Stapler Hack Fastens Infinitely Large Sheets Of Paper

infinity-stapler

It’s not called the infinity stapler, but we think it should be. This magnetic hack allows you to use a plain old stapler to fasten very large pieces of paper.

The limiting factor has always been the distance between the stapler’s hinge and where the staples come out. To get around this, the crimped connections between the base and the dispenser were drilled out. Larger holes were then drilled in both the top and bottom halves to accept a set of magnets. These were held in place temporarily with some tape while the super glue had time to set up.

The result is two halves which are placed on either side of the over sized paper. The magnets are responsible for aligning the staples with the die which bends them to their final shape. The whole process is shown in the video clip after the break.

78 thoughts on “Stapler Hack Fastens Infinitely Large Sheets Of Paper

  1. I hate to be the pessimist, usualy I am the optimist….

    However, the “limiting factor” is rather the staple’s actual size. Not the opening size of the stapler. Most staplers can open completely (base being 180 in line with the staple head.).

    Still a very nice hack non the less :)..

      1. That is not correct. I recently had to assemble 150 sets of a program and used a stapler, and a cardboard box. Open Stapler, Fold the program into a booklet (this gives you a seam so you know where to staple) Place papers stacked on cardboard. Staple in two places, pull paper from cardboard, fold staples using a plastic knife. Took about 20 seconds per program. Probably faster than trying to align the above and no danger of marking whatever you are stapling.

        I used to have a stapler and jig that allowed me to center staple up to 12×18 (8-1/2 x 11 Booklets It was sweet, but took up way to much space, no more than I used it.

        Still an interesting idea, certainly takes up less space than my jig did.

    1. No. They aren’t talking about an arbitrarily high stack of paper. They are talking about stapling large sheets.

      For example, take a stack with just a couple of letter sized sheets of paper. Fold them the short way to make a small booklet. Now try to staple the spine together. With a typical sized stapler you can’t do it.

      1. I’ve never owned a stapler where the base and top didn’t just pull apart…do they make ones like that? I do this all the time…you just pull the two parts of the stapler apart, line them up, and staple. Although I will admit the magets here would probably help keep things aligned a bit easier…

    2. This stapler let’s you staple deep into sheets with large areas and not just around the periphery. I think you are thinking in terms of thickness, which I don’t think is what this hack is about.

      1. Yeeeeea…. Now you can see my mind wandered again… Large sheets, not THICK sheets **face palm**

        For this reason, it is a brilliant hack!… If only I understood it in this manner from the word go lolz :$

  2. bb-but SF 4 chiselpoints (and variants) are only rated for 20 pages. Most models can accommodate 18 pages depending on the weight. This would be great on the .5 inch beasties with the tiny maws….. I know too much about staplers.

    Time to go outside and cry.

    1. This won’t be practical for anything needing a lot of force, the staple wouldn’t penetrate straight through 50 sheets if the head isn’t solidly mounted and therefore wouldn’t hit the right spot on the staple folder so you wouldn’t be able to use this mod on a larger stapler without insanely strong magnets.

      1. not really. did it all the time back in the day when I was publishing hacker zines in high school early college. I was a “god” because I had access to dad’s high volume laser printer that did duplexing. 1986-1989 we would staple the books of 12 sheets (24 pages plus a 60lb cover) and that is exactly how we stapled them Two staplers and line up using fingers and by feel. worked well for stapling 200+ issues a month.

    1. You can get staplers starting at $1 though.

      As for what’s better, I think it’s probably more sound to just extend the thing to make the hinge be farther away, since as this video shows aligning the thing works but then the staple is not at a straight angle, it’s hard to position both the paper and stapler where you want them with this magnet trick I fear.

  3. I love the fact that a video was included.

    But don’t get me wrong, I love these simple modifications, it’s refreshing to see some simple projects every so often.

    Although, you could build a printer-type frame that automates stapling… Teachers around the world will rejoice.

  4. Um, what about the length of the staples themselves? I’ve “force fed” my stapler a time or two and it didn’t work out as there wasn’t enough staple left to fold the ends over to secure the paper. And using staples as just “nails” kind of works, but there often isn’t enough friction with the staple legs to get a good hold in anything.

    1. nah, at work we just have a stapler with a very long hinge for doing this exact thing. I think it will staple in the middle of an 11×17, allowing you to make a 8.5×11 book.

      I could see alignment issues being a problem. I have a stapler on my desk that jams because the die doesn’t line up perfectly.

  5. As I was reading this, I thought to myself that an infinitely large piece of paper is the kind of thing XKCD might quip about; making reference to Zeno’s Dichotomy Paradox or whatnot.

    Then I watch the video, and see what’s being stapled…

    Great idea. I wonder how accurately it lines up though. Enough to get a decent staple just some of the time, or most of the time?

  6. I don’t know about others, but generally I always staple in a corner, which by definition are never far from the edges. So I suppose that this hack is for people who staple sheets towards the middle? Am I the only one to see a problem with that, or the only one to print text that is more often then not located towards the centre of sheets?

    1. Ever printed up a multi-sheet booklet you wanted to staple at the fold? Common everyday staplers aren’t long enough to reach to the middle of a US Letter or A4 sheet.

  7. Ooh, clever solution to the problem. Probably more flexible than the solution I resorted to; simply buying a Bostitch long-reach stapler.

    Though my stapler DOES have a fully adjustable, metric/standard ruled, paper-stop for repeatable alignment. :D

    1. You might be thinking “ha, if I cut it in half then I’ll have 2 infinitely sized sheets of paper!”

      Cutting it in half is going to take an infinite amount of time, so just buying a second one is faster.

      1. This sheet of paper might have some interesting nonlocal topology. I started trying to find a way to cut it in finite time using that, which didn’t work (was fun to think about)… but then my code finished compiling. Back to work!

  8. I recall that pastor Phil over at instructables made a deep throat staple by simple welding an extra bit of metal in the base of a stapler. Frankly that’s what I’d do if I see myself needing a book making stapler a lot. Get the parts aligned the first time, and they will aligned This would be great if you you yourself needing oddball reaches often. For myself weeks go by without my using a stapler.

  9. Now that you can staple infinitely large sheets of paper together, you have to decide which anvil setting to use — the “innie” or the “outie”? The choice, as far as I’m concerned, is a mystery… lots of reasonable explanations for the existence of the “outie” but none that seemed like the actual reason it was invented.

  10. If the paper was infinitely large, how would you be able to put the anvil on the underside to staple it? You’d either be on the top part of the infinitely large sheet of paper, and thus you’d need beyond-infinite procurements to reach the underside and align it.

    Crikey. This is getting challenging. Time for a drink.

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