#bookbinding equipment

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Basic Materials

QTY 1 - Press Screw 2 - ½ pipe Mini Flanges 2 - ½ pipe 90° elbow fittings 2 - ½ pipe 4in nipples 2 - ½ pipe 6in nipples 2 - 1x½ pipe hex bushing reducer 1 - 1x1 pipe cross tee 1 - Large hardwood board at least 16"x6" 1 - Smaller hardwood board ~ 9-10" across and at least 6" wide 8 - #8x¾ flat head wood screws

Press Screw The press screw is the crank/long screw in the middle of the nipping press. As of this writing, the most affordable press screws are the one by Pony Jorgenson or the one by ShopFox. For just a little bit more, McMaster Carr sells a beautiful stainless steel hole mount screw clamp from Taiwan.

½ pipe parts These form the bones of this book press. Pipe fittings are designed to be resistant to water pressure and are easy to assemble. You can find some at your local hardware store (cheaper) or order on Amazon. You have the option to use basic black carbon steel pipe or go fancier by using stainless steel. This will likely run you between $40-$65.

Wood & Screws You'll want a hardwood (like Oak, Birch, Walnut, etc.) not a softwood (pine or basswood) for this project to prevent warping. A strong plywood such as baltic birch may work as well. Most hardware stores will cut wood to size for you. The screws are for attaching the pipe to the wood--but, depending on how you want to engineer the press, you could also use bolts.

Additional Supplies

Sandpaper in various grades

Sealant for the pipes (especially if you use pipe that sheds carbon, so you don't stain your books. I used clear coat, you can look into shellac and other finishes that work for you.)

Wood Finish (I used tung oil, you have so many options)

Screwdriver, Hand Drill, or Electric drill

Mallet (if you want to pound the lead screw into the cross pipe

Epoxy to glue the lead screw into the cross, or to affix the base of the screw to the wood.

Optional Upgrades

Use a hole saw to drill through the wood and a forstner bit the size of the flange to run the flange through the wood from the bottom. That way, pressure isn't put on the wood screws and the press will last longer.

Use Rub N' Buff to decorate the press

Use longer nipples, such as 8" or 10" nipples, instead of the 6" to get more daylight.

This press is sized for fanfic binders, but if you want a bigger one you can size up the pipes.

If you can afford thicker wood, especially for the base, you may want to opt for 8/4 wood instead of 4/4 wood.

The punch cradle and sewing frame are from plywood. 3/4″ I think. (I bought it last year and then procrastinated a long time.) Had a slight hiccup when I glued the triangle supports to the punch cradle wrong and had to break them off to reglue, but I think they came out ok. Also not too bad considering I had to hand saw everything. The only power saw I had available was one of those circular saws you hold in your hands and without an actual workbench to clamp the boards to, it ended up being a safety hazard to try. The long cuts on those two pieces are not perfectly straight. Just didn’t happen. But mostly they are Pretty Close and also close enough for their intended purposes. I did use a miter box to try to get the angles correct on the triangle pieces.

The lying presses I cut entirely in the miter box to try ensure 90 degree angles. When I first bought the wood for the press, I got the stuff in the back, the rounded edge, full of knots, lower grade pine. I was trying to save a bit of money and had already spent quite a lot on a hobby that I ended up waiting an entire year before pursuing any further. As I started trying to work on this stuff again this year, I saw some truly lovely squared edge pine boards at the local hardware store and grabbed them. They ended up being more expensive than I thought because they were in the wrong slot (right size slot, better grade than the slot they were in, so I didn’t realize it immediately). But really do love them.  Bled on one of them a little bit when I accidentally hit my cuticle with my steel carpenter’s square as I marked the cut lines. Tried to fix that with baking soda and vinegar (mostly worked), and ended up with some discoloration from the vinegar. Also ended up knocking a dent into one of the boards which would have been fine but when it came time to put them together I forgot to have that side be the non-visible side.

I think that the lying presses look pretty nice. Did not do a nearly good enough job of making sure the support foots were square with the stretch board when those were screwed and glued, which means both of them have one of the vertical posts that is a little iffy and wobbly. Did double the number of screws that were used in each spot for more support.  Shout out to Mr Den for doing the drilling of holes, countersinking, and screwing in of things. Power tools are not my friends. Note to those who might try this at home, yes do countersink the holes for the screws where it says. No, even in pine the wood screws will not countersink themselves enough to lay flat if you don’t.

The lying presses should absolutely only be made with the nice square edge boards since a big part of what they are for is to do things to the edges of books. But I already had the lower grade stuff, so I went ahead and made the second one because why not.

Definitely a few things on those I would change if I make another in the future, but I think they look pretty nice.

I stained all the pieces with a miniwax stain that claimed to be red mahogany color. It seems much darker and much browner than advertised (especially in person, the photos lighten and redden a bit). Next time I might go for more of an oak color or something even though I like the deep red wood colors, that only matters if that’s the color I end up with. Also, any places that the wood glue squished out and I wiped up did not pick up nearly as much stain as the rest of the boards. Just a note. Then I used a spray varnish over them, which was difficult because it’s just not getting to low enough temps right now to actually be in the range that is optimal to do that, but I got up at 8 am and did my best. I also put some felt on the bottom of the punch cradle and the sewing frame for surface protection purposes.

Overall, I think the punch cradle will work as well as any such thing could, except possibly the ones that just cover the crease and I still might try one of those if I can get my 3d printer to work again. I don’t see a reason why the sewing frame wouldn’t work, even with the taller threaded rods because I couldn’t be bothered to cut them down instead of just buying two 12″ rods.

And I hope that the lying presses will work for backing, etc, general book squishing needs. I may have to make another of those at some point, but we’ll see how it goes when they squish something other than old paperbacks that I put in them so they could practice squishing.