Have you ever-wondered how ruled paper is three-hole punched for use in a three-ring binder? Even if you’ve never put much thought into it, it is a very interesting process. While you may imagine people sitting in a factory with a paper punch, paper manufacturers actually use paper drills (found here) to put holes in paper. So how exactly does a paper drill work?

While paper punches are great for use in an office for occasional hole punching, they aren’t very fast and require a bit of effort to use. Punching through a one-inch stack of paper could potentially take several minutes. A paper drill can complete the same process, with clear results, in just second.

Paper drills are very similar in function and even a bit in appearance to a standard wood drill press. They share several basic components. Paper drills feature a spinning motor attached to a drill bit. The bit is then pressed, by manual, electric or hydraulic means, into the paper. The bit, once it has made its way through a piece of paper then rests on a wood block located on the opposite side.

There are some major differences, however, between a paper drill press and a wood drill press. To begin with, paper drills use hollow bits. As the drill spins, it cuts through the paper. Cut paper holes then travel up the drill’s shaft until it reaches a catch tray located in the top or back of the drill.

This is a video demo of a single-spindle paper drill in action:

Many people ask if they can use a paper drill bit on a standard wood drill press. The answer to that question is no. Chuck incompatibility issues aside, the hollow bit has nowhere to deposit the drilled holes of paper, resulting in a complete failure of the bit after just a few minutes.

Popular brands of paper drills include Martin Yale, Lassco Spinnit, MBM, FP (File Pecker) and others. So what exactly separates one paper drill from another?

• Number of Spindles: Entry level paper drills typically only feature a single drill bit (aka spindle). From there you can find two and three-spindle paper drills. Three holes can still be drilled using a single-spindle machine, but will require multiple passes.
• Power Source: Some paper drills are manual, requiring the force of the drill to be powered by an individual pulling on a handle. Other presses apply drilling force via an electric motor or via hydraulics.

If you are a business, a factory, a manufacturer of paper or handle paper on a regular basis, you may have need of a paper drill. These machines are very easy to operate and can drill through inches of paper in just seconds. You can find our entire selection of paper drills here.

We have been selling paper drills since 1980, so we have a lot of experience setting these machines up and using them. If you are just starting out researching paper drills, or are looking for a specific model, please feel free to call us at 1-800-658-8788 with your questions.

If you have been shopping around for laminating film, pouches or lamination rolls (found here), you have probably come across terms such as mil thickness or micron thickness. There are several different ways to measure the thickness of a laminating pouch. I have come up with this conversion chart that should help you determine which pouch thickness you need and which your laminator can handle.

In the United States, lamination film is typically measured in mils and in Europe it is measured in microns (aka micrometer). One is based on English measurements and the other is based on the metric system. In between these two common measurements are other less common measuring units used for determining the thickness of film.

In the US, laminating film usually comes in 1.5, 3, 5, 7 and 10 mil thickness. The higher the number, as is the case with microns, the thicker the film. Because most people in the United States measure laminating film by mils, I am going to use mils as the base measurement.

Here is a chart that will help you with your conversions:

Hopefully this information helps you out. As far as mil thickness goes, I have found that 3 and 5 mils are the most popular for pouch laminators and 1.5 and 3 mils are most popular for roll laminators. Ultimately the thickness you use will depend on preference, budget, purpose and laminator capabilities. As you probably know, the thicker the film, the more it will cost.

At ABC Office we offer a great selection of pouch laminating film (found here) and lamination rolls (found here). Our film is extremely affordable, is made from high quality materials and produces beautiful results. Please feel free to call us at 1-800-658-8788 with any questions regarding what type of laminating film you may need.

We also offer a great selection of pouch laminators (found here) and roll laminators (found here).

The MBM Triumph line of stack paper cutters are immensely popular for many reasons. They are German made, which typically means precision, and they typically hold up for years without issue. One of the most popular Triumph stack cutters is the Triumph 4305 (found here). This manually operated stack cutter is affordable and ideal for low to medium volume stack cutting. What can you do if the budget doesn’t allow for one? Are there any good alternatives?

