Yesterday I spent a pleasant hour or so binding a new set of my Reader’s Diary books. Many of the books I make are sewn together with needle and thread, but this one uses a wire or spiral binding. It’s a 3 step process: punch the holes for all the pages and the cover using the machine, insert the spirally wire in the holes (machine doesn’t do that), and then press the wire loops closed (the machine helps with that — I stick the book in a slot in the binder and pull down on the shorter lever to apply even pressure to the spine).
I use the binding machine at the San Francisco Center for the Book — it’s great to live so close to a place with lots of equipment I can rent when I need it! Especially this one. I looked into buying a wire binder, but even the low end models are awfully expensive for the amount of use it would get. Tina Kay, who teaches workshops in using the binder, pointed out to me that the cheaper models only bind a fixed sized spine (usually 11″), and I would definitely want a binder that allows me to vary the spine size.