Binding of scores (loose sheets)

[OCTO]

I have just printed out some material from IMSLP, and I have got scores that I cannot bind with just a saddle stitch.
I wonder if there is another technique to bind "fat" scores (70+ pages).

Perhaps I can punch holes and than sewing, but how? Any successful ideas?

[OCTO]

p.s. I have found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdeKG4xz0uQ
and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML0-Xes2JVw
worth to try.

[RMK]

The problem with both these methods is that the music will not lay flat.

For large PDF scores I have used a three hole punch and then put the sheets in a 3 ring binder. However, if I was going to perform from this, I would most likely get it coil bound - it's not that expensive.

[John Ruggero]

Spiral or coil binding? The music lies flat, spirals and coils are available in all sizes and I see quite inexpensive machines over at Amazon, Good ones last forever. I use mine constantly. Add heavy card stock covers for strength.

[benwiggy]

I use a Skrebba saddle stitcher like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Skrebba-W115-Sad ... B00BEIZFAC

It can staple A3 booklets of up to 80 pages on 100gsm paper. (20 sheets). Any more than that, and the staple buckles. If you're using thinner paper, you might get a few more sheets through.

Beyond that, I use a Renz Ring Wire binder. The machine one I have is crazy expensive - £1,000s!! I'm not sure why. (I liberated it from an office bankruptcy.) Using a 16mm wire on 3:1 holes (3 per inch), I can get up to 170pp or so, with card covers. There are manual ones where you punch the holes yourself.

I wouldn't recommend those videos (drilling holes into the sides of the block and sewing ). If you have an A3 printer, you could try printing "signatures", e.g. a book of 128pp as 4 booklets of 32pp. Then you would sew into the fold and out again (like a staple), but also sewing across (on the outside) to tie the signatures together. Then glue the spine and add a cover.

Faster is to print as 4pp signatures, gather together and then glue the spine against some muslin cloth or other coarse fabric (known as "mull"). Put a strip of card, folded three times to create a "tunnel" down the spine. Then glue your card cover. Doing this, rather than gluing the cover flat to the block will let the book lie flat more easily.