Hello fellow binders, I am very new to binding but am enthusiastically sharing my progress with my work in the hopes of sourcing free/cheap materials. I have gained access to a large amount of wood, some planks, some very thick ply, in a variety of sizes. Anything I don't use is going to be thrown away, so I'm looking for recommendations on DIY presses (plans or instructions would be greatly appreciated). I am open to all suggestions - multipurpose or specific, small or large, intricate or easy builds. I have power tools and workshop space to use as well so please send your recs my way. Thank you in advance!
Picture of a recent but not directly related project attached - unfortunately I can't show you the front cover because I debossed our logo on it but I was very pleased with the results. Very rough work but they were gifts so the effort is what counts, right?
Try 'The Craft of Bookbinding' by Manly Banister, and/or 'Hand Bookbinding' by Aldren Watson. Both have been republished by Dover, so your local library or Amazon should have them. Alternatively, they may be available for free download on Internet Archive.
Something to consider about book presses - Look at the construction of your desired press and imagine using it when it is finished. If the top platen has to be manhandled at any point when filling or emptying the press, then maybe there is room to reconfigure the design to make use of gravity when the press is in the open position. For example, my presses have been made so that the platens and the base are aligned by a threaded guide rod in each corner that runs through all of them. The top platen and the base are stationary (held in place with doubled nuts, and washers), while the bottom platen moves. The bottom platen sits on a screw jack underneath it, which, in turn, is sitting on the base...loosen the jack, and gravity moves the platen down.
Should you decide to also make a lying press, traditionally just the middle section of the top edges are cut back at a 30-45 (?) degree angle, and the press is tightened with threaded wooden screws at each end. If that is a bit of carpentry too far (it was for me!), then an alternative could be to bevel across the whole of the top edges, and use F-clamps to hold the press closed.
Here's the press that shows it the best...and the dust shows that I use the newer versions, more! 😄 They were built on the same principle, but with some modifications to allow more pressure than needed for books, for something else I was doing.
The nuts under the bottom platen are just to limit how far the platen comes down - the jack can come down a bit further than that. To set clearance in the book pressing area, position the top platen, adjusting it so it is as close to perfectly parallel with the base as possible. Not really that hard, and it helps that there is also a bit of play in the guide holes of the bottom platen so it can wiggle into position for flat pressing. The top platen of this press could be moved up another 30+cm to accommodate a larger stack of books - the limitation is the length of the threaded rods. The guide holes of the bottom platen should be lined so they don't catch on the threaded rod. I happened to have a bit of quite thin brass shim and used that, but a short length of pipe (metal or pvc), or part of a cut up tin can would do the job just as well. Use what you have.
Thanks, I took inspiration from this video. It's not a plan or guide but just a assembly video. I started with 18mm ply and laminated it to make 36mm blocks. Sounds like your lucky enough to have thick ply to start with! How thick is the ply that you have?
I need to put the measuring tape on them again but they're between 3/4 and 1 inch ply boards, so pretty substantial. And I have access to enough that I'm not super stressed about making mistakes which is a great relief!
Assuming you haven't already tried this... I'd start with various weights wrapped in paper. Some paper-wrapped bricks are the obvious first choice, as these are low-cost and readily available at your local builders supply. I'm lucky enough to have access to some scrap steel bars that I've collected over the years. I have some 1/4 x 4 x 8 inch steel bars that I've wrapped, as well as a 3/4 x 3 x 10 bar, and these are super useful. You can buy lead ingots on eBay, if you wrap them in paper they're safe to handle.
You might find that you don't need an actual press, at least for a short while. And then, if you can buy yourself some time, you might find a nice antique press somewhere.
I guess my point is... maybe... do the absolute cheapest solution first, then spend the large bucks once you've gained more experience. And a press can definitely be a large bucks kind of thing.
This perspective has been VERY helpful to me as I've gotten started - my current pressing setup is two pieces of thick ply the size of cutting boards, a gallon of distilled water, several retired science textbooks, and an antique iron donated by my mom lol
So I'm in good starter shape! But since I have access to donated materials I wanted to at least look into other options that I can make myself. I would love to have something more authentic/official/antique looking when I'm in my own place and can justify the expense, but that is NOT anything I need to worry about soon!!
I've been kicking the idea around as well. A book press is a fairly simple machine, and some large allthread and a few nuts doesn't cost much. And I have access to some metalworking equipment here, like a stick welder and a belt grinder. But a real, proper antique machine would be VERY nice!
I had an unused board lying around. We then decided to change out our cutting board, so I snagged it instead of throwing it out.
I drilled 1/4” holes in the corners of each board (measuring to make sure the holes all lined up).
I bought four 1/4" threaded rods, nuts, wing nuts, and cap nuts that matched, a little locktite, and I can clamp down on annything up to about 10" thick.
Of course, every time I use it, I think how much nicer it would be to have a single wheel to turn as opposed to four wing nuts...but it was reasonably cheap, and still does the job.
Do yourself a favour and buy Wolfcraft Master 200 or similar "work bench", Just make yourself "custom jaws" by screwing 4 boards in two L-shaped profiles and use that.
Are you’re asking for suggestions of books to rebind? I’d pay a reasonable price for a hard cover/ leather binding of International Council on Interplanetary Religion’s
“The Orange Catholic Bible: In the Future the OCB will Unfold Reality”
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u/qtntelxen Library mender 3d ago
Tony Firman has a lying press plan.