akiles CoilMac, CoilMac ECI and CoilMac EPI have a feature that allows you to flip your books over to punch legal documents (and other documents longer than 12″) in two passes.
-
Velobind: GBC Hot Knife binding systems are some of the only binding systems that are ready to bind legal sized documents out of the box. GBC manufacturers legal sized 1″ thick Black strips that can used in the System One, System Two and System 3 Pro machines. However, it is important to recognize that these strips are only available for books up to 1″ thick. If you need to bind a document larger than 1″ you may need to look at plastic comb binding as an option.
< Over the years, a number of customers have asked me whether they can use twin loop wire with their plastic comb binding machine. These customers often don’t want to have to buy a brand new machine but like the look and feel of twin loop wire binding. However, the answer to their question isn’t as simple as it seems. You see, they actually do make twin loop wire that is designed to work with the plastic comb binding hole pattern. With that said, if you want to use these wires you are going to need a way to close the wires. What is Spiral-O Wire? Let me explain a little bit more…There is a product that we carry called Spiral-O Wire. This wire has 19 loops and is designed to work with the hole pattern from a plastic comb binding machine. Spiral-O Wire is sometimes called Wire Combs or Ibico Wire and was originally designed for use with some of the older Ibico binding machines. A number of the older Ibico plastic comb binding machines also included a twin loop wire closer on the front of them to allow users to use both plastic combs and wire. This 19 loop wire was designed for this purpose. What Equipment is Needed? As the Ibico brand has been phased out by GBC and all of the older Ibico plastic binding machines have been replaced with new models, they no longer have the twin loop wire closer on the front of them. This presents a problem in trying to use these spiral-o wires since you can’t use the wires without a way to close them. One of the only options left is to purchase a Twin Loop wire closer. However, since twin loop wire closers are not incredibly cheap this option usually only appeals to users who have larger electric plastic comb binding machines. Otherwise, it is often advisable to simply buy a low end 3:1 pitch twin loop wire binding machine (the supplies are cheaper). This being said, if you have one of the older Ibico binding machines that has a wire closer included you are in luck. The Spiral-O binding supplies that we carry will work perfectly with your machine and you will be able to use both plastic combs and wire depending on your needs. These Spiral-O binding supplies are available in Black, Silver, White, Blue and Red and in sizes up to 1″ in diameter. If you aren’t sure what type of wire binding supplies that you need to work with your machine simply give us a call. Our trained sales representatives will be glad to help you find the correct supplies for use with your machine.(Read More)
