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Fast and Easy Hot Glue Book Binding

by MeesterTransistor on July 31, 2011

Table of Contents

Fast and Easy Hot Glue Book Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Fast and Easy Hot Glue Book Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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Intro: Fast and Easy Hot Glue Book Binding
In this Instructable I will be sharing my experiences on using hot glue as the primary adhesive in making books. I must give much credit to DIY Bookbinding 's website for
their initial inspiration in binding books.

Background (skip ahead if you just want to learn the steps!)

I became interested in bookbinding because I tend to read a lot of technical manuals in .pdf format. They tend to be several hundred pages long and are hard on the
eyes to read on the computer. I purchased a Kindle DX to read them on, which was a real pleasure, but it was still very difficult to use the books as reference books. I
finally realized I had to get the darn things in print! However, these books are not published anywhere and getting Kinkos to make them into books would cost 30-50
dollars a pop!! Ouch!

After looking into several different methods of printing and binding my own books, I recognized that most easy methods of book binding have several disadvantages.

1. They take FOREVER! I hate waiting for glue to dry.

2. The fumes make me want to pass out!!
3. They don't really work for large books (400+ pages).

So I finally started playing around with hot glue. The advantages of hot glue:

1. Fast drying
2. No fumes
3. Surprisingly strong if applied as outlined below

After ruining several good books, I finally have the technique down and I'm excited to share it with you! I hope it helps, and happy bookbinding!

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1. 300 page technical manual bound with hot glue only! 1. Iron
2. Something to put your iron on so it won't burn a hole through your floor!
3. "Bookbinding Jig" - or anything to help you square up your pages! I started off
just using a dresser drawer.
4. Clamps
5. Hot Glue sticks
6. Extension Cord
7. Very rough rounded file (sandpaper will work)
8. Paper plate for catching excess hot glue
9. Paper cutter (ruler and scissors or xacto knife will also work)
10. Pages to be bound
11. Box cutter (or xacto knife)
12. Cutting boards (also clamping boards)
13. Hot Glue Gun
14. Card Stock Paper, white and black, 8.5"x11"
15. Not shown: Rubber cement (optional)

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 Image Notes Image Notes
1. Grab your book and lets go! 1. Step 1: Plug in hot glue gun and get it ready to warm up while you ready your
pages.

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1. Putting it on a paper plate or something similar will minimize your mess. 1. I used this wooden contraption to help me square up my pages. SQUARE
PAGES ARE KEY TO A STRONG SPINE!! If your pages are uneven, your glue
won't hold.
2. Note the chopstick: This is used to allow a small section of the pages to
protrude outside the cutting board for easier gluing.

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 Image Notes
1. The key to getting the pages square is to just square a few at a time!

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1. Tap them into place as you lay them down. 1. Do the same for the bottom edge.

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1. Once all your pages are in order and square, lay the other cutting board on 1. Side view
top leaving a small gap like so.

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 Image Notes
1. Clamp down the cutting boards leaving the SPINE SIDE ACCESSIBLE FOR
THE GLUE! I've made the mistake of gluing the wrong side before - don't do
that!

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1. Leave about this much protruding. 1. Now rough up the edges of the spine real good!! Don't worry, we'll be putting
a spine cover over it, so no one will know our little secret! Roughing up the
edges allows the glue to "bite" better.

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1. You can see the difference between the roughed up spine and the untouched 1. Get the glue gun ready! You had it warming up, right? Make sure you have
top plenty of extra glue sticks handy!

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 Image Notes
1. Make sure to get the far edges thoroughly covered! Although here I went a bit
overboard. You can wipe it up while it's still hot. Be careful though -- IT'S HOT!!

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1. You want your glue to go in a zig zag pattern like this. (I added the color so 1. If you haven't done so, print out your cover page on your card stock!! You can
you could see the pattern). This maximizes strength while minimizing the also just scribble something with marker on the card stock, or use a label maker.
amount of time and the amount of glue required.

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1. Measure the width of the spine so you can cut your spine cover appropriately. 1. Now it's time to cut the spine cover.

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 Image Notes Image Notes
1. First measure off approximately one inch, and then score along the entire 1. To score I'm just dragging my chopstick along the entire length of the paper a
length of the paper few times until I have a nice little easy prefold ready to go.

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1. Next, slide the paper down a little more than the width of the spine (need to 1. Freshly cut spine cover.
leave some room for the paper to fold, you know!) Score again. Then slide the 2. One inch width
paper down one more inch and cut. 3. Spine Width
4. One inch width

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1. Prefold along the scored sections 1. Place the prefolded spine piece onto the glued spine

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1. Use your iron to melt the hot glue onto the spine piece

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1. To attach your cover, drizzle some hot glue all along the inside spine flap, 1. At this point I slide the cover on. Note that you can't see some of the glue
then slide your cover into the corner. now.
2. Sometime's I'll use rubber cement to get a better seal without burning myself!

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1. I use a cutting board to press down on the hot glue... because it's hot. 1. If you have extra unsightly glue, you can always file it off.

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1. End product - lookin good!

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Comments
1 comments Add Comment

MeesterTransistor says: Jul 31, 2011. 4:26 PM REPLY

This was my first instructable and if anyone has tips/links on formatting, would love to hear them!! Not entirely sure how to use this editor.

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