vince’s ear

I think I have a new addiction. The other day I posted a method of “perfect binding” a paperback book using minimal tools and materials, and a printer. I highly recommend trying this if you love books and/or if you love crafty projects. But I must warn, you’ll get hooked…

I ran into Project Gutenberg about a year ago. I’ve found so many free books I’d like to read, but didn’t really feel like sitting in front of a computer to read them, especially the long ones. I also happen to be cheap so I either get a book at a library, or not at all. $24 for a paperback? Forget about it. But now I can make my own books for less than $3, and it only takes about 20 to 30 minutes.

Here is a picture of the jig I made, in case you want to make one yourself. Except for the 2 bolts, everything was found around the house:

I wanted to share with you some links. The first is the DIY Book-binding site. On it, I watched a video (below) which not only made the project look easy, but convinced me it actually was. The guy went through these easy steps and in no time came up with a beautifully bound paperback book, which got me onto the project right away.

In case anybody out there isn’t into the paperback idea, I also ran into a bunch of sites with detailed instructions on how to make a nice hard-bound book. These books, when finished, really show how you can make more of an art than a craft out of these book-making projects, and really are great looking. You can bind them any which way you want and put some of your personality into them with decorate cover papers or jacket designs all the way down to the type of paper you use.

Here is a list of some of these hard-back book-making sites I found to be useful:

davethedesigner.net

briansawyer.net

papierdesign.de

A slide-show demonstration

A huge list of book-binding websites

And the most invaluable video I’ve seen on the subject:

Most book binders see their craft as a labor of love, an activity to which you can’t really put a price. Reading some “how to” articles it becomes clear why: to make a hard-bound book, one must go through a long list of difficult and cumbersome steps, each of which seem to need a good amount of skill before it accomplished, or well at any rate.

I had other intentions. What I wanted was a physical book to hold in my hands and I wanted it now. Sewing classes, making laundry lists of materials, and mind-boggling directions were not part of the itinerary.  So I quickly learned how to put together a “perfect-bound” paperback book, and I just as quickly made one.

The Plan

There is no shortage of book-binding sites on the internet, but like I said earlier, some are hard to follow, include unnecessary steps, and the directions may appear downright cryptic at times. By far the best resource I’ve found is diybookbinding.com.

You may have several reasons for wanting to make your own book:

• You’d love to read a bunch of free public domain classics, but don’t want to sit and read them off your computer. Thousands of great books can be found at projectgutenberg.com, ready for you to convert into real book form.
• You’d like to make a nice journal with some style. Design your cover how you’d like, print out ruled paper patterns, or even set a day-planner or dated diary entries.
• You have plans of self-publishing your book, collection of stories, or articles, and don’t want to pay Print-On-Demand publishers over $7 + shipping, when you could easily make your own for less than $2.
• Give personalized books complete with illustrations or photographs, or even classics or your own written poetry as gifts.
• You’re a crafty or DIY-type person, and just want to make some notebooks, journals, or photo-albums from scratch.

Materials

Now if I wanted to pay $15 for materials to make each book, I may as well either buy it from a book-store, or if it is my own writing I’d send it to lulu.com or something. So the plan is to spend as little money as possible.

• The most expensive tool you need may be the paper cutter. If you don’t have access or don’t want to spend the $20-$50 for one, you can get by with an X-acto knife and a metal ruler. My cutter is an X-acto 12″ guillotine which costs about $47. The cost is a lot up front but at least I have it to use for years to come. Check Amazon.com for some $19.99 cutters.
• Paper- you can use cheap newsprint or any kind of printer paper.
• The cover- pick up some cover-stock 11″ x 17″, or any size that is at least 8.5″ x 12.”
• Glue – Superglue 5 minute epoxy sets in 5 minutes and works perfectly. You can find this for about $3- $4. You can use contact cement, or maybe even regular white glue.
• Any inkjet printer.
• A press. In the picture above you’ll see I took two pieces of scrap wood and drilled two holes for bolts with wing nuts. If you don’t have the wood, you might get by with some clamps.

The material list seems like a lot of money at first. But just think of how many books you can make from just one trip to the store. The tools like the cutter, knife, press and printer you may already have and can be used for years. The cost of materials for one book: about $2.

Making The Book

1. The first thing you need to do is print the pages. With my HP Photosmart printer, there is the option to print a “booklet.” This arranged the pages for you and will make one big booklet which would normally be folded in half. If you have a PDF writer or reader (you can download CutePDF reader for free), you can do the same thing. The point is to have 4 book pages printed on one sheet of printer paper, which you would cut in half to make each leaf of the book.

