Found a cheap way to fix my rounded spine problem

I had this issue where the spines on my hardcovers kept coming out rounded instead of flat, no matter how tight I cranked my press. After like 15 tries with different pressures, I just started using a stack of heavy dictionaries on top of the book overnight. That extra weight sitting there for 8 hours actually got the spine to lay flat. Has anyone else tried something dumb like that instead of buying a real finishing press?

2 comments

2 Comments

robert2751mo ago

Wait, are you telling me it was that SIMPLE the whole time? I spent like two weeks torturing myself with different clamp setups and even broke one of my cheap presses trying to get the spine flat. Then one night I just set a 40-pound bag of birdseed on top of my book and left it on the kitchen counter. Next morning the spine was PERFECT. I felt so stupid for overthinking it. My dad used to stack old encyclopedias on his books too, guess the old timers knew something we forgot.

sean5021mo ago

Birdseed is the new book press, apparently.