Five Creative Gifts Made with Your Binding Machine

The holidays are just around the corner, and there’s no better way to show loved ones that you care than a handmade gift created just for them. Even if you don’t see yourself as the creative type, there are many unique gifts that can be made using your binding machine and a little imagination. Below are five ideas for one-of-a-kind gifts that are made with a binding machine:

  1. Custom Calendars – Did you know that your wire binding machine can be used to make your own custom calendars? Simply select 12 of your favorite photographs (such as pictures of your family, scenic images from recent vacations, or other photos that have personal significance) and use any free calendar software to assemble your calendar pages. Print them out in color onto cardstock and use a half moon punch to create a notch in the center of your calendar pages. Bind the calendar using your wire binding machine and a 5/16″ twin-loop wire, inserting a wire calendar hanger into the spine before you close it (this will allow the calendar to be hung on a wall). Creating your own personalized calendars is just that easy, and you don’t have to deal with the high minimum orders and substantial cost of going through a professional print shop.
  2. Photo Albums – Bound photo albums featuring your children throughout the years make an excellent gift for proud grandparents (or aunts, uncles, great-grandparents, etc.). Choose your favorite photographs, and lay them out onto letter-sized sheets (this can be done with the actual photos and sheets of paper or using your preferred photo editing software). Create color copies or print outs and bind them together. If you’re experienced with digital photo editing, you can also add borders, effects, or even text to your album pages to make them pop.
  3. Year in Review – If you have family members that live out of state, then creating a “Year in Review” book with your binding machine will bring them up to speed on all of the exciting things that your family has done over the past year. This is a great way to share photos from sporting events, newspaper clippings, stellar report cards, art projects, school pictures, and copies of other assorted mementos like ticket stubs.
  4. Family Tree – Spend a little time researching your family’s history and put together a book that details your genealogy. Once you’ve created your family tree, create additional pages that share the information that you’ve discovered about each family member, including photographs, birth dates, and other interesting facts. Compiling a detailed family history will take some time, but you’ll create a gift that will be cherished for years to come.
  5. Cookbooks – From Nana’s famous banana bread to Uncle Scott’s spectacular barbeque sauce, every family has their signature recipes. Compile a cookbook that includes everyone’s best recipes, and send copies to all of your family members. For an extra special touch, you can include photographs or stories from each family that relate to each recipe.

What are the Punch Patterns of the Most Common Binding Styles?

Each binding style has its own distinct hole pattern, which only works with the spines that correspond to that specific binding method. In this post, we’ll take a closer at each of the punch patterns to help you distinguish between each of the styles.


There are two separate punch patterns used for wire binding, 2:1 (two holes per inch) and 3:1 (three holes per inch). The 2:1 pattern uses slightly elongated, rectangular holes, and has a total of 21 holes per 11″ sheet. The 3:1 wire binding pattern uses square holes, and has a total of 32 holes per 11″ sheet. Unless your wire binding machine is dual-function or modular (which would allow you to change out your punching dies), it will only punch one of the two pitches. Being aware of which punch pattern your wire binder is capable of producing will ensure that you purchase the twin-loop binding wires that match.

Coil binding ultilizes only one punch pattern – a 4:1 (four holes per inch) pattern made up of 4mm circular holes. Standard plastic binding coils are available in 12″ lengths with a total of 48 loops, which allows you to create crimped ends when binding your 11″ document. Some coil binding machines also offer oval holes instead of circular holes, which makes the pages of the document turn more easily with less resistance from the coil itself. (Note: The 4:1 pitch pattern is the most common coil binding pattern in the United States and Europe, but other some other countries, including Canada, use a 5:1 pitch when binding with coils).

The comb binding pattern is made up of 19 rectangular holes per 11″ sheet. These rectangles correspond to the 19 prongs present on comb binding spines. Each rectangle measures 8mm x 3mm, which provides extra room to turn the pages when the binding comb is inserted.

VeloBind (also called hot knife binding or strip binding) has an 11-hole punch pattern that consists of 1/8″ circular holes, and is designed to work with 11-pin VeloBind strips.  There are also four- and six-pin styles, but those are far less common than the traditional 11-hole pattern. The four-pin VeloBind spines can be used in conjunction with the 11-hole punch pattern or the actual four-pin pattern, but the six-hole hot knife strip only works with a specific binding machine model from GBC (which has been discontinued).

How Do I Use VeloBind Strips?

VeloBind strips (also called hot knife strips) are popular binding spines that use heat to create a tamper-proof and professional-looking bind. Though the two-piece design of VeloBind spines can make them seem complicated to use, they are actually quite easy to work with. Below is a step-by-step overview of binding with hot knife binding strips:

  1. Begin by placing your document between the desired covers. Clear binding covers are the most common choice for the front of the document, with a more durable textured paper or polycover used as the back cover.
  2. Punch your document using your VeloBind-compatible binding machine.
  3. Insert the prongs into the holes so that the plastic bar rests against the front cover and the tips of the prongs protrude through the back cover.
  4. Place the second strip into the binding channel of the machine so that the small guide holes on the strip align with the pins in the channel.
  5. Insert the prongs into the pre-drilled holes in the strip so that the strip lies flush against the cover and initiate the binding process, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Because VeloBind strips utilize a thermal binding process, be sure that your machine has reached the appropriate temperature in order to ensure a secure bind.

The machine will trim the excess length from the prongs, and will use heat to melt the tips to lock the two sections of the VeloBind strip together.

A Quick Tip for Punch Maintenance

Does your binding machine not punch as smoothly as it used to? Then try this quick tip for maintaining the metal punching die on your binding machine:

  1. Lightly spray a sheet of paper with WD-40, concentrating on the long edge of the paper.
  2. Carefully insert the sheet into the punch.
  3. Punch the sheet a few times, moving it slightly between each punch.

This technique applies a light coat of lubricant onto each die, without leaving excess residue behind.

What are Disengageable Pins?

Many binding machines offer either fully or partially disengageable pins as a feature, but what exactly does that mean? Binding machines use a die to punch the hole pattern in your documents, and each pin corresponds to the location of one of the holes. Being able to disengage some or all of the pins means that you can choose to eliminate specific holes from the punch pattern, which can help you to accommodate non-standard document sizes or specialty paper (such as three-hole punched paper).

Binding systems that have fully disengageable pins give you the ability to punch with as many or as few holes as needed for your specific project. In the case of binding machines that have partially disengageable pins, a small number of the pins have the ability to be disengaged, which allows you to prevent select holes (usually the most commonly disengaged holes) from being punched.

Having the option to disengage at least a portion of the pins on your binding machine is extremely useful, especially if you plan on doing specialty projects, like creating calendars with your wire binding machine, or if you frequently utilize an unusual paper size within your organization.