The Model 4305 is a 100% manual stack cutter. That means that the clamping mechanism, the backstop and the cutting blade are all either adjusted or powered by manual effort. While manual may sound exhausting, this cutter requires very little strength or physical power to operate. This is all due in part to the mechanics and design. The long angled blade handle is leveraged in such a way, combined with gears, that cutting an inch of paper can be done using a single finger.

Triumph is by far one of my favorite lines of stack cutters. If the funds permit, definitely go with a Triumph. If the funds don’t permit, however, it is nice to know that there are some great alternatives out there. I am speaking of Intelli-Cut.

Intelli-Cut paper cutters, made by Intelli-Zone, are designed for precision cutting as well, but at a much lower price. Intelli-Cut paper cutters are often 25-30% less than their Triumph counterparts. Does this mean the Intelli-Cut cutters are just as good as Triumph? Having used both, I can say that I think they both have a good build quality and are both solid. I still have to give the edge to Triumph (barely), but I think you will probably be equally as happy with the Intelli-Cut.

Which Intelli-Cut stack cutters are the equivalent to the Triumph 4305? Here are two cutters that fit the bill:

• Intelli-Cut 530M Stack Cutter (found here) – This stack cutter mechanically and physically almost identical to the Triumph. It has a mechanical clamping mechanism, a manually adjusted backstop and a manual cutting arm. The safety features are even almost identical. You still have to have the covers in place, and lift on a safety lever, prior to making a cut. Unlike the Triumph 4305, the 530M includes a handy optical cutting line that lets you know exactly where the blade will make its cut.
• Intelli-Cut 530D Stack Cutter (found here) – This stack cutter is identical to the 530M except for one detail. The 530D has a digital measurement display, located on the top front of the machine, that lets you know in centimeters or inches where the back stop is located. This is nice for making measurements and adjustments.

Regardless of whether you ultimately go with a Triumph or an Intelli-Cut paper cutter, I’m certain you will be satisfied with the end results. You can find our entire selection of Triumph stack paper cutters here and our Intelli-Cut paper cutters here.

Feel free to post a comment, or call us at 1-800-658-8788, with any questions.

If you are trying to stop counterfeit detection dead in its tracks, there are several tools available to help you achieve this. One question that you may be thinking is, “Are counterfeit money detectors (found here) totally fool proof?” There are many answers to this question and a lot of it depends on the technology you are using. Here are a few tips that may help you out.

To begin with, you should know that counterfeiters are constantly coming up with new and creative ways to fool the system. This should come as no surprise. High-definition printers, bleaching techniques and more make keeping ahead of the curve more and more difficult. While the U.S. government is releasing bills that make counterfeiting more difficult, manufacturers of counterfeit bill detectors are also getting more creative.

I would like to first cover common methods for counterfeiting money and then cover the various types of counterfeit bill detectors you may want to use.

What are the most common methods of counterfeiting money?

• Copy Machine – This is very easy to detect, but on a dark or low lit room, a bill printed on a copy machine may still fly. This becomes more difficult when printed on paper with a similar color and texture to real bill paper.
• Computer Printer (Laser or Inkjet) – This is one of the most common methods of counterfeiting bills. Full-color high definition printers can produce convincing copies.
• Printing Press – This is far more sophisticated and is uncommon with the availability of cheap printers. Rogue countries will sometimes use sophisticated printing presses to counterfeit US bills.
• Bleaching – People will bleach lower denomination bills and re-print it with a higher value. This is the method is very common and will fool some counterfeit detectors.

