How to Make and Use a
DIY Book Press
By Hamish MacDonald
www.hamishmacdonald.com
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 UK: Scotland
DIY Book Press
My paperback books are made from A4 sheets cut in half (so A5 pages, folded). All the dimensions I’m
providing here are based on that and the parts that were locally available. Of course, you can adapt these
if you want to base the measurements of your press on another page size, or if you want to use other
parts.
Parts:
Two wingnuts (M6 variety)
Four washers (M6)
Two bolts (M6, 50mm)
Strip of grey board, 12.5cm wide by 2cm high (or matting
board, if that’s easier to find)
• Metal “mending plate” strip, 12.5cm wide
•
•
•
•
Two pieces of wood, 20cm long,
3.5cm wide, 4mm high.
Assembling the press:
Drill a hole on either side of the pieces of wood, 2cm in from the edge,
1.75cm from the top and bottom. (If you stack the pieces on top of each
other to drill them, your holes are more likely to line up.)
To keep the metal strips (which we will attach in a minute) from making
lines on your pages when the press is tightened, we will use grey board as
wide and as deep as the metal strip to keep the pressure even.
Line up your grey board and metal strip so the metal strip sticks above the edge of the wood. We want it
like this so you’ll be able to tighten your pages into the press and glue them, and if the glue touches
anything, it’ll be the metal, which is easier to separate the glue from and can be cleaned.
Because we’ll be using superglue to attach the metal strips, which is less forgiving
and more time-sensitive, first attach the grey board to the wood in position with
white PVA glue.
Then attach the metal strip with superglue.
Do the same with the other piece of wood, attaching a piece of grey board and a metal strip. They don’t
have to be exactly the same; your press will still work fine if they’re not.
When those are dry, you can assemble your press, using metal washers
to disperse the pressure on the wood. (I’ve superglued mine to the
surface just so they don’t slip around while I’m working.)
That’s it!
You’ve built a DIY Book Press!
Using Your DIY Book Press
The DIY Book Press is for making “perfect-bound” or “paperback” books. To do this, you’ll need:
• The material you want to print.
• Cover paper (printed, blank — whichever you choose)
• White PVA glue
• A glue-gun
• A bone folder or dull butter knife
Gather your “book block”:
• Print out your book “4-up” on A4 paper — four pages to a sheet of paper. (For
this you’ll need imposition software. To learn about this, see episode fifteen
of my podcast, DIY Book, on iTunes or hamishmacdonald.com)
• Cut your pages in half across the middle.
• Fold them and stack them.
Now you have the body of your paperback, or the “book block”.
Making the book:
Get the piece of paper you want to use for a cover. (Preferably something heavy
like card stock, and make sure it’ll be wide enough to wrap around the front,
spine, and back of your book block”.) Use a page of your book to measure the
width of the pages from the edge of the front cover, and score the cover with a
bone folder or a dull knife (or your fingernail, plastic ruler, whatever).
Fit your book block pages into your book press along with the cover, sticking the cover in so the short
edge is clamped with the pages and the long edge hangs free — in other words so you can
see the spine, because that’s where we’ll be gluing.
Tip this upside-down and tap the metal edge on your work surface, jogging the pages
around to straighten them along the sides and at the spine. You might want to lift it off
the table a little so your pages stick up from the metal strips a few millimetres, just to
make absolutely sure there’s nothing for the glue to stick to.
When you’re satisfied that the pages are nice and even, squeeze the press closed with
one hand and tighten the wingnuts as much as you can with the other, then you can let it go and finish
tightening the screws (not too much, though, as it won’t make much difference at this point and could
crack your press!).
Now stand your press up. (I made a frame for mine with a piece of wood just a bit wider than my press
for the base and two sticky-up sides to hold it, making a squared-off U shape.)
The gluing is in two steps, first sticking all the pages together so your book block is solid, then gluing the
spine of your book block to the cover.
First, brush white PVA glue along the spine of your book block. This will make sure each
sheet is held in place.
When that’s dry, heat up your glue gun and lay a few lines of
melted glue along the spine — enough to hold everything
together and fill in the gaps, but not so much that it oozes out
the sides and keeps your book from closing.
Now quickly fold the cover over the hot glue…
...Then flip your press upside-down and
push the spine into your work surface to
make the hot glue stick into any creases
of the spine, and also to get rid of any
lumps or bumps in the glue while it’s still
soft.
When the glue has cooled, take out…
...your paperback book!
About the author:
Hamish MacDonald is the author of the novels doubleZero, The Willies,
Idea in Stone, and Finitude.
He also hosts the indie publishing podcast DIY Book on iTunes, which
teaches writers how to start and finish their novel, produce it
themselves as a book, then make it available for others to buy and enjoy.
For more information about Hamish’s books and podcast, visit
hamishmacdonald.com