Tip: Have your map/atlas bound at Fedex Office (Kinkos)

[theksmith]

(cross posted from OffroadPassport.com)

Just a tip: for about 8 bucks, you can have Fedex Office (formerly Kinkos) spiral bind your atlas so that they are easy to fold back on themselves when you're using them on the trail.

They take the staples out of them, open them to the center, and then use a big press-cutter to slice everything down the middle (into 2 halves). Then they punch and sprial bind them. So the only info you might loose is right where the small holes for the binding are.

Not all the Fedex locations have binding machines big enough to fit the large atlases, and even the ones that do can only bind the center 11" - however that hasn't really been a problem for me. I know for sure here in Phoenix that the location on Thomas Rd near 40th Street and the one on Thunderbird and Tatum have the right equipment.

Every couple of years I get my favorite 2 AZ maps and re-do this. Usually the existing ones are trashed from use by then, and there are also new ones out every 2-3 years anyway.

 

[teotwaki]

Thanks for sharing the info!

 

[FurthurOnTheFly]

If you wanted to get super fancy and spend some extra cash, you could have them roll laminate the pages before binding....then you'd have a weatherproof map!

 

[1leglance]

great tip and the thomas rd location is near me...thanks

 

[RandomAbstract]

Great idea! Thanks.

 

[Ramjet]

I knew Kinkos was good for something. Thank you!! What an awesome idea.

 

[NuggetHoarder]

Do you know anyone who works at an architecture or engineering firm? Any A/E firm that has about 30 or more employees will have this equipment in their office. The cost of the spiral ring is around 10 cents. I work in an A/E firm so I should know

Ask your A/E friends to do this for you - it only takes about 1 minute to complete and the cost is negligible. Every firm I've worked at, and most firms that I know of, are very friendly about employees doing this as long as it is after hours and the costs are reimbursed - which in this case would be 10 cents.

 

[Harald Hansen]

Very useful tip! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Martinjmpr]

Freakin' brilliant. I've lost track of the number of times I've endangered traffic unneccessarily by trying to find a specific page in an atlas while driving (yeah, I know I shouldn't.) I'd always wondered why spiral-bound atlases weren't more common, they just make sense.

Weezerbot: I agree but laminating all those pages is a bit too "labor-intensive" for me. One of the infrequent jobs I had in the Army was laminating maps. I hated it.

I may see if my local Kinkos can do that this weekend. Of course, if I'm going to spend $$ I'll want it done on a new atlas, not my old, dog-eared one.

 

[Scott B.]

I just had my Utah map book spiral bound at Office Max - $4.

I will probably have my other books converted, too.

What an idea! (Wish I would have thought of it!)

 

[Martinjmpr]

Checked with Office Depot yesterday. They will do up to 100 pages for $2.99. If they have to remove a spine from a bound atlas that's another $0.75. I'll probably get a new atlas this weekend and have them bind it up for me.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Our local UPS Store (Mail Boxes Etc) will do it as well, think I paid $5/each to have some of my trail books spiral bound and I just dropped them off and later picked them up, they did all the work.