Types of Counterfeit Detectors

• Pen – The counterfeit pen uses ink that reacts with starch found in normal paper. This will cause a dark mark to appear on counterfeit bills, where it appears clear on legitimate money. This format, however, will not work with bleached bills. This is not 100% accurate.
• Ultraviolet (UV) – UV detection uses a black light to illuminate a strip found in real US currency. The strip is located in different places, depending on the denominational value. You can see where these strips are located by going here. If you are visually checking a counterfeit bill, this method is almost 100% accurate. Machines that automatically scan bills for UV properties may still be tricked by bleached bills.
• Magnetic (MG) – This method of counterfeit detection checks certain places on the bill for magnetic ink. A bill that has been copied on standard paper will not have magnetic ink. Even bills that have been bleached will loose their magnetic ink properties. This method is almost 100% accurate.
• Watermark (WM) – Most bills have a watermark that can be seen with a backlight. Be sure the watermark that is displayed matches up with the corresponding portrait that is printed on the bill. While this method of counterfeit detection is extremely accurate, a bleached bill that has been reprinted may still have a portrait, just not a corresponding portrait.
• Visual – There are several visual properties in a bill that can be detected by the naked eye, or by using a magnifying glass, to determine the authenticity of a bill. You can read more about the visual elements of a bill by reading about them here.
• Combination Detectors – Many detectors will incorporate UV and MG detection. Many automated bill counters will do this. A combination machine, that checks for multiple properties, will almost always catch counterfeit money.

At ABC Office we offer a great selection of counterfeit money detectors (found here) that can be used to catch fake bills before they become a problem. We also offer a wide selection of bill counters (found here) that are equipped with counterfeit bill scanners.

If you still have questions about the correct machine for your business, please feel free to speak with one of our experts by calling us at 1-800-658-8788.

We recently received a call from one of our customers who was using their Minipack Cyclone external vacuum sealer (found here) when a letter E followed by a series of numbers showed up on the screen. They thought they could reset the error message by turning the machine off and back on. While they did try this, it didn’t seem to solve the error message issue. This begs the question; can this message be reset and how do you get your Minipack Cyclone back up and running?

To begin with, the Minipack Cyclone vacuum sealers are extremely popular right now. They are far superior in capacity and quality to sub $100 vacuum sealers and produce far more professional results. One mistake many people make, however, is that the Cyclone line of vacuum sealers are not designed for commercial or high volume packaging applications.

What is happening is that people are overheating the motor. The computer inside the Cyclone is designed to disable the machine when the motor gets too hot. This is a good thing, albeit frustrating. By turning off, the Cyclone prevents the motor from suffering permanent damage. The only thing you can do is turn the machine off and wait until the motor cools back down. The good news is this error is not permanent and your machine is not ruined.

The good news is that this rarely happens. The Minipack Cyclone line of external vacuum sealers are probably the best machines you can purchase, as far as quality and output capacity goes, prior to moving up to a chamber vacuum sealers. If you plan on packaging hundreds of items a day, every day, I recommend going with a chamber vacuum sealer. Chamber sealers are designed, by nature, to be well used.

You can find our entire selection of both external and chamber vacuum sealers here. If you are still having issues, or if you have additional questions, please feel free to call our Service Technician at 1-800-658-8788.

As is the case with all blades, knives and cutters, they will eventually become dull with continued use. This is the case with rotary paper trimmers, stack cutters and guillotines. While all blades will dull, it is sometimes hard to determine if a blade is dull or if the paper cutter is simply having mechanical issues. This article will cover the symptoms of a dull blade and what parts you will need to replace if your paper cutter is dull.

While there is an entire range of different styles of paper cutters out there, there are three main categories that are used by 90% of people. These paper cutters include rotary, stack and guillotine. Each of these cutters use a sharpened blade to cut paper, but the process varies greatly from one format to another. I would like to start off by covering dull rotary cutters, followed by dull stack cutters and finishing with dull guillotines.

Dull Paper Cutter Symptoms

Rotary Paper Cutters (found here)

ABOUT  – Rotary paper cutters use a round blade to roll across and cut paper, much like a pizza cutter slices through pizza. Some rotary cutters, dubbed self-sharpening rotary cutters, also incorporate a base blade, which usually looks like a strip of metal. As the rotary cutter blade slides along the rail, the round blade rubs against the base blade. This ensures a more accurate cut while also helping to keep the rotary cutter’s round blade sharp.

SYMPTOMS – The first sign of a dull rotary cutter blade are usually manifested in decreased cutting capacity. If your rotary cutter cut 15 sheets out of the box, but is now only cutting 7 or 8 easily, your rotary blade is becoming dull. Another symptom of a dull rotary cutting wheel is burrs forming on the edge of the paper.

