Inspiration
I need to lock in. I thought about CIS 1210 nearly every waking hour last semester before I surrendered. This semester must be different. I will pay attention in class. I will not "split" my attention between the professor and "productive work".
I admire my previous note-taking setup for its simplicity. It can't get much simpler than one big ass notebook. One big ass notebook has everything: notes, homework, random thoughts, and fun little drawings. I became lost in its beauty every time I opened it. I organized it in perfect chronological order by when it was written. How could I possibly write notes if I haven't finished this homework problem? How inconvenient to read then.
I know. I will just write my notes on the computer. Oh? There's my computer science homework. Maybe I should work on that a bit before class starts? Oh? Class has started? Well... I'm in computer science class right now. It's on topic. I can't stop now.
I should now be clear that neither big ass notebook nor computer notes are working for me. If only I could move pages around in my big ass notebook. Maybe then I could alleviate the stress of writing pages in convenient order. I remember. I remember the big ass binders from elementary school.
Source: Amazon
I hated using those things though. They broke constantly, it was a struggle to unzip, and sometimes all the pages would fall out due to all three rings opening at once because of the weight of every single subject in one big ass binder.
Maybe the "one big ass" part of "one big ass binder" is the problem. Perhaps I should get a few normal ass binders.
Source: Amazon
This could work. How many normal ass binders should I get? 4 binders for 4 classes + 1 binder for my own stuff = 5 binders should work. I'd have to carry all the binders at once since all my classes are back to back on 2 days of the week and I don't want to have to go back to the other side of the campus for my fun work binder before I perform my other new strat: working only anywhere-else-but-my-dorm-room and going home by 9 PM. The binders mustn't take up too much space for this to work. The smallest size they have is 1 inch. 1 inch × ( 5 binders ÷ 2 ) rounded up to account for the wedge shape of the binders = at least 3 inches of binders in my backpack at all times. That much thickness would be a lot to handle considering I also need to carry water, food, my laptop, and textbooks. If only I could have the convenience of a binder with the form factor of a notebook.
Time to get Inventive
There seems to be this weird obsession in the binder community with bulky yet fragile rings. Even these goofy disc-bound notebooks designed to "lay flat" use them. Why not just use string? String and spare cardboard boxes solved my problem.
This solution fit all of my criteria: nearly perfectly flat, easy to reorder pages, kept pages safe and secure, light, and thin. I was ready to go to head to UPenn with these accompanying me in all my classes.
I was very dissapointed to find out that some were very much not impressed. They expressed extreme concern that the rich kids of the prestiguous University of Pennsylvania would bully me for looking so deprived. I protested that I was 20 years old and no one would care to no avail.
Becoming Fancy
My first attempt to become fancy was to purchase a fancy Japanese mechanical pencil recommended by r/mechanicalpencils: the Pentel Orenznero.
Source: Amazon
No one was impressed.
My second attempt to become fancy was to replace the rope with necklace chain. This also got around my lack of knot tying skills by allowing opening and closing with "lobster clasps".
Source: Amazon
No one was impressed.
My third attempt to become fancy was to make a negative wooden notebook cover, make a mold of it using silicone, and then use the silicone mold to make resin casts. This strategy came with new complaints: it was way too expensive. I protested that it made sense because I could reuse the silicone mold for practically infinite notebooks. They were unconvinced.
I then learned wood and resin were actually pretty similar in strength and that wood had superior vibes. My third attempt to become fancy was cancelled and replaced by the fourth: just make the notebook covers out of wood.
Woodworking
I saw that I could get 2mm thick wood on Amazon. I imagined I could also find the same at Home Depot and not have to wait for shipping. I could not. I did find this 1/8" (3.175mm) ugly tempered hardwood though. I decided to stain it since it was so ugly
It would've been nice if I had proper tools to make straight lines and stuff. This lack lead to it taking about 10 hours to cut the boards out. I accounted for my lack of tools and skill by adding a 2mm tolerance to my desired dimensions of the union of A4 and US Letter I call "US Metric": the greater 216 mm width of US letter and the greater 297 mm height of A4. To my surprise, I met the tolerances I set for myself.
I decided to drill the holes as small as possible so that maybe most of the stress would be on the wood instead of the paper. I don't know if that makes any sense. It was a bad idea anyway because the clasps didn't fit through. Even the little jump rings barely fit through. This oversight decreased the flatness slightly.
Staining and sealing also took forever: like 8 hours or something.
It was harder than I thought it would be at first to put the pages in. I have since become a pro.
What were once easy to make cardboard notebook binders are now fancy notebook binders. All it took was the last 3 days of winter break spent away from my family that my clamp hand still feels.
The notebooks have been very convenient. They fit A4 and US Letter, allow reordering of pages, are basically completely flat, offer a better backing surface than cardboard, use the US Letter 3 Hole System, seem sturdy so far, and are not that ugly. They are heavier than I specced since the wood was thicker and denser than expected. No one has called me poor yet.
This project also helped me feel like an engineer.
Hickey, C. L. (2025, January 20). Custom Notebook Binders. Clayton Hickey. https://claytonhickey.me/blog/custom-notebook-binders/.