@somethingeloquent @lilith @cypnk We used to do this!

I got a long arm stapler (~$20) and used that for the spines of each section. Then I wrapped an uncorrogated cardboard cover around it and glued that in place with hotglue.

We used the hotglue to hold the seconds together too.

Worked pretty well. For smaller notebooks, you can skip the glue and staple the cover straight on.

@cypnk @lilith @somethingeloquent

Works well for Zines, too.

@ajroach42 @somethingeloquent @lilith I have a sideways tilting stapler (I think I got it on Amazon) and it works well for zines too

Binding like this is great for books, but you can't go wrong with staples for zines

I think we should all be printing zines whenever we can. There are fewer and fewer hard copies of our lives and those are the most likely to survive

@cypnk @somethingeloquent @lilith Such a good point.

I need to print and mail some soon.

@ajroach42 @cypnk @somethingeloquent @lilith I’m loving this conversation, thank-you all :)

@lilith @somethingeloquent @cypnk @ajroach42 durable knowledge storage is essential.

I adore the advantages of electronic information but it’s fragile compared to the printed word.

I need to find a way to distribute knowledge in print more that fits into my workflow.

I’ve been looking for an electronic document template that would print “zine-style”; re-ordering the pages, etc so I could just print & staple :)

@jjg @lilith @somethingeloquent @cypnk

Depending on your printer, it's possible you don't need to do anything special.

If you have a full duplex printer (I favor the entry level brother laser printer which is about $50, I'll explain why later) you just gotta select booklet mode.

If you're using word or whatever, just set your page size to 5.5 x 8.5, and then save it as a PDF.

Adobe has a booklet printing option in Acrobat.

@cypnk @somethingeloquent @lilith @jjg

The brother also has a built in booklet option, if you're using a different stack. And it's full duplex, so it prints both sides automatically.

The really neat part, IMO, is that you can refill the toner by hand.

So one toner cartridge + a handfull of sub $5 refills means you can print thousands of pages in a go. It's crazy cheap.

Like, we had our cost per issue down to something like 6 cents? And most of that was paper costs.

@ajroach42 @cypnk @somethingeloquent @lilith interesting!

I have a Brother laser but it doesn’t duplex (that I know of). I’d be using Linux for this job so LibreOffice or preferably some Markdown-oriented workflow.

@jjg do you know which model printer you have?

Most of their laser printers have built in duplexing, although I'm not sure about driver support on Linux.

@ajroach42 HL-2170W

If it’s a driver thing I can probably figure that out, but I had assumed it just didn’t have the hardware :)

@jjg That's gonna be a no.

All the models that support duplex printing have a D in the name.

@jjg Also, if the printer doesn't support auto-duplexing, most drivers have a manual duplex mode.

(You take the paper out, flip it upside down, and stick it back in.)

I don't like that as much, but it does work.

@ajroach42 that would be good enough as long as I could do it in some kind of batch (as opposed to one sheet at a time).

I’ll have to poke-around in the printer settings and see about booklet mode...thanks for the tip!

@jjg You can for sure do it in a batch. I think the setting is for printing Odd Pages vs Even Pages?

I'm not positive, it's been a while since I fiddled with printing on linux. (Printers are one of the few reasons I keep a windows box around.)

@ajroach42 yeah, I have less trouble with my (home made) 3D printer than I do with the 2D ones 🤣

@jjg @ajroach42 The technical term for this is called "interleaving" btw. I know my Brother printer has the brochure option, but I am using a Windows driver.

@lilith @ajroach42 out of curiosity, what Brother would you recommend for duplexing, refillable toner, etc.?

@jjg @lilith

you want wireless?

I have a EHLL2360DW ($80 on amazon rn.)

you want not wireless?
I have a brother 2240D which appears to have been discontinued and replaced with the 2270?

either way, you want with the a D in the name for duplex, and a W if you want wireless.

I order my toner cartridges and drums from monoprice, and then re-fill them myself 6 or 10 times with toner from various sources.

Eventually, they gotta be replaced, still. But they last a good long while.

@lilith @jjg

Granted, when I was doing this regularly enough that I actually followed toner prices, I was printing ~1000 magazines a month, at 30-40 pages (15-20 sheets) per magazine.

We had both printers going, with someone pulling the prints, separating the stacks, and stapling, someone else on hand to refill the toner cartridges and swap them out as needed.

It was fun. I miss that.

@ajroach42 @lilith this is super cool, that you could do that volume at home.

Last time I did a regular ‘zine we would sneak into my friend’s father’s law office at night and run off as many copies as we could before morning...

@jjg @lilith

We ran a little record store/concert venue. The printers were in our office there.

Office is a strong word.

We had a room with computers and printers. We used it for manufacturing.

At the time, I could get paper for $2/ream from microcenter. They won't sell that to me anymore (lifetime limit), so my costs would be doubled if I was doing this now.

@ajroach42 @lilith that sounds like a super-cool place :)

Most of the people I like to spend time with would like the world to be filled with more places like that.

@jjg
We shut down about two years ago, because my business buddy left to hike the Appalachian trail, and my s/o got a job 600 miles away.

We're looking at getting it started again, as more of a maker space kind of thing, late next year or early the next.

s/o wants to go back home. Business buddy just finished the Pacific trail that runs from Canada to Mexico. Home town is offering free rent for a year.

It's kind of a perfect storm.

@jjg @ajroach42 Heh. My old faithful Okidata died earlier this year, so I replaced it with the Brother HL-L8360CDW. Love it.

@lilith @ajroach42 awesome, thanks for the recommendations!

Don’t really need wireless, I hang the one I have off a Raspberry Pi print server (easier than dealing with configuring the built-in WiFi 😂).

@ajroach42 @somethingeloquent @lilith @jjg Toner is a huge boon for those of us sick of paying for overpriced ink

I'm using a Xerox Phaser I got from eBay and it does the booklet thing too. I think most printer software has this built in, but LibreOffice has a "brochure" option too

https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Printing_a_Brochure

@cypnk @ajroach42 @somethingeloquent @lilith yeah I’ve had a laser since the 90’s when I bought a used IBM off the computer lab at school. Never cared for inkjet but then again I never needed color :)

@somethingeloquent @cypnk @lilith

Oohhh, home made DIY bookbinding, woo-hoo!

@luka @somethingeloquent @cypnk I was considering making something like this https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AeZeyUfWKyLWvsPJeCnUFCqgyTSlw-IC9SMrBexmF8dS_Nai8QPIfDs/ to help with binding too. (I've also tried binding signatures with a sewing machine, which worked pretty well.)

@lilith @luka @cypnk That's pretty neat, I might build a contraption like this gentleman has: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXLG9mMfc5k