Things You'll Need
Plastic or metal combs or coils
Paper trimmer
Cutting pliers
Pre-punched paper or binding machine, such as the Rubi-coil
Spiral-bound books are useful for a range of things from school projects, photo albums, sketchbooks and journals to professional documents and calendars. Their easy ability to fold over on themselves is helpful to artists and readers of all types. These are also a great option for do-it-yourself book making.
Step 1
Decide whether you want o bind your book with a comb or a coil and if it will be plastic or metal. Coils are generally used for smaller projects. Plastic combs and coils can be easier to insert as opposed to metal, and some binding machines are plastic only. If you have access to a binding machine, that will most likely determine your type of coils.
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Step 2
Buy pre-punched paper if you don't have access to a binding machine.
Step 3
Print what you need to on the paper and trim it to the size desired for your book. A paper trimmer is the easiest and most uniform way to accomplish this.
Step 4
If using a machine, insert your pages so that they butt up against the paper stop--so all of the holes will align and punch the holes. Follow the specific instruction for your machine to insert the coil or comb. There are many machines, and all are slightly different.
Step 5
Use a comb such as the GBC Proclick spine or Zipbind Easy Edit Spine if you're looking for the easiest way to make a spiral-bound book without a machine of any kind. These are simply inserted through the pre-punched paper by hand, threading it through one hole at a time.
Step 6
Snip off the excess coil with pliers.
Tip
Coils and combs come in dozens of colors. If you're worried about the cost of a professional binding machine and don't have one to borrow, there are small binding machines available such as the GBC Proclick P50, which is about the size of a three-hole punch and fairly inexpensive.
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