Thermal Binder for PDF binding at home?

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A Docubind system's around $800 so that's decently cheaper anyhow.

I recently used a hot glue gun to bind a copy of Galaxies In Shadow. You want to shake the pages until they're flush, score the spine crosswise with a utility knife then fan the spine. Put the hotmelt down the spine and then scrape it flat with a piece of cardboard or a spatula. Use a glue stick to stick the first and last page to a piece of ten ply cardboard. It's best if this is a quarter of an inch wider and half an inch longer than the pages but it can also be flush. Get some self adhesive vinyl cut about an inch larger than the width of the spine plus the width of the cardboard covers and carefully apply it. Fold it over to the inside of the cardboard and first page. And there you go, a simple glue binding. You can use silicon calking instead of gun glue but it takes time to dry and is stinky while it cures. It can be helpful to clamp the pages between two boards with only half an inch of the spine protruding before scoring, fanning, and gluing the spine.

It's a bit of a project and not exactly professional but it will keep the pages together.
 
I built myself a clamp out of wooden offcuts, bolts and wingnuts. I tend to use PVA for the binding but otherwise use the same method as David mentioned above. Damn sight cheaper than $200.
 
I think the best of the thermal binders is fastback but the machines are bulky and very expensive. As long as the one you've found actually works it's probably light and small enough to stash away when not in use. These days I mainly just use staples or bulldog clips or buy a hard copy of the book.
 
I use a Fellowes TB 250 for the purpose, and though the results don't look anything like a commercially bound book the covers do hold the pages together and protect them from ordinary handling. You get a kind of limp paperback, but it works as a book.

The only thing I'll say is that it is an extremely simple device — just a rack to hold a cover and pages upright while their weight presses them against a heated surface. US$209 seems a bit pricey, and I suggest that you consider a cheaper brand such as Yaegoo or Tamerica. Or at least a cheaper model such as the Helios 30.
 
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I have played around with binding PDFs myself and simply don't find it worth doing. The good machines to do it with are too expensive, and the cheap ones are usually not good enough.
So I instead made a private Lulu account and get my PDFs printed by them. If there is no POD option for it on DriveThruRPG that is. Don't know if it's actually legal to do this, but I assume it is.
 
I have played around with binding PDFs myself and simply don't find it worth doing. The good machines to do it with are too expensive, and the cheap ones are usually not good enough.
So I instead made a private Lulu account and get my PDFs printed by them. If there is no POD option for it on DriveThruRPG that is. Don't know if it's actually legal to do this, but I assume it is.
That was something I was looking into as the price of glue strips also seems high
 
That was something I was looking into as the price of glue strips also seems high

These machines tend to have a bit of a razor business model and proprietary supplies. For the numbers one is likely to print it's probably not going to be that expensive in aggregate as long as the covers are decently robust.

From time to time I entertain the option of setting up a basic print ship with a Xerox C7030 (low running costs by colour laser standards) and some sort of binding machine but these days I don't print out enough to justify it and I have nowhere to put it.
 
I've thought for a while that gaming stores should be equipped to sell, print, and bind pdfs. There should be some kind of a drivethrurpg franchise so the retailer can get a discount or something. Imagine being able to have everything in stock, in print, and available in 30 minutes always. The current business model is pretty outdated.
 
So my goal here is mainly speed, compactness and affordability.

I currently have a comb binder which is ok but I'd like something slightly more professional looking (maybe coil) and something where I don't need to punch holes over and over in 10-15 page increments with the attendant chance to screw it up each time (juuuust slightly offset).
 
These machines tend to have a bit of a razor business model and proprietary supplies. For the numbers one is likely to print it's probably not going to be that expensive in aggregate as long as the covers are decently robust.

From time to time I entertain the option of setting up a basic print ship with a Xerox C7030 (low running costs by colour laser standards) and some sort of binding machine but these days I don't print out enough to justify it and I have nowhere to put it.
Yeah I even looked at the offbrand solution and at least at Amazon for the limited number of larger books I'd be printing its like 220 w tax for the machine and $80 for the glue strips to handle 400+ page books. So I'm pretty rapidly getting to a cost per unit that's almost break even. The one plus is I don't have to convince anyone I have the rights to do it. That's nice.
 
So my goal here is mainly speed, compactness and affordability.

I currently have a comb binder which is ok but I'd like something slightly more professional looking (maybe coil) and something where I don't need to punch holes over and over in 10-15 page increments with the attendant chance to screw it up each time (juuuust slightly offset).
You probably won't get away from that with coil binders - paper drills are thousands and the alternative is a punch.
 
You probably won't get away from that with coil binders - paper drills are thousands and the alternative is a punch.
If it just was a better alignment setup on my machine it would help. I also just don't get warm fuzziest looking at a shelf of coil bound manuscripts. But it works.
 
I've thought for a while that gaming stores should be equipped to sell, print, and bind pdfs. There should be some kind of a drivethrurpg franchise so the retailer can get a discount or something. Imagine being able to have everything in stock, in print, and available in 30 minutes always. The current business model is pretty outdated.


I've thought for a while that this should be the future of bookstores in general
 
The problem at present is that you need discounts on the pdf, the paper, the toner, and the binding supplies for it to be competitive. There's also the issue that the guy who bootlegs the content has a significant advantage until the IP lawyers drag his ass to court. Nobody gets a retail discount on lawyers.
 
The problem at present is that you need discounts on the pdf, the paper, the toner, and the binding supplies for it to be competitive. There's also the issue that the guy who bootlegs the content has a significant advantage until the IP lawyers drag his ass to court. Nobody gets a retail discount on lawyers.

Right, you'd need to get a license deal in place with companies to ae it worthwhile for new products. Although the money saved on shipping and not having to maintain a constant stock may compensate the outlay to an extent, and when one adds in the copious amounts of public domain and copyright free products...
 
There's tons of advantages on the retail side of the equation but not many for folks who's product is all digital. Really, ideally I'd want to be able to print 11 x 17 in full color and produce stitched bindings. I've faced a lot of problems in the ten years I've been running my store but the biggest issue is always the lack of product in the distribution stream. Part of this goes to the distributors and part of it goes to manufacturers. But companies that are big enough to be in distribution usually don't have a reason to support in store printing.

I've seen retail deals for stl files and they sure think I'm gonna be able to sell a ton of their figures.
 
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