NOTES ON BINDING PRINT-OUTS & BOOKS

(update 3-07, 1-10)

There's a wealth of books and other material on the

internet, yet most people will agree that it is much easier
to read a conventional book than to try to read a book on
computer. (Marshal McCluan (?) might have said that
hard-copy book is a "cool" medium, while a digital format
is a "hot" medium.) I've been experimenting with do-it-
yourself bookbinding for about 15 years and think it
valuable to pass on some low-cost methods and tips I've
picked up along the way.
The digital format is ephemeral, highly susceptible to
corruption and loss of files, while it is easy to exchange
and circulate. For your most highly prized material, printing
it out and making a relatively permanent book out of it is
the best solution. At the rate digital format is taking the
place of the printed word, in the event of a catastrophic
break down of our computer systems, we may be left in
illiterate world in the matter of decades. For the bibliophile
as well, files for many books are available on the internet,
as in Gutenberg's 12,000 or so digital books, containing
many rare books that are not obtainable or prohibitive in
price. [And now in '09, Google's huge library] Once one
gets the techniques down and with a minimum of
materials, one can have his own permanent copy for a few
dollars by printing it out and binding it into book form. A
CD is only good for maybe 30 years or so, or until formats
are outmoded or other computer problems, while a hard-
copy book will last a 100 years or more. (In this file are a
few images of some basic bookbinding equipment and
some jigs I have made myself.)
Notes:
- While .html or .pdf files are the only way to go publishing
on the net, .rtf or .txt files are the best for printing out a
copy for yourself. [And now in '09, pdf book scans are
ideal for readability in print-outs] .html files are usually
difficult to reformat, while the conventional "Wordpad" or
"Notepad" can be formated however one wishes before
printing out.
It is difficult to read a complete 8 1/2" x 11" page of text
because of the simple physiological reasons of the
difficulty of continually following one line of text to the next,
especially with the smaller text one may wish to use in a
printout to conserve paper and ink. The optimal printout
size I've found is an approximately 5 1/2" width with about
a 12 pt. print size. (This is the old ASCI DOS default.) (I
ususally do 10 or 11pt type, but this is pretty small....)
In your "page setup" for your printer you can conserve
more paper by making your top and bottom margins
smaller. Its important too, to make the LEFT margine
larger than normal - say at least an inch, and inch and one
half is better - to give room for binding the book on the left
hand margin.
I'm not familiar with laser printers, but in the typical ink-jet
printer it is only practical to print one side of the paper, and
thus your print-out book will have twice the number of
pages as a normal book, since the back is blank. About
300 single sheets of paper is about the max for a practical
print-out book. [The most economical printer for books is a
mono-chrome (black only) laser printer.]
If you can refill your ink-jet printer cartridge, you can get a
lot of mileage out of one cartridge (25 refills is my record
so far), but you have to make a lot of mistakes to get a
technique down. The biggest secret I've found so far is to
never let a cartridge run dry printing itself out. In the US
(and the US only) they have put a microchip in the
cartridge and software to prevent the user from refilling
them. If you want to refil your own cartridges, doing some
research on the internet is one of the best things you can
do. Pre-XP printers and computers don't have the software
and microchip, but refilling one's own cartridges can cause
a lot of frustration and expense if one thinks it is a cheap
way to get your own books.
- The best method I've found for binding printouts is to use
a plastic comb binding machine (usually $60 to $100 at
the big box office supply store - see photo) and instead of
the plastic comb, sew the pages together using doubled
carpet or button thread and a 2" to 3" large conventional
sewing needle. One can punch the slots in the left margin
of the pages, and put them in order using two 8-penny
nails on each end and run them through the slots at the
end of the paper. You have all you pages held together
through the slots with the two nails, and you can weave
your needle and thread up and down through the slots and
twice over the length of the book, and tie the thread off to
itself, taking the nails out as you lap them.
For covers to the book, use some card stock which you
can buy reams of where you buy your paper. I add a few
extra pages of paper at the end and one at the beginning
to protect the title page and for notes at the end.
Double-sewing the pages together in this method might be
"good enough" for one-time use, but the pages will slip
around over time, and I use a hot glue gun and shoot
some glue into each hole (generally from each side) and
this makes the binding permanent and prevents any
slipping around of the pages. Over an inch thick, the glue
may not reach the center of the book, and I open the book
in the middle and put more glue in. (One can also use
padding cement [Poly vinyl acetate] and a syringe from a
ink-refill kit, with the needle torn off, and inject some glue
into each page hole. This takes a day or two to dry, is
messy, and one has to position the work over wax paper
to prevent sticking to table or paper.)
