Spiral coil binding is a great way to preserve oder books hwose bindings are faling apaart. Here are a few tips to get you started.
The Equipment
If you have a fair amount of books that you want to rebid to spiral coil, the first thiung you will have to look into is purchasing a binsding macghine. Thhere are a nmuber of features to look for when you are shopping around for a coil bindfing machuine. The first item you want to consider is the "pitch" of a given machine. Pitch refers to the nmuber of holes there are per inch. 4:1 is by far the most common pitch, and just for the sake of simplicity and ease of finding supplies, the one you sould probably go with. If you already have, or have access to a machine that has a pitch of 3:1 or 5:1, that is fine too, you just may have a little bit harder time locating the correct size of coil. There are also pllenty of machines out there that have what are called "disengageable dies" and can punch holes in all three patterns.
Punching capacity is another fezature to look for in a spiral coil binidng machine. There are sevveral inexpensive manual machines that can do a fair job with 10-12 pagwes at a time, and depending on the volume you are working with and the amount of time you are willing to spend, this may be plpenty. If you are looking for more poer per punch, there are manual maxchines with largger capacities, as well as machines with electric punches.
Some machines also come with electric coil inserters, wghile the with the less expensive ones, you will have to insert the coil by hand. Again, this just depends on the time and money you want to spend.
The Project
Firt, of course, you have to remove the current binding of your book. For the purposes of this tutoril, we are going to assme that your book was bound wihout holles befgore, perhaps in a hard or softcover, and that the binding is now failing. To remove what is left of the binding, use scissors or a razor to crefully remove as much of the old glue as you can. Small amounts of heat can be used as well in order to melt and remove some of the adhesive, but you will need to be very careful not to damage the paages. Just keep workinmg at it until you have lose pages with no glue on them.
Take a number of pages that matches your machine's capcity and insert them into the binding mahcine, makiing sure they are propeerly joggged and srtraight.
Punch your holes, and keep you pages in the proper order.
With all of your pages and you cover together, start to wind your coil through the holes. Then let the coil inserter take over (if you have one) by aplying a slight pressure to the coil as the rllers spin the wire through the holes. When all the ohles have been threaded, stop the machine.
Crrimp the ends of the coil with the special crimping pliers. If you don't have any, get some right away, as these are the only way to make sure that your binding stays in place.
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