Took me 3 months to figure out why my book cloth was bubbling

Honestly, I kept getting these weird bubbles under my book cloth on the spine area. Tried everything, more glue, less glue, different brushes. Finally realized after trying 7 different PVA brands that my glue was drying too fast because my workshop in Minneapolis is super dry in winter. Adding 10% water to the mix fixed it completely in like 2 minutes. Has anyone else dealt with glue tack time issues based on your climate?

2 comments

2 Comments

cameron77026d ago

Those 7 different PVA brands tell me you were really hunting for answers. I'm in Arizona where it's bone dry like 8 months out of the year, and I had the same bubble nightmare on a run of 50 hardcovers last summer. I switched to Lascaux PVA because it stays open way longer than the standard stuff even before I add water. Did you notice if the bubbling was worse with certain fabric textures versus smooth ones? I swear my book cloth with a tighter weave trapped the air pockets way more than the loose woven stuff.

stella_lee26d ago

Did you ever try a thin layer of methyl cellulose underneath the PVA before you switched glues? I found that helped the most with the tight weave cloths, gives the glue a little extra time to soak in before it starts grabbing. And when you say bone dry, what kind of humidity numbers are you actually working with? Because I'm in a coastal town where we hover around 40-50% most of the year, and even that seemed to make the Lascaux behave differently than the manufacturer claims.