Just open your document and leave it alone, without re-ordering any pages. Hit print and find preferences, options, or properties. Hopefully, you’ll be able to find an option such as this:

With my printer, the odd pages print out first, then I put that stack in, press “continue” and then the even pages print out. It couldn’t be easier.

2. Once all the pages are printed, cut each in half and stack in order. It pays to include page numbers in your document.

3. Print the cover. Most printers have options of choosing page size. In my case, I only wanted the front cover to print so I made my graphic upside down, with no borders, and printed on the card-stock which was previously cut to fit the printer. It came out oriented to be the cover of a “left-edge” book.

4. Put the cover on the book “block.” Take the stack of ordered pages and put together with the cover in the right direction. Score the part where the cover meets the book, so you can fold it. Place both the cover and the block in the press and tighten it. You’ll want the spine edge exposed and a little higher than the edges of the press.

5. Now you’re ready to glue the spine. Mix the epoxy, and brush it on the spine. Take the rest of the cover and fold over to press the spine together with the cover. Wait 5 minutes, then remove the book from the press. Now all you need to do is score the other side of the cover, fold it, and cut the excess off the ends of the book.

So that’s it. It may seem intimidating reading the instructions, but once you try it you realize how much of a cinch it really is.

Making a cast of an object such as a sculpture is easy as long as you have the right materials. It took some product testing and trial and error but I do believe I’ve found some decent mold making and casting supplies.

Hobbies, Crafts, or Small Business

There are any number of reasons you may want to make a mold of something: you may simply want a copy of a keepsake; a duplicate of a tool or other useful object; some molds for soap, candle, or candy making, or you may have another crafty purpose such as making chess sets, as was the reason for my pursuit. Many people sell their handmade crafts on sites such as Etsy.com.

I started sculpting as well as turning chess pieces a little while back when I got my mini lathe (Turning Chess Pieces 101). As an amateur turner I can turn a decent piece and even duplicate one fairly close to the original, but chess pieces can’t be close; they need to be exact. So I needed to find a way to cast the original many times over for accurate copies. This would also make it easier in the long run- I’d only need to make 6 pieces on the lathe.

Finding The Perfect Material

Like an engineer, I needed to find the best and least expensive material for the project. Other factors are considered such as time and effort, re-usability, and difficulty. As you can see in the pic above I went through a fair amount of products to find the right stuff, and it was by no means cheap. But you have to crack a few eggs…

I rated the materials from 1 to 5 stars for several categories: 1 being the worst, as in a “1″ for time means it takes a long time, a “5″ for difficulty level means it’s easy, etc.

The Casts

1. Permastone- By and large this is the material I was most pleased with. This is a stone-like plaster which mixes with water 3:1 and dries quickly to give you a smooth, heavy cast which retains minute detail.

Quality: *****

Re-usability: ****; nice and durable finished product

Difficulty level: *****

Time: ***; 1-2 minutes mix, about 15-20 minutes for a solid cast

Price: ****; About $5 for 28 oz. box

2. Castin’ Craft Casting Resin- Ack! Don’t get any on your hands, this stuff is beyond sticky. You have to mix a catalyst just right or the resin won’t cure properly. It took three days before it even began hardening. In the end, the clear plastic finished product has potential- a good substitute for glass chess pieces, but using this resin doesn’t seem practical.

Quality: ***; the piece doesn’t look too bad

Re-usability: ***; solid and durable, but a week later the bottom is still sticky

Difficulty level: **; the stickiness and the mixing make it difficult to work with

Time: *

Price: **; Something like $12 to $15 for 16 oz., catalyst sold separately for some reason (?)

The Molds

1. Castin’ Craft Mold Builder- Very nice liquid latex mold builder, good for making molds of small, detailed objects, preferably flat, but not suited for my purposes here. The liquid is brushed on (no mixing reguired), and captures the finest detail. Depending on the size of the original, many layers may need to be applied. I made a cast of penny with the Permastone- every detail was preserved and the cast popped right out.

Quality: ****

Re-usability: ***; if only a few layers were applied, the latex is fairly flimsy and warps a little

Difficulty: *****; only setback is the washing of the brush in between each coat

Time: ***; each layer must dry completely before applying another. This may take some time if it’s a large object and needs 10 + coats

Price: ****; About $7, enough latex for many small molds.

