I've used a comb binding machine before so I am familiar with how they work. This machine by Fellowes is sturdy (weighs 10 lbs.), sleek and attractive looking, however, it is not intuitive. Sadly, the included instruction manual, despite a number of illustrations, is just terrible. If I didn't already know how these machines work, I would have been very confused. But once you figure it out, it works splendidly.

You will need to buy the combs that you use to bind documents with. This machine accepts the following comb sizes:
1/4" (6mm) - holds 2-20 pages
5/16" (8mm) - holds 21-20 pages
3/8" (10mm) - holds 41-55 pages
1/2" (12mm) - holds 56-90 pages
5/8" (16mm) - holds 91-120 pages
11/16" (18mm) - holds 121-150 pages

First, you punch the holes in your covers and your document. Position the adjustable edge guide to fit the edge of the paper you are using, load the paper with the spine area down in the paper tray area, and then pull the punch handle down. (The diagram on the inside of the front cover of the manual tells you where all these things are.) It is easy to pull and you get a nice, clean punch.

You can punch up to 12 pieces of paper at a time, although I suggest if you are using card stock as your front and back cover, punch them separately as that is much heavier weight paper. My experience is that 3-4 sheets of card stock is about all you can easily punch at a time. Note: Be sure and load your document with all the pages oriented in the same direction eg. the top of the pages all to the left or the right. Otherwise, when you bind your document, the top and bottom edges may not all line up.

After punching the holes, set your document and covers aside. Make sure the comb opening lever is pushed to the back. Load the appropriate size comb for your document into the machine. Note: this is where it gets tricky as nowhere in the manual does it show you or tell you where to load the comb. You place the comb, with the non-opening side of the spine down, behind the row of tall metal "teeth" that are sticking up. Push the comb up snugly against the back of the teeth, with the ribs of the comb protruding from between the teeth. If it is snugly in place, when you pull the comb opening lever forward, the ribs of the comb will be pulled open. If it doesn't work you either have the opening side of the comb down or you don't have the comb pushed far enough down behind the teeth or snugged up close enough to the teeth.

When the comb is open, you can easily load your punched document onto the open ribs. After that's done, just push the comb opening lever to the back and your document is now comb bound! FYI: If you discover you forgot to add a page after you are done binding, you can open up your comb again and again to add or remove pages.

This machine has a couple of really nice, extra features, too. On the left side of the machine, there is a waste tray which collects the little, punched out bits so you don't have them ending up all over the house. It's quite generous and holds plenty of the little "chads" until you are done and ready to slide it out and empty it.

There is also a tray for holding some spare combs. In addition, this tray features a comb size gauge. You just hold the pages of your document together, including the covers, and slide the edge into the different gauges. When you find the one that fits best, it says above it what size comb to use. This is great because you no longer have to count the pages of your document to figure out which size comb to use!

If the instruction manual had been even half-decent, I would have given this 5 stars. As it is, it is still an excellent machine for home or small office use.

Edited to add: Besides the obvious projects such as binding reports, books, screenplays, etc., I recently discovered a delightful comb binding use for young children. Purchase a ream of heavy card stock and some combs. Punch and bind the plain, unprinted card stock and give it to the young children in your life so they can create their own books! My 3 year old granddaughter loves this. She dictates her "story" to her mother, who writes it at the bottom of the page and then my granddaughter draws pictures on the page to illustrate the story. She also added stickers to a couple of her books. The result is wonderful and sure to be a keepsake. The heavy card stock holds up well to a toddler "reading" the story over and over.

Even the tweens that hang out at my house had a fantastic time creating their own books this way.

First of all, the directions that come with this binding machine are horrible. If you have never used a comb binding machine before, you will need to go to YouTube and watch videos of how to use it. I have never used one and I really tried to follow the abysmal instructions to no avail. Intuitive??? Maybe for some people but not for me. Also, NO WHERE does it say on the box or in the instructions that you need to purchase the plastic binders separately. I think at least a few should have been supplied with the binder. I went and bought a box of medium sized binders yesterday at Office Depot.

I finally allowed my 11 year old daughter to try and figure out how to use this machine. She is very good at figuring out how things work and she did some test binding on some scrap paper we had. She showed me how to use it and it turned out to be pretty simple to operate and does a great job. But I'm still deducting a star for the incredibly bad enclosed instructions. This binder is quite good for small binding projects no bigger than 150 pages. It operates smoothly, seems durably constructed with the binding teeth actually made out of metal. The rest of it is made out of hard plastic. I have a TON of loose sheet music that I have been wanting to bind so I have a lot of work ahead of me to do. I was surprised at how neat a binding job it does. The rectangular holes are cleanly cut through and it attaches the binder like magic.

This product is made of high-quality materials, is very easy to use, and works consistently every time to create beautiful bindings! The only thing I was confused about in learning to use this product was how to place the combs in the machine. The guide does not describe which direction the teeth of the comb should be placed into the "mechanism". I quickly learned that if you hold the comb lengthwise in front of you with its spine to the back where the teeth starting in a downward position and wrapping upwards to face you and then over the top towards the back again. When inserting in the "mechanism" make sure you seat the comb securely starting to the right of the first metal tooth of the mechanism. When you pull the lever to open the comb it should open smoothly. If it is too hard to open then you have put the comb in the wrong direction.

Have wanted one of these for quite some time to bind scripts, short stories and other writings that I was in the process of editing. This comb binder fits all my needs and I'm sure would work well for any small business or home use for school projects, family cookbooks, etc.

Very simple to use, the binder is lightweight and will fit anywhere in your office. Since it is a manual machine, you can place it anywhere as no electrical outlet is needed for use. The binder will punch up to 12 pages of paper at a time, and depending on the size of comb used will hold up to 150 sheets. The Instructions aren't that great, but it only took a few minutes to figure it out.

What I felt most disappointed about is that it doesn't come with sample combs. Those had to be purchased separately and for the most part come in boxes of 100 of the same size. I ended up purchasing the middle size (max. 55 sheets) as those would work in most of the cases that I would use.

Dumping the leavings from the hole punching is simple - simply slide out the rear tray and toss the punches in the trash. The front tray has a handy comb guide and room to store about 10 miscellaneous sized combs.

All in all, I like this machine and it will come in very handy in my home office.