Favorite Craft Room Tools Series – Binding Machines

Hi Crafty Pals! Today in the Favorite Craft Room Tools Series, I’m talking about Binding Machines. Why do you need one? They make life easy if you want to make books, photo albums, school projects and more. They aren’t as important as a pair of scissors but if you already have the basics, get yourself a binder. 😉 If you’ve missed the previous 3 posts in the series, click to see Part One (Adhesives) or Part Two (Scissors & Trimmers) & Part Three (Paper). This series is in answer to requests I’ve gotten asking what my favorite craft tools are and what I would recommend as “must haves” for a craft room. I’ve been looking forward to today’s post because I love this subject – I find it spellBINDING (ba da dum!). Yes, that was a bad pun. I’ll put it in the “really bad puns stamp set” that I keep in my brain. LOL!

My binding machine/tool suggestions are easy because I only have three favorites. I own and use all 3 of them. We’ll start with the two that are similar in function:

BIND IT ALL BY ZUTTER

The Zutter Bind-It-All is a great little machine. Like the Cinch machine below, the BIA can punch holes in your book covers/chipboard/paper and then assist you in binding them using coiled wire. The Bind It All is light and portable. Its small profile makes it a good choice for taking to crops or traveling. I have found it to be more difficult to use than the Cinch (below). This little machine comes with plastic sizing tabs to help you determine where to set the wire size which is adjusted by winding and unwinding the knob in the front. To punch holes, you must hold the paper/chipboard upright in the slotted area in the middle of the machine. I’ve found it and/or me to be a bit clumsy when it comes to holding the paper in place and pulling the lever for hole punching. Although this machine does perform its job, I prefer the ease of the Cinch (see below). NOTE: This machine makes rectangular holes.

Here are some posts where I’ve used the Bind It All. They’re sort of old though!

THE CINCH by WE R MEMORY KEEPERS

The Cinch Binding Tool/Machine is just like the Zutter Bind It All in function. What I prefer about this machine over the BIA is how the design aids in ease of creation. For example, the large flat black area is used to lay your project flat for hole punching, which is much easier than trying to keep it in place upright. The handle design makes punching the holes easier too. A really nice feature of this machine is that the directions are printed on it. If you don’t often use it, you won’t stress too much trying to remember what to do because you can just look down and the directions are right in front of you! Nice! NOTE: This machine makes round holes, as opposed to the BIA’s rectangular ones.

Here are a few Cinch projects.

Want to see a comparison of the Cinch and the Bind It All? I wrote one here with photos. You’ll see that I have a pink Cinch in this post. I just upgraded to the Blue V2 (version 2) Cinch. I upgraded because I needed one specific improvement of the new machine. The Blue V2 is able to bind smaller wires than the pink (original) Cinch could do. I ran into a need for that just a few weeks ago when helping my youngest son bind a project for school. We R Memory Keepers manufactured a Cinch Book Binding Adjustment Bar for the pink version that you can now Cinch wires smaller than 3/4″.

YOURSTORY LAMINATOR & BINDER

I love the YourStory Book Binder and Laminator too! I’ve used it a lot but so far I’ve only used it as a laminator. That bottom lip (dark blue) is the laminating area. You can run YourStory laminating pouches through there or you can use a much more affordable version like I do. I use these: 3 Mil Clear Letter Size Thermal Laminating Pouches. The top part of the machine, where you can see that white book sticking up, can bind books using either a Your Story book binding OR you can make your own using your preferred book binding material and a glue gun stick. I’ll have to show you how to do that later. 😉 In the meantime, you can check out this video where I show how the laminator portion of this cool machine works.

Here are a few things I’ve made with the YourStory.

So, those are a few of my craft room must have’s in the book binding arena. I use a bookshelf in my craft room to hold my Cinch & Bind it All along with all the binding wires, YourStory booklets and other stuff. I keep the wires in little metal buckets that I found on sale. I like seeing them while I craft…now I just need to use them more often! LOL!

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

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5 Comments

  1. scrapper69 says:

    Hi Joy! I have the Your Story and only use it for laminating too… I’m sure one day I’ll use it to bind a book! LOL
    After reading your reviews on the Cinch & Bind it all awhile back I choose the CINCH! I do LOVE it and it’s super easy to use…
    I made my Calendar this year with it… I do have plans to get the Bind it All due to the smaller sizes it offers…. I appreciate you sharing what you learned about the products because it did help in making my choice a lot easier… I knew I wanted a Binder of some sort…. and the fact that you owned both and use both for different reasons had me asking myself…. WHY Do I need this? OR want this item? After asking myself “why” I was getting it in the first place, it really helped to have your review…. knowing I had planned to make 12 x 12 Calendars for my family with it…. the cinch was very easy to use and quick and I had noooo boo boos! Sooo THANK YOU for that info! LIke I said – I do plan on getting the Bind it all a little later knowing it does offer a little something different…. IE: Holes are different and Rings are in all sorts of sizes where the cinch doesn’t offer that… So the info that you gave out is super helpful to the rest of us crafters! THANKS AGAIN!

    Theresa

  2. CLM-Cindylu2u says:

    Thanks for the info on the laminating pouches! I have the Your Story and for the most part only use the laminator. I guess that means as for the moment I don’t need another binding machine, yet. Thanks again for sharing all your wonderful expertise!!

  3. I LOVE my Bind It All, I have the blue one, it works GREAT!!!!!!
    and I have to admit, it was your video on the Your Story (and the GREAT Price LOL) that I bought the Your Story……it is so easy to use, I have yet to make a book with it, hopefully I will try that soon…… thanks for these great reviews…..

  4. Hi, I was wondering regarding the lamination. Is it a more stuff plastic or the flimsy ones?

    1. Charize,
      They are bendable so maybe they’d be considered flimsy? Not sure. It’s mainly just a protective cover for your item so the resulting thickness is mostly (but not entirely) dependent on what you are laminating. 😉
      ~Joy~

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