I have had quite a couple of requests for A5 sized books in the last time. Up until now, I measured the size on each sheet of paper, and cut accordingly. That takes an awful amount of time. So this weekend I finally made something to facilitate this work. The dark horizontal lines are slits in the board, where I can pass the bonefolder to score a line, fold, and then cut as usual with my paper knife.
Im letzten halben Jahr hatte ich eine ganze Reihe Anfragen für Bücher im Format A5. Es ist ja kein Geheimnis, dass ich die A-Formate nicht so super finde; wer hier schon länger liest, erinnert sich vielleicht ein meine damals etwas sehr starken Worte dagegen. Aber natürlich mache ich sowas, wenn ich danach gefragt werde. Problem ist nur: Mein Papier hat nicht A-Format. Das heißt, ich muss es immer zuschneiden. Bisher habe ich jeden Bogen einzeln abgemessen und mit einem Cutter von Hand zugeschnitten. Mit diesem neuen Hilfsmittel geht das jetzt hoffentlich schneller: Die dunklen horizontalen Linien sind Schlitze in der Pappe, in denen das Falzbein läuft. So kann ich einzelne Bögen falzen, und dann normal mit meinem Papiermesser zuschneiden, ohne -zigmal 197mm Breite Abmessen zu müssen. So, dann werde ich das jetzt gleich mal ausprobieren…
Edit in response to questions:
The spaces between the lines are adjusted to what I needed. So the first line is after the height of A5, the second height of A4, the third the height of A3. Each time measured from the edge of the top frame. This allows me to measure and cut pieces of paper that give me book pages sized A5 or A4. But really you don’t have to take these measurements, do whatever suits you. Maybe make sure they are not too close to each other because then you would loose stability.
I chose the make the slit 2 or 3mm wide (don’t remember clearly). I just tried out what size I needed so that my bonefolder can run smoothly there. If I was to do it again, I would maybe take a mm more, but this will depend on your bonefolder, so you have to try that yourself.
The slits don’t run all the way through the board – it is still connected on the left hand side. If I was to do it again, I would also leave the board connected on the right hand side. I cut several strips of the same board 3cm wide (but that was just arbitrary, any number works as long as is is even) and put them down with simple double sided tape as a frame. I made sure that the upper left corner is square, I didn’t care about the upper right corner. The strip on the right hand is anyway only there to increase stability.
I didn’t do anything special to get it straight. I just measured carefully.
At last I added strips of clear tape all the way around the frame to make sure a sheet of paper doesn’t slip under the board there.
Working with it yesterday turned out good, by the way. As I said above, if I was to do it again, I might make the slits a little wide, but it works as it is: First put down the sheet of paper, and line it up well with the upper frame. Sometimes the sheets are not delivered square, you can see that it doesn’t necessarily fit will into the corner – the top is more important at this point.
When scoring, you need to make sure that the paper doesn’t slip and twist away. To this end I placed a long ruler near the slit over the paper, and used one hand to press down the paper near where the bonefolder was passing.
I hope that answers all questions. I’ll be happy to answer more.
We would love to see how you made the score board. How about wrting a turorial? Please.
Hi Gayle, thank you for your comment. I am glad you like it!
I don’t think there is a need for a tutorial, though. – You already have a photo with the description of the most essential part: You will need a slit in the board which serves as a guide for the bonefolder. What more information do you need to make one yourself?
Perhaps Gayle is wondering what distance you used between the boards, if you made it with binder’s board, what you used to glue the boards down, how you made sure the lines are even and evenly spaced… ? Yours really does look a lot neater than what a lot of us could accomplish by playing around with pieces of board! I’m also curious what material you used for what looks like perfectly measured sides for a jig as well. It really is a fine looking bit of homemade equipment.
I’ve thought about doing something like this for years, but wondered if it would really work. Yours looks so very nice and useful! I think I will have to give this more thought.
Ah, I see. I added the answers to your questions to the post above, thanks for being more specific. I think it is only really worth the work if you are going to use it more than once. Now next I will have to find out, how long it stays in usable condition to say whether it was worth the time and effort.
Ah, and whether it is binder’s board: It is the board that I use for covers. I am not sure that it is the same that you call binder’s board, though. There seem to be many different types of board, with many different names for them in English. I only ever were able get buy this board, which is called “Graupappe” which would translate to “grey board”. But whether it is the same that you call greyboard, I don’t know.
Thanks for the detailed explanation! I think binder’s board and grey board are very similar, or the same. My binder’s board might be slightly less dense, but the same idea.