Fellowes Star+ Comb Binding Machine

I’ve written a book and wanted to bind a few pre-publication copies, using a comb binder, rather than clunky 3-ring binders. This was easy to do and gave a professional-looking result. Using standard paper it was more than adequate for 120 sheets (printed both sides). I even managed to bind a much larger thickness, the result of using heavier (ie, thicker) premium paper stock. This required a bit more care in supporting the stock during binding but wasn’t difficult. I only mention this to indicate that the 5/8” or 3/4” capacity isn’t an absolute – with care, you can exceed it, using wider combs. The machine is well built and it met my needs completely.

Never got a chance to try this out as it only handles US Letter size, not A4. I couldn’t see anywhere in the product description about paper size being limited to US Letter so just beware, especially if you are buying in Australia.

Used them at the office when I was employed. Liked the ease of use and ability to assemble document for easy access

My first reaction, as an engineer, was “what a bizarre little machine”. It’s oddly designed, but in the end, it works well. The paper cutter loads into a top slot after you lift both the lid and the handle which almost interfere with each other. This was quite different from other machines I’ve used. You’ll have to hold the paper with one hand to keep it from falling out of the slot, while you start the punching motion with your other hand using the handle. There are no paper support guides and gravity doesn’t help you; it tends to remove the paper from where it needs to be. Does the paper stack belong in front of or behind the handle? I guess it doesn’t matter. Once you try the punching process a few times, you’ll soon have the hang of it. The instructions are truly terrible, as others have noted. Come on Fellowes! An intern there could document the instructions better in a couple of hours. The pictures are vague and useless. It took me a little while to figure out how to load a plastic comb into the comb-opening mechanism, to pull it apart for document loading. The instructions were totally useless for this purpose. I am pretty clever with mechanical things, and it took me a while to sort it out. I can imagine a rushed clerk in an office being confounded by it. The comb must feed in from BEHIND the vertical tangs, with the comb loops protruding through the spaces between the tangs. The open side of the comb must be up (not mentioned in the manual). You must then rotate the comb around a bit while pressing the comb into the mechanism (toward the user) until it seats deeply into the mechanism enough to allow the hooks to open the loops. Again, once you’ve done this a time or two, you’ll know what to do next time; although it’s still fidgety. The machine is designed to be stored horizontally or vertically, but in vertical mode you must slide it up against a surface, else the handle and lid will flop open. There is no closure latch.

If I sound negative, I must say that I came around to finding this weird little machine to be quite acceptable. It did easily punch clean, well-aligned holes, as long as one loads only a few sheets at a time, per the specs. After getting acquainted with it, I am happy with it. It is very well made of quality metal and plastic materials. Looks like it will last a long time. The comb and waste trays are nicely done. So, overall, a positive review despite my criticisms. I’m glad I bought it for my occasional light-duty needs.

I am an elementqry school teacher and finally bought my own binder for my classroom. Our district did away with workbooks so we print a lot of copies of pretty much anything, from math problems to writing curricula. I use this binding machine almost daily to make booklets for my students. While it takes more effort than stapling papers together, it is much more durable and I am able to bind a whole mulitplication station or vocabulary sheets in one sitting instead of making copies after copies each week. I use cardstock for the front and back and design fronts ob Google slides that I then print so students can easily distinguish between packets/folders. Pay close attention to the comb size and when using cardstock, factor the thickness in as well. Other than that, I recommend buying the combs on amazon instead of the big box store that starts with office. The combs are much cheaper on here. I use a variety of sizes but I found 3/8 to be the most versatile so far. 1/4 is really too small to get anything on as 25 pages are a stretch.
I really like the ease of use and that it is light enough to carry, yet still stable enough. One downside is the fact that it does not fit as many papers to punch at one time as advertised. I batch 5-7 pages at a time as this leads to fewer punching mistakes.