Is the Traditional DistTips and Tricks for Binding Documents with Surebind

As far as binding styles go, GBC Surebind isn’t really all that well known. It offers a look similar to Velobind but with a few interesting twists. Luckily, binding documents with GBC Surebind isn’t really all that hard. However, if you keep a few important things in mind the binding process will be a lot easier. Here are some simple tips and tricks for Surebinding your documents.

1. Surebind binding spines have 10 pins for an 11 inch spine. Unlike Velobind which uses eleven equally spaced pins, the pins for Surebind are not spaced evenly. Instead, the pins for Surebinding are designed to line up with the hole pattern used for plastic comb binding. This means that if you are looking to bind documents with Surebind and have a plastic comb binding punch you can combine the two styles. Using a comb binding punch will allow you to increase punching productivity and offers the flexibility of choosing the type of binding that you want for your documents.

2. The binding produced by a Surebind binding machine is both secure and permanent. Pages cannot be removed, edited and added back to a document without cutting the binding spine off the document and using your machine to rebind the document. This security is one of the greatest strengths of this type of binding system. However, if you are going to use Surebind for your documents you should definitely consider investing $15 in a Velobind/surebind debinder tool. This type of tool is used to safely cut the spines off of a bound document without injuring yourself.

3. Surebind binding strips are available in sizes up to three inches thick. This means that these systems offer the ability to bind documents that are thicker than any other type of desktop binding system. However, if you are going to want to bind documents using three inch spines you are going to need a Surebind System Three. Smaller systems will not bind documents with the larger sized spines.

4. One of the great things about binding with a Surebind system is that you don’t need to stock a huge number of supplies. In fact, depending on the thickness of the books that you are looking to bind you won’t need more than one, two or three sizes of binding spines. This can reduce the need for storage space and the cost of inventorying a number of different sized spines. Just make sure that you buy ten pin Surebind strips when you get your supplies and not eleven pin Velobind strips. This is a common mistake and unfortunately the two systems are not compatible with each other.

5. Like Velobind, you can use your Surebinding system to bind hard cover books. You simply need to order custom hard cover cases to use along with your system. These hard cover cases will include a binding case and two adhesive fly leaves. You will bind the fly leaves into your document and then peel off the adhesive backing and adhere the fly leaf into the book.

These are just five things to keep in mind when binding documents with your Surebind system. Give these things a try and see for yourself just how easy Surebinding can be.

by Jeff McRitchie