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DAE notice people use way too much glue when doing spine repairs?
I see it all the time in restoration groups. Someone posts a photo of a broken spine and there's glue dripping everywhere. I messed up my first repair on an old textbook from 1988 by using too much PVA. It seeped into the hinge and made the pages stick together permanently. Less really is more when you're working with book cloth and loose bindings. Has anyone else ruined a project by overdoing the adhesive?
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the_sarah18d ago
You really think people use too much glue? I've seen someone slather PVA all over a split spine like it was frosting on a cake. That stuff drips into everything and ruins the hinge action forever. I did the same thing on a 1970s sci-fi paperback and now it opens like it's made of cardboard. Just a thin layer along the broken part is all you need, seriously.
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the_sarah is totally right about that frosting comparison, I cringed just reading it because I've been there too. My first real repair was a beat up copy of a 1980s fantasy novel and I globbed the PVA on like I was sealing a leaky pipe. It took me forever to realize the damage was done, the pages were all crinkly and stuck together near the spine and I couldn't undo it. I still get a little nervous now every time I pick up a glue bottle, I always have to remind myself that a thin line along the crack is plenty. It's honestly a mistake almost everyone makes at least once, but it's frustrating when you can't take it back.
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