The Communist Laser-Cut Dual Bookbinding Jig by electronrancher

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

True glastnost, my comrades! Basement publishing for all your derisive works!
All joking aside, the internet is amazing for archiving old, out of copyright pdfs. But nothing beats sitting down with a real physical book, so I decided to start binding my own.
I call this jig the communist bookbinding jig because all your books are going to look pretty much the same - sharp, square, spartan little beaters that can be read and read, folded and abused with wild abandon - hey, you can always crank out another copy!
The jig is 2-sided and sized for US paper: The first side aligns a full 8.5 x 11 sheet, the other side aligns a half-sheet (8.5 x 5.5). Adobe reader is great at paginating your pdf (booklet mode) so half-sheets can be easily chopped and stacked and your pages end up in the right order.
This jig is cut from 6mm Baltic Birch plywood, and requires two each of 4" x 1/4" carriage bolts, washers, and wingnuts for the clamps, and wood glue to assemble. The length of the carriage bolts is negotiable if you plan to make thinner or thicker books. Each side will hold a max of about 400 or so pages, giving up to an 800 page book when printed double sided.
I use this jig for binding printed pdf's, as well as compiling volumes of kid art into nice manageable archives for later reminiscence. We're probably up to volume 5 or 6 of kid art, we just can't bear to throw it away!!
As far as assembly goes: Check out the pdf first - the green shapes go on the bottom side (half-size jig) and the black shapes are the top side (full size jig). Some extra green pieces are added to the periphery to act as a stable platform when using the top side, and the top-side box acts as a vertical stand to keep everything upright as the glue dries.
There is one clamp bar each for top and bottom so you can really crank the binding down tight. You will note the bottom clamp bar has square cutouts to fit the carriage bolt head.
The instructions for binding are simple: Square up your pages in the jig, and gently tighten the clamp bars to bring the pages together. Thoroughly paint the spine with the glue of your choosing, wait 10 minutes to let it soak a bit and then crank the clamps down tight to form the spine. Leave it sit until dry, and add a cover.
With regards to binding: I've gotten good results with Aileen's Tacky glue, as well as strong but ugly/foamy/lumpy results from gorilla glue. And you'll notice I use both blue tape and plastic wrap to keep from gluing my book to the jig - consider it!
There is a wealth of information and opinions on bookbinding easily available online - I'm certainly no expert. You'll find lots of discussions on glues, cover options, to all sorts of techniques. Search and enjoy your foray into home publishing!