REPLACEMENT – Replacing the rotary cutter blade is typically an affordable and easy process. If you have a self-sharpening rotary cutter, be sure to replace the cutting wheel and the base blade as well. While some cutters require the entire cutting head to be replaced, most only require the cutting wheel itself to be replaced, which is far less expensive than replacing the entire paper cutter.

Stack Paper Cutters (found here)

ABOUT – Stack paper cutters use a flat wide blade to cut through hundreds of sheets of paper at a time. This includes simple 20# bond paper up to heavy-duty card stock. This blade is brought down horizontally, with manually leveraged pressure, an electric motor or hydraulic pressure driving the blade. These cutters are popular in print shops, copy centers and with businesses that have specialized cutting needs.

SYMPTOMS – A dull stack cutter blade will have trouble cutting through all the sheets of paper. This should not be confused with a worn-out cutting stuck. The bulk majority of the time that a stack paper cutter is struggling cutting through all the paper, the blade is usually misaligned or the cutting stick needs to be rotated.

In manually powered stack cutters, required cutting effort might increase with a dull blade. Another symptom is cutting lines or artifacts showing along the edge of a cut stack of paper, which is often the result of a nick or gouge caused by cutting through a staple or paper clip.

REPLACEMENT – Before replacing your stack paper cutter blade, be aware that most blades can be re-sharpened about six times. This will save you a lot of money over purchasing a new blade every single time. Blade sharpening should always be considered when purchasing a new stack paper cutter. If the stack cutter’s blade cannot be re-sharpened, consider buying one that can. You will save a lot of money in the long run. It isn’t a bad idea, however, to have an extra blade on hand to prevent downtime while the other blade is being re-sharpened.

Replacement stack cutter blades are available from our site or by calling our Service Department at 1-800-658-8788 x129. Most stack cutters include instructions on changing the blade, which can usually be done in about 15 minutes.

Guillotine Paper Cutters (found here)

ABOUT – Stack cutters, often referred to as arm cutters, use a curved long blade with a handle on the end. This blade is manually pulled down, sliding up next to a base blade, cutting paper in a scissor-like motion. Stack cutters are ideal for accurately cutting a lot of paper at once.

SYMPTOMS – Symptoms of a dull guillotine blade typically start with diminished cutting capacity. If the cutter used to cut 30 sheets at a time, and now only cuts 20 or fewer, you may have a dull blade. Cutting through paper clips and staples with a guillotine will often result in a damaged or dull blade.

REPLACEMENT – Replacement blades are available for most guillotines and typically take just minutes to replace. Replacement usually involves removing the safety guard, removing the cutting arm and removing the base blade. Remember, always change the blade on the guillotine’s arm as well as the base blade.

Hopefully this helps you determine whether or not you have a dull blade. At ABC Office we offer replacement blades for most of the paper cutters we offer. This includes Dahle, Kutrimmer, Dahle, Rotatrim, Carl and many other brands. If you can find the blade you need, contact one of our associates at 1-800-658-8788. You can find our entire selection of new paper cutters here.

Have you ever been shopping online for a paper folding machine (found here), or other piece of office equipment, and saw the terms bond, gsm, cover or index weight listed next to a number? I don’t know about you, but this had always confused me. There are literally a half dozen different ways to determine the thickness of paper. For that reason, and to help all of you, I am including a convenient paper weight conversion chart.

Knowing the thickness of paper your paper folding machine can handle will mean the difference between a professional job and a complete disaster. There is no faster way to jam your paper folding machine, or other piece of office equipment, than trying to feed a thick piece of card stock through it when it can only handle half the thickness.

In Europe, and around the world, the method used for measuring paper thickness is gsm (grams per square inch), sometimes listed as g/m2. In the United States, and some other locations, other “weight” based measurements are used for determining the thickness of paper. This includes bond weight, text weight, cover weight, index weight and several others. This can be very confusing. The weight is usually based on a fixed width of 500 sheets.

This guide is designed to help get a round about idea on what one measurement converts over to another. Because paper weights vary so much, depending on several factors, this should be used as a guide only.  Numbers in bold are common thicknesses.

