fixing a small mead notebook

[Jonathan Townsend]

Hi folks,

Has anyone done the exploration/willing to share an economical way to fix up a spiral mead memo notebook so that the spiral does not destroy the pages and covers from extensive use opening and searching the pages. It needs to open flat, and preferrably have enough range of motion to open out and fold over to a page, ie cover to cover. The spiral as it comes tends to bind and damage the pages.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Jonathan

[Pete McCabe]

Ask Eric.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Ask Eric.

Eric? Any particular Eric use these little notebooks?

I was thinking of asking Jim Riser but held off as it's not exactly a fine machining project so much as bending and clipping a wire just right.

[Jim Maloney]

I dunno, Jon, but it sounds like you might end up with a tangled web.

-JIm

[Tortuga]

Eric Mead! Notebook humor, who'd a thunk it?

Seriously, how about loosening the ends a bit and bending the end over a little and soldering it? Is it the ends that are bothersome?

[Jim Maloney]

To be serious: the Mead Five-Star Advance notebook (don't mind the pink, there's a variety of colors...I tend towards black or blue) to be good in terms of maintaining page integrity and being able to open flat/fold over.

My current notebook preference is actually the Moleskine notebooks that you can get at Barnes & Noble, but they don't meet any of your requirements.

EDIT: Just realized that you're looking for a memo-sized notebook. I don't think the Five-Star notebooks I mentioned come in that size. The Moleskine ones do, but they're not spiral bound. I would still experiment with those though. Note that certain of the smaller notebooks (the ones that come in a pack of three) have the last 16 or so pages perforated, which can be a major pain if you're opening/closing it frequently and/or storing it in your pocket all day. The perforated pages have a tendency to quickly fall out with that kind of high usage.

-Jim

[John M. Dale]

Jonathan,

If your not locked into Mead Spiral Pocket Notebooks you might look at these. They claim the Smyth Section Sewn Binding lies flat. (link)

They're a bit more expensive but should last a lot longer.

Good luck.

JMD

[Andrew Pinard]

Try contacting a local printer and see if they can drill over the existing holes for Wire-O binding or see if they have plastic spiral with the proper ratio to replace the metal spiral (they may). If this is the case, it is simple to cut the 90 degree crimps at either end and spin the old wire off and replace with the new plastic. Most print shops who bind this way would do it for a very reasonable price (if the spiral fits)...