h a l f b a k e r yThis ain't rocket surgery.
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To make an A5 booklet, you print pages out, 2 at a time, onto A4. Then you lay the sheets on top of each other and staple 'em all together. Ordinarily, your stapler needs to be longer than the width of the page, so an A4 sized booklet would need a stapler about 25cm long.
I think we're coming at
this from the wrong direction. Instead of reaching right across a page to staple the other side of it, the Sideways Stapler reaches down from the top of the page to put one staple in, and up from the bottom of the page to attach another. Now a small stapler can be used for big documents.
The stapler itself would look broadly similar to any that normally sits on your desk, but staples would come out at 90 degrees (about the z axis) to the way they usually do. This means that the spring-loaded mechanism for holding more staples would need to be at 90 degrees to its usual location, and would thus protrude from the side of the stapler.
Boring? Guess so. Useful? Surely...
(the Mk2 is because I posted this idea last night... the bakery software remembers it, but the idea has vanished without trace. This is the second attempt.)
What the folding die might look like
http://bz.pair.com/fun/fold_die.jpg
A plus shape so that the stapler head could be rotated 90° (about y). [bristolz, Oct 05 2004]
The present solution
http://www.staplehe...-reach-stapler.html
[bpilot, Oct 05 2004]
[link]
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You're right, the jaws would tend to push one side in before the other... but given that they end up pushing both sides down to the horizontal, I doubt it would really matter too much. |
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Actually you could build into it a swivel arragement to allow the "hammer" to strike the staple level . But considering all the extra cost wouldn't it be better just to buy one with a bigger arm |
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Adjust the angle the staples are held at such that both sides of the staple are contacted at the same time. It's not as if the angle is going to be more than about 5 degrees anyway; we're dealing with a half-inch staple on a four-inch arm. |
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Sorry, this need is covered by the long-
reach stapler. Don't want to buy one for
the occaisional need? Then fold the
base fully out of the way, put the
document on a thick mousepad or
foamboard, place the mouth of your
stapler on the crease, and staple (the
wires will not be clinched on the other
side). Flip the document and fold down
the wires with something handy such as
a pen. |
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[bpilot]: That there is some other way to do something does not mean that an invention to do it a new way is not valid. I mean, one can always walk instead of drive but driving is often a better way to get there. |
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Adding to [tasman]'s thoughts: a slightly articulated staplehead that changes angle when it contacts the surface to be stapled could absorb the skew. Not really sure that the skew would matter much, though, given the loose tolerance of the folding die. |
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A stapler with a head that can be rotated through 90° could serve both normal and binding uses. Someone yesterday had mentioned this and also mentioned that the folding die would assume a “plus” shape instead of the typical slot. This rotation might make the stapler feed mechanism difficult to design unless it, too, rotates with the staple head. |
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[bristolz]: A stapler with a 90 degree or
articulated head is simply a long-reach
stapler made heavier, more
expensive and less durable. There's no
improvement if it
can't do anything new, so why make it
unnecessarily complex? |
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I'm not suggesting adapting a long-reach stapler to this task... the sideways stapler wouldn't need to be large. |
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//More expensive//? Your link shows staplers costing $130. Surely that alone justifies an alternative? |
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A new product doesn't necessarily have to do anything new, it just has to do its predecessor's job better. Surely a reliable swivel joint isn't beyond our capabilities? |
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I think one of the points here (in the example given of putting two staples in an A5 pamphlet) is that the standard stapler is long enough, just the wrong way round. Good idea, and looking at the one on my desk, pretty easy to fabricate. Bun. |
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I think decoupling the stapler head from the anvil is the key - recall that most staplers open up and can be used as a staple gun (e.g. to staple paper to a cork board.) |
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A pair of similar staplers can be used to staple a sheet to another (even in the extreme middle should occasion arise.) (Even if one or both are very large = several feet /meters on an edge.} |
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Simply open up both staplers and position the active head over the anvil of the other. I have done this with a pair of inexpensive staplers and it works just fine! |
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Magnets appropriately placed can assist. |
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