book press

I love to make books. Its sorta a hobby for me. Plus being a graphic designer Its fun to design them too. While most of the materials for book binding are pretty inexpensive, book presses, sewing frames, and the plough however are not. While I was reading some older books that are out of print now for many decades, I decided I would make my own book press, but I wouldn't just stop there. I would make an all in one press. My press would be a press, a sewing frame and a plough guide.
 
First off strength was important to me. I made sure to choose a hard wood to make my press. You can use pine but it bends too much for my liking. I decided on using Birch plywood and popular. Keep in mind I have already made this press and I will try to show step my step pictures if I can.
 
Materials:

• 3 pieces of 12" by 24", 1/2" thick birch plywood. (I got mine at a local art store, but most craft stores should probably carry it too. You can buy a whole sheet of birch plywood and cut it down, it is cheaper this way.)
• 2" by 2" peice of popular or other hard wood measureing 2' in length.
• 2 peices of 1/2" by 1 popular measuring 1' in length
• binders, davy or thick chip board. I use this just as a mat on the press, I want something that is both strong enough to handle a lot of abuse but cheap enough I can replace it. Self healing mats are too expensive to use for this.
• 2 bolts that measure 1/2" in diameter and are 6" long. Hardened steel should be use for the strength.
• 2 peices of 1' long 1/2" diameter threaded rod.  make sure it has the same thread count as the bolts and it is made of hardened steel too.
• 4 bolts that match the thread count for the bolts/rods.
• 4 wing nuts that also match the thread of the bolts/rods
• 8 large washers. also made of hardened steel.
• 2- 1/2" PVC couplers.
• Small peice of wood dowel. something like 1/4" thick and about 2' in length.
• 1" wide wood chisel. I am not using this to build my press but it will be part of the plough.

Tools

• Clamps
• Drill with a bit a little larger than 1/2" and another bit that is 1/4"
• Wood Glue
• possibly a saw to cut wood if you got wood that was too large.

The Press

Step 1

• Glue together 2 of the birch plywood planks using the wood glue. Clamp them together and let it dry for a few hours. I would personally wait over night to play it safe but a few hours should be good.

Step 2

• Set up the 3rd piece of plywood on top the other 2 and clamp them all together. DO NOT GLUE THEM TOGETHER. Measure 2, 1/2 inches in, on the short edge and draw a line runnign parrell to the edge. right in the middle of the line make a mark at about 6 inches. Go down to the corrner and make a mark along the line 1" form the edge. Do this for both sides. Finally drill through all 3 peices. You want the holes to all line up.

 
 
Step 3

• Remove the 3rd plank and then on the peice of popular drill a hole in the middle exactly 2-1/2" from the edge. The holes should line up the holes in the plywood.

Step 4

• Next glue the small 1/2" by 2" by 1' popular along the edge of the 2 plywood sheets that you glued together earlier. Clam them together and let them dry.

note on the left there are notches in the wood that I carved out. I made a mistake in measuring. yours should not look like that

 

Step 5

• Put the 6 inch bolts through the bottom of the press with a washer.

 

Step 6

• Cut a peice of binders / davy / chip board that is about 12" by 18". This will serve as a cutting mat

 

Step 7

• Set the 3rd piece of plywood on top through the bolts along with the poplar bar. Put 2 washers on top the the bar and finish it off with the wing nuts.

 

 

The press part of the Pernack All on One press is done. You can now start pressing books.

 

 

The Plough

Step 1

• This part is pretty easy. You need to remove the top plank and only keep the poplar bar in place.

Step 2

• What you would do is line up the pages of your book with the edge of the poplar bar. The bar acts as a guide for the chisel for the plough. Remember to keep the chisel sharp at all times.

Step 3

• The chisel will be our plough, you want to keep the flat side of the chisel against the poplar bar at all times. You will basically pull the the chisel towards you at an angle so only one corner is trimming the paper. This will prevent the chisel from pulling the paper and can causing an uneven cut. You keep pulling the chisel towards you, and with each pass the paper will be trimmed. When you are done your book with have nice even pages.

 

 

The Sewing Frame

 

Step 1

• You are going to start with just the base of the press.

Step 2

• Drill 1/4" hole in one side of the PVC coupling. You will do this for both couplings.

Step 3

• Look at the picture below, take your threaded rod, washers, nuts, wing nuts, and couplings and assemble them according to the picture.

Step 4

• Put the rods in the holes that are closest to the long edge of the press. from the understide add another washer and nut and tighten them. Make sure the holes in the couplers are facing each other.

Step 5

• Put the wood dowel into the hole on one of the couplers then slip the dowl into the hole in the other coupler. Then tighten up the wing nuts to keep it all in place.

Now the sewing frame is done. All you need to do is now is sew your book.