8.5"x11" Notebook

So I found out the marketing department where I work has one of those binding machines to create custom notebooks. I made an 8.5"x11" notebook for myself out of medium :proofgrade: walnut ply. Here is the link to the binding loops from Amazon. I like grid paper as well, so used this for the inside.

Obviously, the picture above is for reference and this file does not include logo and name cutout. That would be silly. Not sure if anyone has access to one of these binding machines, but being able to add custom paper, and colored binding rings makes for a unique gift. I may have to buy one for the workshop. You could also use this as a replacement cover for notebooks that have the 3 holes per inch and 32 total loops, and you wouldn’t need the binding machine. Not a complex design, but maybe someone can use it!

Here is the SVG all zipped up: 8.5x11 Notebook Template.zip (1.7 KB)

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we marketing types have all kinds of crap nobody else knows about. :slight_smile:

we have the electric punch and coils for both wire loop and plastic coil. i hate squeezing the wire loop together. so freaking hard to keep it rounded.

you might want to scope out what other random stuff they have floating around in there.

for the grid, if you do another book sometimes it’s fun to do your own custom grid pages. it’s not hard and you can leave extra space on the sides for other kinds of notes or customize it to fit your needs. we used to make lots of the custom grid paper books.

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sounds like when maintenance finds out what kinds of tools engineering has…

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Oooh, that’s nice…I’ve got several binding systems…8.5" x 11" is a good standard size. :sunglasses::+1:

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why do you think we in marketing keep some things locked up? things grow legs, man.

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it’s really easy to clip the coils to other sizes, though. both plastic and metal. you can even do short coils, or multiple short coils on a longer piece. get jiggy with it.

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Yea all our tools are engraved and in a locked room lol. Plus I made tags so when you take a tool off the pegboard you have to identify that you took it

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I don’t even have to clip them…some are disk bound. (Some wire, some plastic coil.) Like you said…marketing has the good toys.

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Pretty sure you can get this bound at your average fedex office store. (RIP kinkos)

Seems like it might be a good workaround instead of buying a machine, which I suspect are expensive.

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you mean like the levenger disks?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C0JPJ6E/?coliid=I19JTOT3C0N80B

i had those on an amazon list for work and my mom accidentally wandered into my work list and bought me the punch for xmas. but i haven’t used it yet.

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most fedex can do plastic coil. wire, less common.

but for the covers, you can easily cut the holes on the GF. it’s the multiple inside pages that you wouldn’t want to have to cut. 2 or 3 holes per inch for wire, 4-5 holes per inch for plastic.

Trick is to cut the paper to those smaller sizes. I know that have a few giant paper slicers over there, but not sure how uniform the cuts are. I’d love to make a bunch of smaller notebooks.

if you use the standard arm slicer, they don’t always cut 90 degree angles perfectly.

rotary cutters do better, but limited number of sheets per cut.

giant arm cutting tables work great (i have a 32" table at work). they have a bar that you use to hold the paper down so it doesn’t pull while cutting.

but nothing beats a phone book-eating guillotine cutter. accurate, sharp, literally cuts giant phone books in one pass.

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Yep, those are the things. Results are a little weird though - the booklet shifts a bit.

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it’s on my list to try at some point, but i’ve been procrastinating. maybe this weekend.

I took notes with a fountain pen in single signature, stapled A4, small grid notebooks for five years in Italy. I filled up many of them with class notes and daily journals. I stopped taking notes and journaling because I could never find a supply of these notebooks in the US. I like that they didn’t have spiral bindings and would still lay flat being a single signature.

But a custom solution like this is so cool. I have the plastic comb binders and use them a lot, but they do lack the style of these metal coils.

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if you want lay-flat without coils, smaller saddle stitch booklets work fine. just like the field notes notebooks. if you want A4 size, you just need A3 sheets that can fold in half and saddle stitch. it’s not always easy to do at home w/o a scoring machine, but it’s doable if you fold each page. it’s the cover that’s usually hardest to fold cleanly w/o scores.

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Yes, seriously, how much easier can it get than doing a booklet like that? I’m still more of a consumer than a maker and am still trying to shift to rolling my own. I do it with food for sure, but getting myself to commit to making the object that fits my needs rather something made for mass production and generic need. all you folks on the forum with your backgrounds, experience and training are so inspiring to me in so many ways.

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Thank you for sharing.

If only I liked talking to people…!

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