I am absolutely in love with a tool I got a few months ago. It's a spiral binding machine. Seriously, I love it. I've been going a little crazy and binding everything in site!
I am not being compensated in any way for telling you about this (although these are amazon affiliate links, so I could potentially make about 50 cents if you buy it ). I bought the Carl Brands Ring Binding System with my own money and I want to tell you about it because I LOVE it (oh, did I already say that?!)
It all started when I got the Young Reader curriculum CD from Heritage History. I love using living books for teaching my kids, and love the clean formatting that Heritage History brings to these old books. The only problem is that they are best used in ebook format. They can also be printed out, but I found myself printing out pages and then misplacing them. I knew I wanted to make these wonderful stories into books, but I didn't know the best way to do it. I looked into many different forms of book binding, and finally found the Carl Brands Ring Binding System. At less than $20, it was a perfect match between price and a great final product!
What kind of things can you bind?
Since I got the binding system, I've gone a little book-binding-crazy! I've been making books out of just about anything I can get my hands on =) Here are some of the books I've put together:
- Multiple Heritage History selections
- History lesson plans from Simply Charlotte Mason
- Notebooking Pages along with copywork pages for our Veritas Press Ancient Greece and Rome studies
- Song School Latin workbook pages (just for fun!)
- A Nature Journal
- A Beginning Writing Notebook
- A Story Journal (for simple book reports)
- and more!
How the Binding Machine Works
When I was trying to figure out which binding system to go with, something I really wanted was to see them in action to help me decide. I thought it might be helpful for you to see how this spiral binding machine works. I'm not great with videos, but hopefully these will help you get a feel for how it works in case you are looking to make some books too!
This first video is a close up of how the binder actually works:
This second video is so you can get an idea of the whole process and how long it takes to put a small book together:
Highlights of the binder:
- punches holes into the paper
- you turn the coil through the holes to make the book
- punch up to 5 pages at a time
- punch any size paper (up to 12 inches)
- punch locks into the strip to ensure perfectly placed holes
- coils come in many sizes to accommodate different book thicknesses
If you are looking for a way to preserve your children's work, make notebooks for schoolwork, or make physical books out of ebooks (and not break the bank!) I encourage you to give the Carl Brands Ring Binding System a try! Let me know if you have any questions and I can try to help you figure out if it would suit your needs.
Happy Book Binding!