Paper Weight (Thickness) Conversion Chart

If you are in the market for a paper folding machine (found here), or if you simply need some advice on choosing a machine for the thickness of paper you are using, feel free to contact one of our paper specialists at 1-800-658-8788.

We recently had an opportunity to have MBM, one of the leading manufactures of paper folding machines, stop by our office and demonstrate some of their equipment. While I am already very familiar with MBM machines, one of the folds demonstrated on the MBM 307A (found here) was the church fold. This fold isn’t as common as many other folds, but is still very popular for folding literature. So what does a church fold look like and how do you create one?

To begin with, the church fold is technically a modified C fold (aka letter fold). In a letter fold, all three panels are equal widths. With a church fold, one of the three panels is smaller than the other two. The end result is a nice looking fold that is unique and really stands out.

Here is a picture of what the church fold will ultimately look like:

All paper folding machines (found here) are designed different, so my measurements may not work with your machine, but this is a great place to start. Most paper folding machines have two individual folding plates. Depending on the brand, sometimes these plates are on opposite sides of the machine and on other machines they are on the same side. With the MBM 307A (which I was just playing around with), the folding plates are on the same side of the machine. With this in mind, my measurements are based on a top and bottom plate located on the same side of the machine.

While the church fold can be easily done with an 8 ½” x 11″ sheet of paper, most church folds are created using 11″ x 17″ paper. I will cover the 11″ x 17″ size of paper in this article. Once you understand the concept, doing this fold on smaller paper should be pretty easy.

The church fold I created has a 3.5″ panel with two 6.75″ panels. What I did with the MBM 307A is set the top fold plate to 3.5″ and the second folding plate to 6.75″. The 307A is complexly automatic. After punching in the numbers, the machine adjusted itself and in seconds I was creating church folds.

This fold can be easily modified. Keep in mind that the length of the paper I am using is 17″. This is the most important measurement to remember when doing custom folds. If I want the first fold to be 3″ instead of 3.5″, all I have to do is subtract 3 from 17. This leaves me with 14. I now need that remaining 14″ to be folded in half. This means I need the second fold plate set to 7″.

I have tried this variation of the church as well and it looks great. This simple math will allow you to easily create just about any custom fold you want.

So there you have it! A church fold. It is easy to create and literally takes just seconds to minutes (depending on experience) to set up and create. If you are having trouble setting up your church fold, or need a machine that can create one, please call one of our experts at 1-800-658-8788. They are more than happy to help you out. You can find our entire selection of paper folding machines here.

Slot punches (found here) and id badges have a very close relationship to each other. If you have ever produced ID badges in-house, you are probably intimately familiar with both. Many people, especially those who have their ID badges outsourced, have no idea how easy it actually is to purchase your own badge strap clips or lanyards and slot punch your own ID badges. Here are a few recommendations on, slot punches, badge clips and lanyards.

To begin with, slot punches can be used to punch through both CR-80 30 mil ID badge cards and laminated ID badges. The size of the slot is almost always 1/8″ tall by ½” wide. The edges of the slot are almost always rounded, providing unrestricted movement to the ID badge lanyard or badge strap clip. Slot punches are also commonly used to punch holes in luggage tags for use with luggage straps.

Slot punches come in three varieties:

Handheld Manual Slot Punches – Handheld manual slot punches work much like a stapler or a handheld hole punch, depending on the design. Ultimately the badge is placed in device and centered. The slot punch is then either squeezed (hole punch style) or pressed (stapler style). Some slot punches include side guides for centering.

There are three models of handheld slot punches I recommend using:

• Akiles CSPG Slot Punch (found here)
• Model 3943-1000 Handheld Slot Punch (found here)
• Model 3943-1010 Slot Punch w/ Guide (found here)

Lever Activated Heavy Duty Slot Punches – If you are punching a lot of CR-80 cards or other PVC plastic badges, a lever-style slot punch may be needed. These slot punches can handle the thin stuff, such as 10 mil or 30 mil cards, and can also be used to punch heavier cards up to 70 mils thick. A long leveraged handle makes the punching effortless, which makes them great for use throughout the day.

I recommend using the Model 1500 LA slot punch (found here) for heavy-duty slot punching.

