Amazon Basics Comb Binding Machine, 350 Sheets Capacity, for paper sizes A5(15 holes)/Letter(19 holes)/A4(21 holes) with Adjustable Margin, Grey

I had several 'books' to bind, each about 100 pages, and with cardstock front and back covers. I bought this machine because it was cheap, and I didn't really anticipate using it again once I had made the books.I was able to successfully make a perfect book on my first attempt. The machine is relatively straightforward to use, and it's difficult to mess up as long as you take your time and are careful.The instructions aren't very good, so I watched a youtube tutorial. I kind of wish I hadn't though, because I figured out a better way of doing it.Instead of trying to hook each sheet onto the comb, I found it was much easier to stack the entire book as a block, then hold in in place while slowly pulling the lever to close the comb, capturing all of the pages at once.I would say the claimed 12 sheet punching capacity is quite optimistic. I was punching standard 2lb copy paper, and I found I could punch a maximum of about 8 sheets at a time without feeling like I was going to damage the machine.This is fine for small-scale production though. Once I got the hang of it, I found I could make a book in just a couple of minutes.I made a mistake with one of my books (printed the pages wrong) and I was able to use the machine to easily open the comb back up, remove the offending pages, and replace them with corrected versions.Once I had finished my books, I was looking around the house for other stuff I could comb-bind.I don't need the machine any more now I have my books made, but I'm glad I have it, and will definitely get some use out of it in future.

Just what I needed. Works the way it should. The punching of the holes is pretty easy to figure out, but the pictures in manual and on machine does not provide good instructions for attaching the binding. It's kind of hard to explain, but if you can't figure it out search it and watch a video. Not complicated when you can see it being done.

If you need to bind up a report every once in awhile, this will do the trick. But every time you pull the lever to punch holes, you'll swear you're going to snap the lever right off. Punch fewer pages at a time than you think you should.

DO NOT BUY. I bought one used, and the previous owner had used it to punch holes in plastic binders. They have jammed the machine.I thought I got enough of the jam out, but today could not punch documents effectively - a wedged piece of plastic fell back in the way. I got out a screwdriver and a wrench and started pulling this thing apart.It is specifically designed to be absolutely obnoxious to pull apart. The pieces are assembled in a very careful order to ensure you cannot get at any one part of the machine without disassembling absolutely everything.Shame on the previous owner for getting me a punch that was no longer usable, and absolute shame on the manufacturer for making such a god-awful, anti-user design. I'm 99.99% sure this is to prevent repair and drive sales.

I read the reviews, good and bad, before buying, so I knew to treat it as the lightweight, low-cost product that it is. My first project was printing and binding a 144-page book (so about 72 sheets) on the fall of Jerusalem. Following the helpful advice in past reviews, I only tried to punch 4 or 5 sheets at a time, did not attempt to punch a plastic cover, only loaded about 10 sheets at a time onto the spine, and used a spine somewhat larger than the usability charts recommend. In this case, a 1/2" spine should have worked, but I used a 5/8" spine instead. The whole job was quick, easy, and totally free of frustration. The bound book ended up looking great and is a pleasure to handle and read.

When I put the comb in and pull it out, one side has longer slots than the other. That makes it difficult to get the pages in line for binding. I wonder if this is just a problem with my machine or with all of these machines.ON THE GOOD SIDE, the machine is sturdy and makes good, even hole punches. (I only do 5 pages at a time and am very careful to see that they are lined up correctly.ON THE BAD SIDE, there are zero instructions on how to use the comb and binding. I finally found a video in the reviews that was in another language but I could see how someone was using it. I did not give this a good review for that reason - instructions are needed, especially for the binding. Hard to believe that instructions are given on how to put the handle on and how to hole punch but not on how to bind the books!