Bookbinding Made Easier - Some Tips

By Roger Willcocks

Most people think that books have to be put together by a machine, and printed on huge presses. We forget that monks and scribes used to spend their lives writing and binding books. I used to be a librarian at school, and in that time, I repaired hundreds of damaged books. A simple, if careful, process, a press/clamp, and some glue were generally all that was needed.

Recently I purchased a copy of Easy Book Binding. Why? Because it's much easier to read paper than a screen, so I printed my ebooks out. I was tired of having huge piles of loose paper lying around until I got to reading them. Now I can print them out, bind them (I prefer hard cover), and keep them for reference.

I won't go into too many details, as that would be pretty much ruining the business of the person I purchased from and that's not exactly fair. However, I can elaborate on a few points.

Binding Glue - A Neoprene contact cement was recommended, but I had real problems finding any in New Zealand. Instead I am mostly using an outdoor PVA glue. It dries clear and flexible, and once dry does not dissolve in water. I also use a gel type glue for all gluing other than the spine as the water based PVA can cause the paper to distort slightly.

Spine Preparation - I sometimes found that the glue only touched the edges of the paper, and might separate under quite low stress as a result. My solution is to give the spine 4-5 strokes with a 60 grit sand paper before applying the glue. This frees some fibres to bind into the glue more strongly.

Cover Type - I prefer hardback to paperback covers, though they are more work to prepare. In particular the 'case bound' book is the strongest, but the spine was inflexible making it hard to read. My compromise is to glue a wrap around piece of paper over the spine of the pages once the binding glue has set, and then glue the midline of that to a card spine, slightly narrower than the thickness of the pages.

Protecting the cover - The covers can easily be marked and stained unless 'hardened' in some way. The recommended method involved a clear enamel spray. This works well, but is best on less porous surfaces such as coloured card (instead of construction paper). It smells, contains solvent, and requires time to set nicely. So do it in an open space such as a garage, and prepare the covers at least six hours ahead. The spray also causes laser printing to become very hard and shiny in appearance, a nice contrast against pastel card.

For paperback covers, use ~300-350 GSM paper (4-5 times normal paper). For hardback, use 400-500 GSM, covered with 100-225GSM paper (parchment to light card, parchment is better).

Building a press - The press is the most essential part of the process. It holds the pages tightly in place while they dry, and makes sure the edges are straight. You need to be very careful drilling the bolt holes, unless exactly vertical, they can cause the press plates to jam. A lever drill would have been good for this. Plan well, you can easily make a long edge A5 press into a short edge A4 press (for example) by carefully drilling 2 extra holes. I actually built one for long and short edge A4, and long edge A5. It took 3 extra pieces of wood, and 7 extra bolts to let me make 3 different styles of book instead of one.