DIY book press on a budget
A book press is an essential tool for binding and trimming DIY books and booklets, and you can build yourself a simple one in about an hour or two with a minimum amount of effort and tools.
Materials
- Two wooden panels slightly larger in dimensions than the maximum book format you'll be working with (mine were 300 × 400 × 20 mm). The denser wood is better.
- Four (or even six, for large formats) bolts (long enough to accommodate the required book thickness, plus about 4+ times the panel thickness) with the same amount of wingnuts and twice the amount of wide flat washers.
Tools
- A wood hand saw (fine teeth preferred).
- A drill with:
- a wood bit of the appropriate diameter for the bolts;
- a Forstner bit of an equal or larger diameter than the washers.
- A sheet of sandpaper.
Process
- Mark off a portion of one panel about 1.5 times the washer diameter or wider from its longer side, to be used for the legs.
- Use the Forstner1 bit to drill holes in the marked-off part deep enough to hide the bolt heads.
- Drill the pass-through holes with the wood bit.
- Saw off the legs apart.
- Use the sandpaper to smooth the rough edges of all elements.
- Stack the panels together, making sure that the smaller panel is on top and is aligned to one side of the larger panel.
- Drill through the panels, checking that the distance between the holes on both sides is enough to fit the paper format you would be using.
- Put the first set of washers onto the bolts, then insert them into the leg holes.
- Put the bolts through the panel holes, putting on the second set of washers and wingnuts.
And you are done!
Note that you can use the "shelf" of the larger panel to trim the book edges easily. This requires the upper panel's edge to be smooth and straight enough.
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