* The Akiles Coilmac Plus is a new updated and upgraded version of the classic Akiles Coilmac M which has been one of the most popular manual spiral coil binding machines for years.

* This machine is designed to bind documents using standard 4:1 pitch spiral coil binding spines.

* The Coilmac+ is a heavy duty metal spiral coil binding machine designed for small and medium sized businesses that need to bind a few documents at a time with coil binding.

* It is a great introductory model for organizations that need a dependable and durable binding machine for their office but don't want to spend a lot of money.

Strengths / Features:

* The Akiles CoilMac Plus features the same durable metal construction that has made the line of Akiles binding equipment famous. They have a reputation for building equipment that is extremely strong and durable. This machine is no exception. The machine is made almost entirely out of metal and is designed to last years without ever needing service or maintenance.

* When Akiles released their plus line of binding equipment they made several significant upgrades that are worth mentioning. They changed the holes that the machine produces from round to oval. The new oval hole pattern makes it easier to insert coils and also makes it easier to turn the pages of your bound books. This is a great feature and the CoilMac M+ is one of the only manual binding machines available on the market that includes this feature.

* Akiles also modified the hole pattern used by this binding machine. The Coilmac-Plus uses a 0.248 hole spacing instead of 0.250. This means that the machine punches 44 oval holes as opposed to 43 round holes. The 44 holes fit better on an 11 inch binding edge than the typical 43 hole round pattern.

* This machine also offers fully disengageable punching pins. This allows users to punch virtually any size of document. Any hole along the punching edge can be disengaged making it possible to punch documents that are less than 1 inch in length. It also has a continuous punching guide to allow users to punch and bind 8.5" x 14" legal sized documents and 11" x 17" tabloid size documents.

* In addition to all these other features, the Coilmac+ also includes a pull out coil inserting table to help users to increase productivity when manually inserting spiral coils onto their documents.

Weaknesses / Limitations:

* Although Akiles has added a huge number of new features to this binding machine, it is ultimately still a manual binding machine. The CoilMac Plus does not include an electric coil inserter. This means that users will have to manually spin the coil onto their documents by hand. Users who bind ten or less documents at a time my not find this to be a problem. However, higher volume users may really want to upgrade to a machine with a coil inserter.

* This machine offers a punching capacity of approximately seventeen sheets of paper per lift. Although this is reasonable for most small and medium sized offices, higher volume users may want to consider a punch with a larger punching capacity or an electric punch with foot pedal operation.

* Although the oval hole design offered by this machine makes it easier to insert coils and easier to turn pages, many users are used to using a round hole pattern. Whichever pattern you prefer, it is important to note that the hole patterns are not interchangeable and you can not use this machine to punch pages for insertion into a 0.250 pitch round hole coil bound document.

Recommendation:

* In releasing the CoilMac Plus binding machine, Akiles made huge strides to improve on their already highly popular design.

* The oval holes, disengageable dies and new hole spacing make this machine a definite winner and helps to set it apart from the competition on many different levels.

* These changes make this machine our favorite coil binding machine that we have reviewed.

* However, it is still not a good choice for high volume users. Organizations that need to bind large numbers of documents will want to consider a machine with an electric coil inserter and possibly an electric punching mechanism.