American Crafts We R Memory Keepers Heidi Swapp Cinch Book Binding Tool W/Square Holes-11.5-inch x 8-inch x 5-inch, Pink

This machine is absolutely brilliant and literally a cinch to use (pun indended).I just bought one yesterday and already have done some perfect bindings after struggling to figure out other more expensive wire binding machines. I think for a wire binding machine this is an absolutely bargain at under £80, when you consider machines with similar capabilities can easily cost you £300-£400.The key benefits of this machine for those considering it are:1. Ease of use. It's a lot easier than bigger office machines, within 15-20 minutes and a bit of practice you'll be doing perfect bindings every time. It also punches a decent amount of sheets (20 at a time) so that saves you a lot of time on large document bindings.2. Flexibility. This machine has a very good cutter blade. It can cut threw board, plastics and a wide range of thick cards. Being smaller than typical large machines, it's ideal for making mini pocket sized books etc.3. Compact. Ideal size and weight, the handle folds nearly in place, it doesn't take up much desk space, easy to lift and is easily stored away when not in use.4. Binding size. It supports an usually wide range of 2:1 wire binding sizes. Going down to 3/8th of an inch all the way up to 1 and a 1/4 inch size (approx 3cm!). Yes, this little machine is capable of making books nearly 3cm thick with over over 300 pages! This is very rare to see on wire bind machines (unless you pay a fortune), most are limited to 120-140 pages maximum.5. Metric support. Although these American machines are clearly designed for the US market, the latest model shown here on eBay now has an easier A4 option and a metric rule added below the imperial one. It's not difficult for us European's to bind common metric sized documents such as A6, A5 and A4 on this machine. I have wrote a little tutorial as it does require a bit of technique to do metric punching perfectly (see below).For anyone in UK or Europe watching this, wondering how the heck you do A5 and A4 punching on this machine (which is really designed for the American market that uses imperial measurements, although the latest model shown here in the video (which I have also) has both metric and imperial rulers)..here's how I figured it out (by trial and error):A5 (landscape format / short edge): Make sure the paper is aligned to FIRST LINE on the first (upper) rule guide, which is 1/17th of an inch. So in other words, you're moving the paper to the right by 1/17th of an inch which will give you perfectly centered holes on the short edge of A5 paper. You need to pull out button/plug 12 as that hole is not needed. I haven't tried doing A5 portrait mode yet, but if you look at the A4 method below, it should be exactly the same except you're obviously only punching once on A5 paper which is exactly half the width of A4.A4 (portrait format / long edge): Pull the ruler slide outwards 2 clicks to the left. On the newer models that have the metric ruler to the bottom, you'll see that 17cm at the top should line up perfectly with 32cm on the bottom from 2 clicks. Pull out plug 11 (marked A4 on newer models) as that hole is not needed. The paper will only be punched half way across due to the width limit of the machine. Turn the paper around (non-punched side facing right obviously), and punch. You now have perfectly centered holes on A4 paper.Tip: Use the little button to the left hand side to secure your paper before punching. Practice makes perfect. Practice on scrap paper. Because the A5 method requires a bit of precision aligning to 1/17th of an inch line (although its not difficult with a few practice attempts), it's recommended to punch your front and back covers WITH some of your inner front and rear pages at same time, so it looks neat and the holes align perfectly with the front and back covers when it's wire bound.Hope that helps someone!UPDATE: this is an update after using the Cinch binder for a month or so. There's a few niggles with this machine:1. As others have posted in feedback, it doesn't cut holes as neatly as more expensive machines. You need to makes sure there's no paper pieces in the holes on the machine each time you punch holes, which helps a little, but the holes are never perfectly cut on standard 80gsm paper. Thicker material tends to cut cleaner.2. The machine is a big fragile. If you pull out the punch hole buttons a bit too hard you can easily pull the entire thing out (it happened on our machine) and the cutting element can fall out of place (inside the machine!).3. Lining up the papers for punching is tricky and you can get a lot of wasted paper. Again, this is mainly due to bits of punched paper preventing a perfect alignment. We use a brush to sweep out the bits of paper left behind which helps, but you really need to take your time with alignment to avoid wasting paper. We tend to punch less than 20 sheets to avoid paper wastage.4. The rear part of the machine which closes the wire loops is a bit strange and doesn't work as you would expect with the dial and wire element sizing. We find it's better to put it on the lowest setting to get a properly closed wire binding (and even then it often requires manually squeezing the wires closer with your fingers or a tool.Despite these draw-backs, for the price I still think it's a good budget machine and it does the job. However if you're wanting to do bindings more professionally and regularly, you might be better spending more money on a proper machine, the Cinch is more for crafts/hobbyist use than turning out commercial looking documents.

The machine is beautiful! It’s new! You can buy it ! Thank you, I’m very happy with my machine 😍👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Easy to use. Love making and binding my own books!

A lovely gift for crafter

Excellent purchase very happy with product

Item received as described and speedy service, many thanks.

My husband bought this for me after I had done extensive research and watched many videos. I wanted to leave a review because there have been some negative reviews and I have been really pleased with my Heidi Swapp Cinch and would highly recommend it.On day one I made a notebook for my friend using one of my photos as a cover. Everything went very smoothly. I have since made 6 calendars, a photo book and two notebooks in just a few weeks and love it!There are a few things which I think are worth mentioning which I will list below....1. Yes the punched holes were a little oily around the edges when I got it. I punched scrap paper until the oil disappeared and before I used it on a proper project.2. Whatever I have made, I have carefully considered the hole positioning. It's handy to have a piece of scrap paper the same size as your project. Punch it and check that everything is as you wish before you go ahead.3. I've found for A4 paper, the holes are a little more central if you offset the rule by 1/16" of an inch and then butt your paper up against this for the first punch - see pic.4. If your project is small, fold your scrap paper in half and draw a line down the middle. Line up your centre line with the middle as marked on the cinch and put your project pieces underneath it... or you can slide the rule into a position to help you using your scrap paper - see photo - have lined up the 2" mark with the edge of the scrap paper - can then line everything up with the 2" mark to punch.5. Watching videos I thought the stop on the ruler would easily flick out of the way for larger projects. On mine it doesn't and I don't think it's meant to. It hasn't been a problem though, I've just leant my paper over the top of it if necessary.6. Twice now I've managed to mis-punch holes as if I didn't fully push the paper into the machine. The first time I don't know what happened and thereafter I have swiped a piece of card through before I punch and I have tried to make sure the handle was fully up. The second time was this afternoon, after very many successful punches. Maybe I lost concentration. I remedied it by sticking paper over it and re-punching and I have got away with it.7. It's possible it's more effective with more than one piece of paper. I read some reviews that said it didn't cut properly. I've had no problems at all, but I haven't used thin paper.8. If something is very thick, by placing the machine on the floor it is easier to put your body weight behind it for a bit more force rather than use it on the table... if you're not feeling very strong! Obviously there is a limit to what it will cope with.9. I've found the wires cinch really well without any noticeable egg effect squashing. I think it's really important to make sure the wires are pushed up against the back of the machine before cinching. Also I have been sure not to crush it, so sometimes I've done it in several steps slowly making the gap smaller.10. You do need to concentrate! It's very easy to forget to pull out the pegs for example when doing A4. I now try and do all the left edges, then pull the pegs and then do all the right edges. Also keep making sure it's all pushed all the way into the machine.11. I've purchased 2:1 pitch wires on Amazon from sources other than Cinch which seem to be much better value.Hope this is of some help to somebody.