Spent 6 hours trying to fix a spine that just wouldn't curve right

I was working on a 500 page hardcover rebind of an old textbook last weekend. The whole thing went smooth until I got to casing in the text block. I glued up the spine and put it in the press but when I took it out the curvature was all wrong, it was flat as a board. I thought maybe I didn't use enough glue or the mull was too thin. After messing with it for like 4 hours I finally realized my backing technique was the issue. I hadn't rounded the spine enough before gluing because I was rushing. Another 2 hours of redoing the glue and pressing it properly got it looking good. Has anyone else had a spine that just refused to curve and figured out a trick that saved them time?

2 comments

2 Comments

rayy836d agoMost Upvoted

Man that sounds frustrating but honestly I gotta ask was it really 6 hours or more like 3 hours with a lot of standing around staring at it. I mean I've messed up spines before too but usually I just walk away for a day and come back fresh. The whole backing thing is definitely where most people go wrong though. I always tell people to really hammer those shoulders in before even thinking about glue. But 4 hours of messing with a glue up sounds like you were overthinking it. Sometimes a book just needs a good press and some patience not a whole redo.

emmam326d ago

Wait, are you talking about rounding or backing? Because you said "hammer those shoulders in" which is actually backing, but then you mentioned glue up before backing which is backwards. You definitely should not be shaping shoulders on a spine that hasn't been glued and rounded first, that's just asking for the signatures to shift around. The whole point of backing is to create that joint after the spine is already rounded and the glue is holding everything in place. I've seen people try to rush the order and end up with a completely lopsided book that won't even sit flat. The six hours thing, yeah I get what you mean about it feeling longer than it actually is, but sometimes if you're learning or trying a new technique every little step takes forever especially when you're checking everything twice.