This may be a dumb question

[ndj]

I'm wanting to take advantage of some down time during the holidays and put together owner's manuals and similar documents together in 3 ring binders (i.e. home theater components together in a binder, power tool manuals together, etc.). Most of these manuals are too thick for standard hole punches.

Has anyone ever drilled through paper? If so, what type of bit would produce the cleanest holes? I'm thinking that if one were to clamp the paper tight at the are to be drilled that it would be similar to drilling through wood.

I know places like Kinko's have to use something for the documents that they produce, but it would be a pain to take everything to a place like that since it's likely that they won't all be found at the same time, new ones get added, etc. Any suggestions?

[MikeMcCoy]

I get better results by sandwiching the paper in between two sheets of scrap and just use a twist bit.

[Bruce Cohen]

Don't even attempt to try that, it plain just don't work.

On the other hand, Kinko's may have a paper drill, those suckers can drill thru an entire ream of paper in one shot faster than you can clamp two boards together.

You might also try (Yellow Pages) Bindery shops, upper end office supply stores (not the big box kind) or a small store front printer, they usually have a drill set up and will do it for a meager sum. Being you're in Lexington, there should be enough places for you to hit at least one of the above.

Good Luck

Bruce

[LCHIEN]

it would seem to me that a jig would make such a drilling thing work pretty well.
Two 1x4's about 16 inches long with some close fitting alignment dowels and bolts and thumbscrews to compress the manual would work great.
Drill three holes of standard spacing, through both top and bottom wood to serve as a template.
A big-enough DP table with a fence to position the holes the right distance from the spine.
Should drill pretty well. I think a faster speed and perhaps even a brad point bit for cutting the edges cleaner. The top and bottom boards will keep the paper from tearing out.
Clearly not a huge project to make to try and see if it worked (only need to do one hole in that case). Use old magazines, and catalogs to test with.

[Mr__Bill]

I have used brad point bits and clamped between pieces of wood. Also, leather punches work too. You could always get a 3 hold punch and remove the staples and then punch each double page then re-staple.

Then there are the boxes meant for storing magazines, just put them together in the box and skip the binders.

[SARGE..g-47]

This is not what you ask NDJ, but I will throw it at you anyway. I simply purchased a plastic box from Office Depot to store all tool manuals, warranties and anything related to that tool. Some of those individual folders with a tab at the top with tha alpha-bet letters keep them very easy to find when I reach for them which is more often than you might imagine.

No hole drilling that might remove a key word in the text on the outside margin and all can be quickly found when needed by alpha-tizing. The only problem I have encountered is when I go to file. No problem with say, jointer. But where do you put Table Saw.. under T or S?

Merry Xmas...

[LinuxRandal]

I have used brad point bits and clamped between pieces of wood. Also, leather punches work too. You could always get a 3 hold punch and remove the staples and then punch each double page then re-staple.

Then there are the boxes meant for storing magazines, just put them together in the box and skip the binders.

Both some of the stapled manuals, and glued manuals (thicker ones), I found the disassemble, punch and reassemble easier then trying to go through. Otherwise you have to fight some of them to read them in the binder, verses pulling them out (want to keep them in the binder for quick reference).
After that I filed most in a file cabinet, get the pdf and either just view it, or print it and put it in the binder.

[JimD]

We have one of the drills at church in the choir room (in Lexington but SC not KY). It's bit is like a hollow chisel mortiser. There is an outside chisel type piece with an auger type bit in the center. Works great. If you need to do a bunch of documents, you need to look around. A big church could be a place to go. A lot of our music is in books that we put into binders when we are using them.

Jim

[leehljp]

I did that for some material for use during the 1998 Nagano winter Olympics. Some people in my organization wanted some note cards (thin business cards) to hand out with pins attached. I drilled holes and it worked well.

Here is what I did. I cut a sheet of 3/4 ply about 2 inches larger per side than the sheets to be drilled; and glued a 2 x 2 (1 3/4 by 1 3/4) inch wide in thick border in an "L" shape on the board.

I placed the sheets to be drilled into the "L". I made sure that every sheet was alligned and did about 50 sheets of the thin business card stock at a time. The 50 sheets of business card had the thickness of about 150 sheets of normal paper.

Next, I placed a 1/2 in plywood plate (the size of the paper on top. This "plate" had the holes pre-drilled. I used C Clamps and clamped tight, along the edges, 3 or 4 along each side and at least one each on the top and bottom.

I drilled with a sharp wood bit and it cut smooth. Bare in mind, that my set up was for 1/16 inch holes. The key to the smooth cuts for me (IMO) was the tight clamps and sharp wood bits.

My stock was not normal paper as you are using.


Background: I print my own business cards and do computer graphics as a hobby. Several friends and coworkers ask me to do theirs as the lower cost and higher quality of mine surpassed professional printers. Well, I was asked to make 1000 cards for the Olympic with Japanese on one side and English on the other. I did not want to do it but under pressure from several friends agreed. Next thing I knew I was thanked for agreeing to do 10,000 and then 20,000 before I could reply with a NO! And that was for 12,000 Japanese/English and 4000 Japanese/German and 4000 Japanese/French.

I did get a new printer out of the deal!

I sent the first 1000 (100 sheets, 10 per sheet) and they had all kinds of problems in getting a logo pin attached to the cards. After attempting about 100, and having all kinds of problems, we talked and they sent them back to me. With the jig, I drilled a 1/16 in hole in them. I did the rest the same way and it didn't take long.

The key will be tight clamps, proper jig and sharp bit.

[lkazista]

Personally, I tend to find myself going to Google and downloading the manual instead of digging out the filing cabinet that has everything inside. Just seems quicker.

Just my nickels worth.

Lee

The twist bit idea WILL work, if done properly.

[leehljp]

Personally, I tend to find myself going to Google and downloading the manual instead of digging out the filing cabinet that has everything inside. Just seems quicker.

The twist bit idea WILL work, if done properly.

Some of us old folks still like to carry a manual around with us rather than a computer when we are under a car or have a motor torn apart under a shade tree, or working on the hot water heater or air conditioner condenser in the attic. Old habits are as hard to get rid of as age spots.

[Daryl]

OH OH, I know this. Paper drills use a hollow bit, sharpened on the inside edge, no augers inside them. Use a bit of bee's wax for lube and you will have to remove the chips if you aren't using a paper drill. Search for Challenge drill bits to see one.

[sparkeyjames]

I work in a printing/graphics business and indeed we have a paper drill. This monstrosity can drill 5, 3/8" holes in a 500 sheet ream of paper in about 3 seconds. Take your manuals to a full service printer along with your binder and ask them to drill the holes to fit the binder. They may charge you $10 or so to do this or they may take pity on you and just do it for free.

[Pappy]

I buy plastic pocket folders from Office Depot, seperate the sheets, and hole punch them for binders. The pockets are larger than most and will hold mostmanuals with plenty of room. I'll try to hit a store and get some specifics for you. Couldn't find them on line.

[ndj]

Personally, I tend to find myself going to Google and downloading the manual instead of digging out the filing cabinet that has everything inside. Just seems quicker.

Just my nickels worth.

Lee

The twist bit idea WILL work, if done properly.

I agree with you to an extent. I had almost all of my manuals downloaded. Long story short, I took part in the MS Vista Beta trials and in the conversion at the end of the trial (which, for me personally was a disaster) much of my existing data was lost. Clearly I should have backed them up on an external media but didn't. Anyway that was my catalyst to do these binders.

And as Hank pointed out, the laptop can be inconvenient at many times. Not to mention how dirty it would get, at least I would get mine filthy.