You've decided to take the plunge and buy your first plastic comb binding machine. Good for you! As you may already know, plastic comb binding is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to bind your organization's important documents and booklets. But before buying a machine, there are a few things you need to know about plastic comb binding.

Binding combs come in two different shapes and which shape you use depends on the size of the document. Smaller combs (up to 1 1/8" wide) are round and, of course, are used for smaller documents. However, for thicker documents, the combs used are oval-shaped and have two or three locks to prevent pages from falling out if the booklet is picked up by its spine. Keep in mind that some of the smaller (and, honestly, cheaper) plastic comb binding machines aren't designed to handle the oval-shaped combs, so if you'll be binding thicker documents, you'll want to be sure your machine can handle them. Also, the majority of plastic combs available have 19 rings on them for binding a standard 8.5 x 11" document. Smaller combs are available, but if you're going to be binding a document that's longer than 11 inches, you'll need a custom-length comb. If you need to bind larger documents in a hurry, you might want to look at other binding options, such as coil or wire binding.

You'll need a machine that has disengageable dies If you're likely to be binding documents that are smaller or larger than 8.5 x 11". Disengageable dies allow you to control how many holes you punch in your document. If you punch a non-standard size document in a machine without these dies, you won't be happy with the results. To avoid this scenario, so be sure to look for a machine that has this feature if you need to bind booklets of different sizes.

Look for a machine with an adjustable depth of punch margin control. What's that? Well, simply put, it's a feature that enables you to control how far the holes will be from the edge of the paper. This is a vital feature to have when binding both very small and very large documents. For small documents, the holes need to be close to the edge of the paper so that the pages can be freely turned. For larger documents, the holes need to be further in so that the pages can't be easily torn out. (Unless, of course, you want the pages to come out easily.)

Now that you know what to consider when buying a plastic comb binding machine, you're better informed than you were before and can now confidently purchase the right machine. Good luck and have fun binding!