Fellowes Star Manual Plastic Comb Binding Machine Review

The Fellowes Star is a low cost introductory plastic comb binding machine designed for home office and small office users.The Fellowes Star binding machine is designed to be extremely economical and offers light volume users an opportunity to bind their own documents without spending hundreds of dollars on equipment. It has a MSRP of about $110.00 and a selling price of around $75. For the features, this machine offers a great price and value.

Overview:

• The Fellowes Star is a low cost introductory plastic comb binding machine designed for home office and small office users.
• This machine offers a sleek and contemporary design that is easy to use and easy to transport.
• The Star is a larger and improved version of the Fellowes Starlet plastic comb binding machine.

Strengths / Features:

• TheFellowes Star binding machine is designed to be extremely economicaland offers light volume users an opportunity to bind their owndocuments without spending hundreds of dollars on equipment. It has aMSRP of about $110.00 and a selling price of around $75. For thefeatures, this machine offers a great price and value.
• The combopener on this machine has metal fingers and metal hooks. Manyinexpensive comb binding machines use plastic hooks to save money.However, plastic hooks frequently break off making the machine useless.
• TheStar binding machine includes a single ergonomic handle that stretchesacross the front of the machine. This makes it easy for both righthanded and left handed operators to use this machine.
• There isa built in storage tray on the side of the machine to hold a smallsupply of plastic combs. This helps to ensure that binding supplies arealways within reach. The storage tray also has a built in guide formeasuring the size of your comb binding supplies and to help determinethe right size of spine for your document.

Weaknesses / Limitations:

• TheStar binding machine is only capable of binding documents up to 3/4"thick. That equates to about 150 sheets of 20lb bond paper. It ispossible to punch documents thicker than this using this machine.However, the comb opener is not designed to handle larger sized combs.Users who need to bind documents thicker than this will really need toconsider a different machine.
• This machine is designed to binddocuments that are 8.5" x 11". It can also punch oversized covers thatare 8.75" x 11.25" in size. However, it is not capable of punchinglegal size, A4 size or custom sized sheets. To bind documents that aresmaller or larger than 11" in length a machine with disengageable diesand an open throat would be necessary.
• This machine isconstructed almost entirely out of plastic. For most occasional usersthis should not be a problem. However, the machine is simply notdesigned for high volume binding applications. Users who need to bindmore than a few documents per week should really consider a larger moredurable machine.

Recommendation:

• The Fellowes Star isa great choice for organizations that are looking for a low costplastic comb binding machine for occasional use in a home office orsmall office environment.
• The Star offers a sleek ergonomic design, is simple to use and is easy to transport.
• Providedthat your organization doesn't need to bind documents larger than 3/4"thick and doesn't need to do more than occasional binding then this isa great fit.
• Higher volume users will want to consider a heavier duty machine with metal components and an expanded feature set.

Article Tags: Plastic Comb Binding, Comb Binding Machine, Star Binding Machine, Fellowes Star, Plastic Comb, Comb Binding, Binding Machine, Star Binding, Bind Documents