The Importance Of Using Coil Crimpers For Spiral Coil Binding

Spiral coil binding is an inexpensive, easy way to bind your reports

, presentations, booklets, calendars, and more. Spiral coil binding, also known as color coil binding, can be done either manually or with a machine, but no matter how you bind your booklet, there's one final thing you need to do before the job is completely finished: you'll need to crimp the ends of the coil. And by "crimping," we're not talking about giving your document the equivalent of a bad 1980's hairstyle. When it comes to spiral binding, crimping merely means trimming the ends of the binding spine and flipping up a small piece of it to secure the binding. If it sounds difficult, you don't need to worry. It's actually pretty easy to do, even if it is a necessary part of the spiral binding process. To find out what tool you need to crimp your booklet's coil and how to actually crimp it, continue reading.

If you've been binding documents with spiral coil for a while, you probably know that your coil should always be longer than the item you're binding. (And if you didn't know that before, now you do.) Although using an extra long coil may seem silly and excessive, there's a reason for this: it allow you to easily trim and crimp the coil. Although you can use scissors to trim the excess coil and then twist up the ends manually, this can be rather difficult to do. Therefore, you should invest in a tool commonly referred to as crimping pliers or coil crimpers. This special gadget might seem a bit pricey (a pair usually costs around $25.00), but the benefit it provides is priceless: it prevents the coil from spinning out of your booklet. Unless you want your book to fall apart (and who wants that?), you must use coil crimpers. (Note: the words "crimpers" and "pliers" are used interchangeably.) Here's how to use your new gadget:

1.) First, make sure you're holding the pliers so that the red dot is facing up and that the binding edge of your document is facing you. If the red dot isn't visible, beware: you'll just wind up cutting the coil shorter, instead of crimping it!

2.) Align the crimpers so that the teeth are just below the center of your spiral binding.

3.) Squeeze the pliers together allowing them to cut the coil. But don't loosen your grip on the pliers just yet.

4.) With the pliers still closed, twist the coil to the right. This will help to make sure that the end of the coil is bent over enough that it won't spin back through the holes. Now you can release the pliers.

5.) Flip your book over and perform the same procedure to the other side of the coil. You're done!

Now, this may sound easy, and it is, especially after you do it a few times. But if you have trouble initially, don't get frustrated. After all, practice makes perfect and the more documents you bind with spiral coil - and the more ends you crimp - the better you'll get at it. So start spiral binding your documents today and get crimping!

by: Jeffrey McRitchie

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