Fellowes Pulsar Office Comb Binder
Product ReviewMy Star Rating: 5 stars out of 5 = I Love It
Summary Statement: Great - Easy for Binding Home-Printed e-Books and Our Family’s Personal Documents (Non-Electrric)
I wanted one of these for years and am thrilled with the FELLOWES OFFICE COMB BINDER PULSAR 300 which is more than adequate for our purposes. (This is not electric.) We are a homeschooling family. We purchase e-books for educational purposes, and I also buy e-book knitting pattern books. We need to have them in printed paper form. Now I can also create my own document booklets such as homeschool student assignment log books and have them neatly comb-bound.
Having a comb binding allows for durable front and back covers and allows for less ripping than when using staples or binder clips. I find the internal papers in three ring binders often tear. Usually even the one inch three hole punched binder is too wide and takes up too much space on the bookshelf.
This PULSAR 300 can punch 15 20 lb. paper sheets at one time. This device comes with a starter pack of 10 clear plastic covers, 10 thick paper back covers, and 10 combs (sizes: 5-6mm, 5-8mm). See my list below for comb sizes to page count so you can order the size you need at the same time that you purchase this device. I loved that there are comb size checker slots in the storage tray since the size of the comb is not printed on the combs and we need to know how many pages fits in the comb.
The PULSAR 300 is the middle of the line product by Fellowes, classified for ‘moderate’ use and binds 2-300 pages . Fellowes also makes the models Starlet 90 for ‘light use’ and the Quasar 500 for ‘regular’ use. I have not used those other models so I cannot do a side by side comparison. However I demonstrated this for my husband who has used a professional model at former employer (brand name unknown) and he said this Fellowes is far superior as that other one had only one handle. It required you to punch all the papers, put them to the side, and then assemble it at the end. More movement of papers allows for the holes to become misaligned and can take longer to do.
The directions are only 1.5 pages long and are pretty skimpy but this is not rocket science. You place the comb and open it with one handle. A different handle does the hole punching. The blades are inside so there is no risk of injury. I used it working from the back to front. I punched holes in the back cover, and moved it directly to the open comb. Then I punched the interior pages starting at the back, and I loaded them right onto the open comb. Then I did the same with the front cover. Then move the comb’s handle to close it, and it’s done!
Regarding size and storage:
The device is as large as a typical computer printer if you were thinking of keeping it out on your desk be forewarned you’ll need to have a fair amount of space. The device is deeper than my desk bookshelves so using those as storage when in use was not an option for me. The storage drawer extends out to the right side so you may need to move it around when in use (depending on the layout of your desk and what is to its right side). It is lightweight and I found it easy to move to a clear work surface.
CAUTION: If you load the extra combs into the comb tray then put it back in the box to store in a closet, it sits on its side and the combs dump out inside the device. This happened to me and then the tray got jammed when I tried to open it. I had to pick it up and shake it vigorously while someone else kept the tray from flying out to rectify this situation. I was happy the combs didn’t get wrecked in the process. If you plan to keep this stored on its side in the box, I suggest putting the combs in a large zip top plastic bag instead of keeping them in the storage drawer.
The comb sizes go with these page counts (using 20 lb. paper):
6 mm = 2-20 pages
8 mm = 21-40
10 mm = 41-55
12 mm = 56-90
16 mm = 91-120
18 mm = 121-150
22 mm = 151-180
25 mm = 181-200
32 mm = 201-240
38 mm = 241-340
I’m happy to finally own a comb binder and look forward to reducing my use of staples, binder clips and three hole punched paper in (often too-large and too-bulky) binders. This is simple to use and my sons (aged 10 and 13) asked to give it a try and were able to use it with ease.
Disclosure: I received this item from Amazon.com for the purpose of writing a Vine review on Amazon.com. I was under no obligation to rate it favorably or blog about it. I was not paid to write or blog this review.
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