Looks good, no need to redesign something that works when you can just use different materials and modern manufacturing methods.

I have never had enough need for something like this so I use the felt method. Place the sheets down on a thick enough layer of strong felt, open the stapler out and use it to put the staples through the fold and into the felt. This does not fold the ends over so you just do that part by hand with a steel rule. Some carpet types also work instead of felt. Not good enough for professional results but fine for the odd personal job.

Martin C

The Sparco Long Reach Stapler suggested by Peter doesn't seem too be sold in the UK.

Google finds several breeds and suppliers, priced from £5 to £40 (ish) catering from around 10 to around 50 sheets. Need to make sure you can easily get the right size staples if you indulge in one tho'.

Being made to work with the booklet flat they won't work well as the professional cast iron one Soee copied or as well as his lighter duty version.

It's rather harder to get things properly aligned for folding when stapled flat. Pre-folded sheets laid on a Vee are easier to align. Pre folding is essential if thicker booklets are to work well. 10 sheets are about as many as can easily be assembled on the flat and folded after stapling. 15 is possible but likely to need practice. I'm told more can be done neatly by the seriously skilled. I managed 15 when I had access to a long reach one but it all came out a bit messy.

For my own, very rare purposes, I use Martins felt method with an ordinary stapler opened out. Had I realised how inexpensive these things have gotten I'd have splurged a fiver or two. Back in the day when only pukka office suppliers had them they weren't cheap!

Clive

Hi, like Peter Greene, I bought a long reach one some twenty years or so ago, where from? well Staples of course.

They still sell them, albeit a different model, but mine does the same amount of pages. Log Arm Stapler

I can see the advantage of the one above with the "V" guides, as like Clive says, it can be tricky to get the staples in the correct place, but mine does have an adjustable back-stop to help.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 18/02/2023 21:32:31

Done "properly", do the pages have to get narrower from the middle of the booklet so as to avoid a vee at the edge?

ega is correct in saying that the pages have to get narrower towards the middle if the booklet is to have a square edge. One reason why proper bound books are done in several individually bound sections subsequently bound to the spine is to make such cutting easily practical. Simple glued spines, like paperbacks, don't have that issue. But they don't last well.

Cutting the edges to make a neat book after binding, as Nicholas does, is normal practice. But Inspector Meticulous may quibble that the text and picture blocks are not in exactly the same place on all pages. They get closer to the edge as you move towards the centre. The program I have kicking around on my Mac for turning sheet organised pdfs and text into booklets has an optional correction function allegedly able to shift the texts and picture blocks so they are the same distance from the edge on all pages. One of the (many) refinements I've never got working. Like so many simple, just works well enough programs, it got too clever for its own good around the third upgrade!

Clive

I was donated a long-arm stapler from an office clearout years ago and it is really useful for the odd instruction manual and things like that, to save paper. Elegance of binding not an issue! However, its simple guide is not very effective – tends to slip and does nothing to keep the paper square.

This thread had been useful in prompting me to think about a 3D-printed guide to both clamp to the "long arm" more securely and to act to keep the paper square. Thanks!

Nick, it's quite time-consuming but you can turn any perfect-bound book into a section-sewn book if you really want.

It's done by "guarding" pairs of leaves together in the correct sequence using strips of bank paper or Japanese tissue to make whatever sized sections you've decided on and then sewing these together like an ordinary section sewn book. If you're careful you can space the pairs of leaves on the guards in such a way that when several pairs are folded round into a section the text at the fore-edge all lines up, more or less. Whether you choose to trim after sewing is up to you.

The main difficulty in doing this to a perfect-bound book is reducing "swell" at the spine caused by all the guards being folded on top of one another. You need to avoid a spine profile that is over-round and a fore-edge that is excessively concave.

Before sewing books that have been heavily guarded or have very many thin sections, bookbinders use hammers and then long periods of pressing in a nipping or standing press to reduce swell. More hammering typically takes place after sewing as well.

Hi Bill Phinn, I've seen that being done on The Repair Shop TV series, but with 194 pages, I don't wish to spend the time and money on a booklet that is used infrequently when it can just be popped into a grip seal poly bag to stop all the loose pages getting lost or creased and torn.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 20/02/2023 08:32:29

Thanks, Michael, that's the one. As far as the undecipherable data goes, I couldn't find any way of positively determining whether or not it contains identifying data. It seems that Amazon already "knows me" on every computer in the house (which is quite a few). Scary (the Amazon thing not the number of computers )