- The above method will make a long-lasting book, but for
esthetics and a title on the spine for your book shelf, you
can add cloth tape or glue on cloth for the spine. Just
cutting a piece of cloth tape or duct tape on the spine can
give you something to write a title on with a magic marker
or white-out pen.
I use the following method, however, which requires some
materials. Padding cement (PVA) in quart bottles is
available at some office supply stores or orderable
(summer-time, it freezes in the winter.) Get the white or
clear stuff instead of the pink stuff. This looks and acts just
like Elmer's Glue (“school glue“, but it dries flexible, while
Elmer's dries brittle.
Also, if you want a nice straight spine, use a paper cutter
to cut a piece of cardboard (cereal box cardboard is just
right) and glue it to the spine of the book before you put on
the cloth tape or glued cloth. You can position this in the
middle of the cloth tape or cloth before you put the cloth
on the spine, and just position the book down the middle
of the cardboard and bring the edges of the cloth or tape
up to the sides of the book while holding the book
centered on the cardboard strip.
- I use bookcloth and PVA to bind the spine. Bookcloth is
not the easiest thing to get and I only know one source
personally that will sell to individuals. (TALAS, 568
Broadway, New York, New York 10012. (212) 219-0770
They are a bit difficult to deal with, have a catalogue of
book binding supplies, and don't much like little orders....)
Others can probably be found on the net. If you can't buy
bookcloth - which has a coating on one side so glue
doesn't leak through, you can make your own substitute
out of any relatively heavy fabric, and starch it thorougly
on one side with spray-on starch and iron it out afterwards.
With the cloth, I put my padding cement in a tupperware
bowl (most can be diluted with water up to about 1/3), and
using a small paint brush, brush the padding cement on
one side of the cut-to-size cloth laying on a piece of
newspaper. I position the cut-to-size spine cardboard
down the middle of the piece of cloth (cut to length and so
an inch and a half or so will lap over the sides of the
book), brush some more glue on the cardboard strip, and
brush some glue on the book spline and a little on the
sides. I then take the book and position it directly over the
cardboard, and bring up the cloth to the sides of the book
and smooth it down.
After it is all in position and smoothed down, I place the
book on a piece of wax paper on the table and against
wall or back of the table, and gently push the book against
the wall or table back, and place a brick on top of it to
keep it in place. (If your table has no back or wall, you can
do without this step.) It'll be dry enough to pick up in a
couple of hours, and to use in about a day. If you have
cloth or cardboard sticking over the edge of the book, you
can trim it off with sharp scissors.
After your spine dries, you can past a label on the back of
the book for a title, or print it on yourself using a typewriter
"white-out" pen, or some of the paint pens that are
purchaseable, or a magic marker for light-colored cloth.
All this may seem rather complex, but after you get your
"system" down, you can do it quickly. After printing a book
out now, I can bind it completely in about a half-hour.
Wax paper can be used in any situation where pages or
cover would stick together while drying. This can be re-
used several times where little pieces of dried glue on the
paper possibly sticking to your work doesn't matter.
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I add an addition step to all this, which makes a more
finished looking book, but would cost someone about $600
for a table-top paper trimmer, which will cut up to an inch
and half thickness of paper. (Your about $30 table-top
paper trimmer will do only about 10 pages max at a time,
but is very handy and good for cardboard and cloth too.)
You can trim the edge of your book to smooth cut all the
way around (I do this before adding the cloth and
cardboard spine.) If you are real cajoling, a local print shop
would probably do it. At least one trimmed edge makes
pages in a book easier to open.
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BOOK BINDING
If you want to get into book binding as a hobby or skill, one
has to get a copy of one or several of the old-style book
binding manuals that covers all the old skills. The
illustrations help a great deal and one can pick up all sorts
of ideas to adapt to his own methods. I'd recommend
buying some books or xeroxing them if you can get them
through your library. A couple good titles are: "The
Thames and Hudson Manual of Bookbinding," Thames
and Hudson, 1978, 217 pp. and "Bookbinding - A Manual
of Techniques," by Pamela Richmond, Crowood Press,
1989, 158 pp. There are smaller hobby books, but they
usually only supply a single technique or two.
Book binding spans from a "rough carpentry" -type
practical skill all the way to a true art-form. I use the rough-
carpentry form for making practical long-lasting books and
cutting corners on price with substitute materials. In book
binding as an art form one has to search out a commercial
suppliers of special materials like line thread, cloth, glues
and special tools and jigs. Some of the substitues I've
found for these are the following:
- cover cardboard - I use 1/8" hardboard available at most
lumber yards and use a circular saw and radial arm saw to
cut it to size. The cover cardboard you can buy comes in
varying thicknesses, but the shipping cost is a killer.
