You want to bind your own book, or looking to press some foliage into your notebook, but the book presses out there didn't meet your needs? Let's just build one! I'll walk you through how to build one at home with few tools and basic materials that you can even do it in your apartment.
Why do you need a book press?
When it comes to bookbinding, the main purpose of a book press is to keep all your papers together and also provide enough force to handle it around without worry. Your new book will be tightly squeezed by the press to allow you to glue the spine or keep everything in place while waiting for the glue holding the book together to dry out.
You could also use a book press to straighten pictures, watercolor paintings, bookmarks, or press flowers or foliage into a notebook.
I, for one, bought a book meant as a gift, but it was just a pdf file. So I thought that printing and binding it would be a fun little project, as well as a more thoughtful gift, but I had nothing to press it with.
Why not buy one?
I found myself searching and searching for a book press large enough to fit a book printed on normal printer paper. All the book presses out there were either too small for my project - usually the area fits A5 sized books, or way too expensive. So I decided to DIY it.
There is also a great amount of satisfaction when you DIY something instead of just adding it to a shopping cart.
I do recommend that if you’re just starting with a new hobby, just try to DIY expensive stuff. Later on, when you want to pursue the hobby further, you can always invest in quality tools.
Materials
When it comes to materials, after doing some research on Amazon for the available options, I found that most cheap book presses were made out of bamboo wood. I decided to use the IKEA bamboo cutting boards as the base since they were large enough in size to fit a letter paper, as well as the cheapest option available.
Let’s look at all the press components before listing the materials required.
The materials in the picture don’t match the quantities required, so please check the list below for actual requirements.