subject: Martin Yale Bm101 Review [print this page] Creating your own booklets may not be as difficult or costly as you may have imagined. In this review we will take a look at some of the strengths and weaknesses of the Martin Yale BM101, a booklet maker that we found rather easy to use and inexpensive.
Strengths:
1.) It must be said that perhaps the most impressive thing about the BM101 is the price point. While there are certainly more powerful machines out there, and some that are perhaps a little bit easier to use, the vast majority of those machines will cost you two to three times as much as the BM101. In fact, at its current price of under $700, we have no problem stating that the BM101 is the least expensive automatic booklet making machine that is currently available on the market. For a nice, solidly built USA-made machine, that is pretty impressive indeed.
2.) We found the BM101 is remarkably easy to use. By the use of the size guide that is printed on the work surface of the machine, you can determine the positioning of the staplers. Then you simply align your sheets by utilizing the grid. The stops center themselves, so you always know you are doing your stapling in the correct position. After you have the papers in place, you can lower the lever and staple the document. After the document is stapled, all you have to do is reverse the folding lever and hold it down. The machine will take your booklet and fold it for you. Just like that, you have a booklet. It really couldn't be simpler, and we were very pleased with the results.
3.) With the BM101's two staplers and four stapling positions, the user will be able to produce several different sizes of documents depending on what size paper is used. Most users will likely be using eleven by seventeen inch paper to produce letter size booklets. However, there are many other sized booklets that can be created with this machine.
Weaknesses:
1.) While the staplers that the BM101 uses are of high quality, they are, after all, simply your standard heavy-use manual staplers. Thus, they are subject to jamming or other issues. One thing we found useful is to always use high quality staples. Regardless of the measures you take, there is always the chance that you may have to replace these staplers after awhile, especially if you use the machine frequently and for high volume projects.
2.) The BM101 states that it can handle 10 sheets of 20lb paper at a time. However, we found that it was a little bit of a struggle to get it to fold the maximum amount of sheets. For that reason, you might find the BM101 a little easier to use if you stick to documents that are perhaps nine pages or less in thickness, especially if you are going to use a heavier stock for the cover of your booklet.
3.) The stapling heads, as we stated above, are manual. That might get a little tedious for larger jobs, but for the moderate use for which this machine was built, it should work just fine, and the price simply can't be beat.
by: Jeffrey McRitchie
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