How difficult is it to bind pages of different widths?

Hi, I'm a designer, I'd like to know how difficult it is to bind pages of different widths into a single document. It will be around 250 pages, 8.5 x 11. around 40 of the pages would be 4.25" wide, and they would alternate with the full size pages at the back of the document. Spiral binding. 5,000 units.
 
I don't have an automatic spiraling machine, but I'm pretty sure they jog the sheets as the spirals them, so probably not too hard at all. I'm guessing some spot checking would have to be done to make sure the machine is not misbehaving.
 
Not hard at all for someone who does it. We send jobs out all the time. Especially jobs that have cover and tabs that are larger than the text pages. Design away.
 
If you are talking about spiral binding, i.e. plastic spirals and not wire binding, I would say this would be a really time consuming job. We do quite a bit of spirals and run an autopunch 360 and a plastikoil 3000 qs auto inserter. The autopunch can't take a stack with different size pages, so you'd have to either punch by hand or punch in sections of the same size and collate. It might be possible to collate that on something like a setmaster (we don't have one), otherwise hand collate. Depending on the size of the pages, it should be possible to bind on a 3000qs. There is no jogging on that machine and it's an automatic cycle so your operator will need to have the block jogged up pretty well before dropping it into the clamp. We've done a run of that length by hand before now, but I really can't remember a bigger pain in the backside off the top off my head.

I don't know of any higher end kit than the ap360 and plastikoil 3000. That tends to be the combo used by finishing houses as well as printers like us that specialise in plastic coils. Maybe there is?
 

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