My whole life these days seems to be "two steps forward, one step back". For everything I cross off my 'to-do' list, I seem to add two more items.
And everything that should be so simple runs into problems!
Got all 15 copies of "The Book" collated and ready to bind. I've had the GBC Combbind C20 for about 4 years now and I've been really pleased with it. Don't use it a great deal but I use it for "The Book", the MEE club handbook, and my "Trash to Treasure Kitchen and Pantry Book". All in all, since I bought it, I've bound no more than 200 books.
So I get set to bind the 2013 "The Book" and the handle that pulls out the coil bindings so the pages can be put on the binding isn't working! Managed (with great difficulty) to get one copy bound then had to give up. The hole punching part of the machine was still working so I bound the second copy manually. That worked - but took forever to do one book.
So I finally removed the plastic handle controlling that part of the machine and the plastic had broken! What were they thinking? Using a 1/16" thick square of plastic to constantly rotate a 1/4" steel rod probably 14" long - and all the moving parts attached to that!
I got on the computer and attempted to contact GBC to find a solution. Their "contact us" site does not support Google Chrome auto fill so I had to go back and replace all the auto fill manually. Finally got a message off asking about a replacement handle - and preferably a better built one!
Well, you know how "contact us" goes: you get an auto-reply telling you how important you are to them and they will answer you within "x" many hours. Can't comment on GBC because I only contacted them this afternoon so we'll see what happens....
In any event, I put my 'thinking cap' on and circumvented the whole 'plastic' issue by using a pair of pliers to turn the steel rod and open the binding coil, loaded the pages, then used the pliers to close it again. Took a bit longer than the one smooth movement formerly supply by the plastic handle but did the job.
Considering the amount of force it took to do it with the pliers, it's no wonder that the plastic handle failed!
By the time I got them all finished, it was too late to deliver the two copies that I give to friends in the building.
But at least they're done and ready to be delivered/mailed!
Tomorrow is once again filled with condo business so it's another delay in getting back to minis...
Don't you just love it when you have technology that is meant to help you and make life easier...but it almost works...but not quite. I can understand your frustration.
ReplyDelete