The Equipment

If you have a fair amount of books that you want to rebind to spiral coil, the first thing you will have to look into is purchasing a binding machine. There are a number of features to look for when you are shopping around for a coil binding machine. The first item you want to consider is the "pitch" of a given machine. Pitch refers to the number 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 should 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 plenty of machines out there that have what are called "disengageable dies" and can punch holes in all three patterns.

Punching capacity is another feature to look for in a spiral coil binding machine. There are several inexpensive manual machines that can do a fair job with 10-12 pages 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 plenty. If you are looking for more power per punch, there are manual machines with larger capacities, as well as machines with electric punches.

Some machines also come with electric coil inserters, while 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

First, of course, you have to remove the current binding of your book. For the purposes of this tutorial, we are going to assume that your book was bound without holes before, 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 carefully 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 pages. Just keep working at it until you have loose pages with no glue on them.

Take a number of pages that matches your machine's capacity and insert them into the binding machine, making sure they are properly jogged and straight.

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 applying a slight pressure to the coil as the rollers spin the wire through the holes. When all the holes have been threaded, stop the machine.

Crimp 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.