Hardboard works well on smaller 5x8 books, but for 9x12
books is too heavy and cumbersome, although useable.
Also, one can laminate together more easily available
cardboard to get adequate thickness - like artist board,
and cereal box cardboard.
- Linen thread - You can use ordinary "carpet & button"
heavy guage white thread.
- Glues - Padding cement in quart containers is worth
searching out and relatively inexpensive. (dilute up to 1/3)
Elmer's glue is less expensive and diluted up to 1/3 is
good for glueing paper to covers in quarter-binding, but it
dries brittle, and can't be used for the back binding. Some
construction glues might be a substitute for padding
cement, but I haven't had to experiment yet. (There are
carpet cements and wall-paper cements for two.)
- Cloth - Buying commercial book cloth in a quantity is
worth it if you can get it, and if you use quarter-binding in
your work it will last a long time, needing only a small
amount for the spine with every binding job. Starching
cloth heavily is supposed to work relatively well (to keep
the glue from seeping through) but I haven't used it
enough to know.
- Sewing tapes and backer cloth - For the sewing tapes in
signature-sewn books, I substitue 1/2" Bias Tape, single
fold, available in any sewing and cloth department store.
Any type of light material can be used for backing cloth. I
use just white bedsheet-type cloth or even rags. Cheese-
cloth is usually used in commercial binderies, but I think it
is too light-duty to use.
- Decorative tape - at the top and bottom of the spine is a
little decorative tape that sticks over the pages of the
book. I don't know any easy way to make this, although
someone handy on a sewing machine might. It is relatively
inexpensive if you can find where to buy it. Some sort of
decorative border tape or ribbon might be a substitute.
- Tools and special supplies: All these things are
expensively available if you can find a supplier. Many you
can make yourself.
- A jig for tape-sewing signatures can be made from a
piece of 3/4 or inch plywood, some 1/2" pvc plumbing
pipe, some fittings, and some wood screws. (see photo)
- A jig for punching holes in book signatures before sewing
together, can be made from two pieces of 3/4" plywodd,
some 2x4 scraps, wood screws, a piece of angle-iron and
a drill. (see photo) Put a "stop" on the end of the V-shaped
pieces of plywood and mark on an appropriate piece of
angle-iron where to drill holes for the punch to pass
through to punch holes in the signature below it, for what
size paper and number of tapes for the binding you are
making. (I made two jigs for larger and smaller books.) To
make a punch, I used a large sewing needle (about 3-4"),
drill a small hole in a block of wood, just slightly larger than
the diameter of the needle. Then press wood glue or
Elmer's into the hole, run a short piece of thread through
the needle and smear it with glue. Press the needle into
the hole on a hard surface, glue and all. Let dry, and the
bond is relatively permanent.
- To glue the backing cloth on your book you need a press
to hold it in place or compress it while the glue is drying. I
make these (2 sizes for big and little books) out of 2
pieces of 3/4" plywood, some 5 inch 3/8" carriage bolts,
and the appropriate wing nuts, nuts, and washers. (see
photo) They are also easier to use if there are a couple of
springs place on the inner carriage bolts to separate the 2
pieces of plywood. I made these springs from some stiff
wire, by winding the wire around a 1 1/2" pipe in a vise
and then cutting the wire off. Heavy foam rubber might
work.
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- Most conventional printer paper you can buy today is
acid-free paper (good for a hundred years, compared to
the old paper used that would fall apart in 40 or 50 years.)
It is a "long-grained" paper, which indicates how the paper
is manufactured and along which axis the paper easily
bends - like the grain of wood, it will easily split or bend
with the grain, but not against the grain. The orientation of
this grain makes all the difference in the world of how
easily a book opens and stays open when you are reading
it - something even many of commercial paper salesmen
are ignorant of. (One asked me once "What difference
does it make!?") One has to use paper for the size of the
book so that the pages will open with the grain (which
means using and cutting long-grain 11" x 17" paper
sometimes.) If in doubt about the grain of a paper, you can
wet an edge with your finger, and the paper will curl or cup
along the direction of the grain.
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- One method I used for binding paperback books which
produces a very strong binding, was drilling many holes
along the spine and shooting hot-glue in. I made a jig of a
piece of hardboard for drilling holes along the back of the
spine, used a hammer to flatten the small bulge that would
result over each hole drilled, and then shoot glue in with a
hot-glue gun. A folded piece of end paper was then glued
in and over the glue holes to cover them, and a pre-folded
and titled piece of cardstock over that for the cover.
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Experiment! to find your own methods!
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