I’ve been doing some book repair lately. Gluing up paperbacks that came apart, “tipping in” loose pages, and repairing or replacing hardcover spines. It’s usually an enjoyable thing to do. I thought that maybe one of these things might make it even more enjoyable, instead of holding up books between two bricks wrapped in paper bags. That works pretty well, but this will work better.
I’ve never seen one of these in person, but many times in photos and videos. DAS has a nice one.
As always, I didn’t do too much research or thinking before I started. I was in the workshop, got an idea, and decided to try it. If I knew that it would turn out so nice, I would have probably spent a little more time looking for better pieces of wood to use. What I used for the jaws was a manky 2×4 that I salvaged from somewhere. Lots of knots and screw holes. But how I first pictured it in my mind was more crude.
I made the jaws wide enough so a 12″ book would fit between the screws, somewhere around 17″. I made the height as much as I could squeeze out of a 2×4 after it went over the jointer and the rounded edges were removed. The angles cut on the tops were arbitrary, just eyeballed.
I made the screws from a piece of 3/8″ threaded rod and two handles that I found in my handles drawer (all sorts of handles that I’ve been amassing for years). The handles already had holes in them that fit the rod pretty well, a little loose, so I epoxied them in.
I taped the jaws together and drilled a 1/8″ hole with a long bit through both on the drill press. Then I took them apart and made the recess holes with a forstner bit. On the back of the rear jaw for the flanged threaded inserts (I don’t know what those things are called1), and on the back of the front jaw for the retainer clip (to stop the front jaw from moving). Then I taped them back together and drilled the 3/8″ holes. Those threaded inserts needed a bit bigger hole, 7/16″, I think. I found some rubber caps that fit the ends of the rods.
At this point I thought I was done. But then I got to thinking that it might be nice to get that thing up off the table and not try to balance everything on the edge of the clamped book. And in the case of small paperbacks that wouldn’t even be possible. It would have been easy to prop the press up on some bricks, but I had another idea.
I used some old stair tread cutoffs (I throw away no wood), because they were nice and thick, 1″, and made two platforms, with three heights on each. I thought that the three pieces laminated together would make the whole thing more stable as well.
I cut them to the widest that the jaws could open, which is dictated solely by the length of the screws. I can’t remember how long I made them, but long enough for any book (maybe not this one). I made the highest platform 5 1/2″, the next one 3 1/4″ and the lowest around 1 1/2″ I used a few books to figure out the sizes.
To hold the jaws in place on the platforms, I used shelf pins.
It works well. My only real complaint at the moment is that I wish I would have used hardwood. I don’t really have any at the moment, and it’s very expensive, and buying it is difficult. I rarely make a plan to build something, I just go into the shop and start when I get inspired. Having to source, then go get wood for each project would really ruin some of the joy for me. And put pressure on each decision I make as well. I make a lot of mistakes and change my mind often.
Maybe one day I’ll go crazy and buy a bunch of hardwood to mess with. Until then, it’s manky 2×4’s for me.
1) I was thinking about it, and checked after publishing. They’re called screw mount nuts. I like those much better than t-nuts or regular threaded inserts. BACK TO WHERE YOU WERE ↑