Electric Slot Punches - If you are punching hundreds to thousands of ID badges or CR-80 cards, you may want to consider using an electric slot punch. These punches are typically metal in design, sit on a desktop or table and typically feature a foot pedal for hands free use. These machines help speed up the process.

I recommend using these two electric slot punches for high-volume ID badge production:

• Model 3943-1601 Slot Punch (found here)
• Model 3943-1600 Electric Slot Punch (found here)

Once you have the slots punched in your cards, you are going to need a badge strap clip. These clips, made from vinyl, Mylar or other plastics, slip through the punched slot and snap in place. They typically include a clip that can be attached to a lapel or a shirt. The style of badge strap clips (found here) you use will depend entirely on your personal preference.

A lot of people prefer using a neck lanyard (found here) over a badge strap clip. Lanyards fit around the neck, much like a necklace, and keep badges in view at all times. Lanyards make ID badges more difficult to loose and most people find them to be extremely convenient. Lanyards come in all shapes and sizes as well. I have found vinyl, nylon fabric and beaded neck chain lanyards to be most popular. Many lanyards are available in a variety of colors.

We have been selling slot punches, badge strap clips and lanyards at ABC office for over 30 years. We also carry a wide selection of other photo ID equipment and supplies (found here). Please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-658-8788 with any questions.

If your business or organization prints and creates your own literature in-house, you may have the need of a booklet making machine. These machines are designed to fold and staple paper into booklets. We recently added the MBM Bookletmaker Jr. to our site (found here). I have had an opportunity to personally us this machine and would like to share my thoughts with you.

For starters, I have to say that I am very impressed with MBM as a company. They produce some of the nicest machines out there. You may have heard of some of their other machines such as Destroyit paper shredders, Kutrimmer guillotines and Triupmh stack cutters. Their machines feature sensible designs, are easy to use and they don’t cut corners in the manufacturing process.

Upon unboxing the Bookletmaker Jr., you may notice that it is very similar to other machines out there. Having used several machines myself, I have to say that the MBM Bookletmaker Jr. is very similar in look and operation to the Formax FD 160 (found here) and the ISP BookletMate (found here). The operation is almost identical. This isn’t to say that they are made in the same place, but the share a similar design.

There is very little setup required to use this booklet maker. It consists of a metal base, motorized rubber rollers and two staplers mounted to a arm. It is a fairly simple machine, but the subtleness of the machine is part of what makes it so incredible. It can be used with paper ranging from 8 ½” x 11″ up to 11″ x 17″. The guides, which help center the paper, auto center the staplers as they are lined up to the edges of the paper.

Once the paper is inserted, bring the stapler arm over to the other side (about a 180 degree motion) and press the arm down. This activates the staplers. This part of the process is manual. Once the stapling is complete, move the stapler arm back to its original position. The motor will automatically pull the paper and fold it in half. Voila! You have a booklet.

I found that I was able to insert the paper, staple it and fold the paper in about 3-5 seconds. It is a very efficient process, however, I would still rate this machine for light to medium volume use simply because there is still enough manual effort involved that an operator wouldn’t want to repeat this process over and over again on a large scale. If you need to create hundreds to thousands of booklets, go with a fully automatic / electric machine.

This machine is ideal for use in schools, churches and businesses. It is definitely portable, at 40 pounds shipped, but isn’t something that you want to move around on a regular basis. It is light enough to be used on most tables and desks. Aesthetically it is a very nice looking machine that I feel will blend in with most office environments.

The MBM Bookletmaker Jr. has a 10 sheet stapling capacity. That is based on standard 20# copy paper. The sheet capacity will be less if you are using card stock. Because it can staple 10 sheets of paper, it can bind a booklet of 40 pages (front and back / side to side).

Would I consider using this machine for my own booklet making operations? You bet. It is backed by a one-year warranty and the support from us (at ABC Office) and MBM will keep you happy. It should hold up for years without causing you any issues.

You can find the MBM Bookletmaker Jr. here and our entire selection of booklet making machines here. We are one of the most reputable online dealers of office equipment online (in business since 1980) and we offer some of the best prices available online. If you have any questions, please call us at 1-800-658-8788.