3. Alumilite Quick Set Silicone- Now here’s where I need to make a managerial decision. Is the excellent quality of the mold worth the 4 hour wait? Silicone is the main material I sought on my shopping quest, I even bought some silicone caulking tubes to try out later as a cheap alternative. A catalyst is needed to mix, but isn’t very difficult, and this one comes with measuring cups which is a major plus (I had to weigh the casting resin earlier). One thing is for sure- the mold itself is probably the most durable, so even if it takes 4 hours at first, I should be able to get many uses out of each mold.

Quality: *****

Re-usability: *****

Difficulty: ***

Time: **

Price: *; $35 for 14 oz., just enough for a couple molds.

4. Webster Group 3D Gel- I certainly found treasure with this one, hidden amongst the little kiddie clays and molds. I think I have a winner: it was $4 for this packet (1 large mold and one small mold, $15 for a larger container), it took about 2 minutes to mix and2 minutes to completely harden (need to work fast), and the quality of the mold seems about the same as the Alumilite silicone- should be able to get many molds out of this. Plus, all I had to do is mix 3/4 cup of water.

[Update: Unfortunately after about a week, the mold dried up, reduced in size about 1/3, and became brittle. Looks like this is a great one time mold, but nothing more.]

Quality: *****

Re-usability: *

Difficulty: *****

Time: *****

Price: ****; $15 container ought to yield a decent amount of molds

5. Amazing Mold Putty- Another treasure found in the kids section. It shows a baby on the front so the store must have thought babies are supposed to play with it. But they didn’t notice the picture actually shows a mold being made from the baby’s hand. Very professional product, and very easy- 2 tubes of A and B, mix equal parts, knead until uniform, then embed an object, sets in 20- 25 minutes. When hardened, it made an excellent and durable mold. The only problem was a crease which came when I wrapped the putty around the chess piece. Instructions didn’t say youcould wrap, but I think I can find a way around this.

Quality: ****; we’ll see if the creases persist

Re-usability: *****

Difficulty: ****; 4 stars only because it is super durable, and for my purposes harder to make the cut line to get the piece out. Depending on how you look at this, the extra good quality makes up for it.

Time: ****

Price: ****

6. Instamold is made by the same people as Permastone. It is mixed with either 1 to 1 powder and water for a strong mold, 1 to 2 for average, and 1 to 3 for a weak mold. It appears that the 1 to 3 may save money, stretching the amount of molds possible from one box. I used the 1 to 2 average mix. I don’t know if it was because of the mix ratio, but this material was extremely bubbly. Luckily, only one minor defect resulted on the piece, which was easily sanded away. The set time for this was very quick- about 10- 15 minutes. However, while easy to cut away the original, it ripped a little.

Quality: ****; made a good piece, a little weary of the bubbles though

Re-usability: *; When I opened it up, it tore, and while I could be a little more careful, I’m doubtful the mold can be used more than a few times. [Update: After about a week, the mold dries up and shrinks.]

Difficulty: *****; easy mix, easy set, easy release

Time: *****

Price: *****

7. Sculpey, and generic modeling clay- Before I went shopping for the real mold supplies, I made a mold of a chess piece with Sculpey clay. This clay never hardens until you bake it, so is ideal for making a cheap one-time mold, which you can demolish and use for any other clay sculpting. The material is very pliable so makes for easy original removal, but difficulty in resealing the mold for the pour. In the end, an interesting duplicate is made, but nothing that can be sellable. A first attempt at chess piece mold making.

I also tried some modeling clay just in case I can make the absolute cheapest option work in any reasonable way. As I imagined the molds did not capture any real detail and crumbled the first time I removed them after the cast was dry. The clay molds of the smallest pawn pieces (about 3/4″ tall) actually turned out better than the Sculpey ones, which utterly failed beyond recognition.

Quality: **

Re-usability: *

Difficulty: *****

Time: *****

Price: *** for Sculpey, ***** for Modeling clay

The Results

 [From left to right: Instamold small queen, 3D Gel rook and pawn, Amazing Mold Putty bishop and pawn, Pawn made from Clear Casting Resin set in Sculpey, 2 small pawns set in modeling clay, 2 small pawns set in Sculpey, 2 large pawns set in Sculpey]

After this trial and error I have no reason to look for a further casting material: Permastone duplicates every detail, makes a heavy chess piece, and can be mixed with paint and other debris for effects. Some of the smaller ones in the picture above have been swirled with magenta watercolor paint for a “marble” look.

The Amazing mold putty is a very good product. However, the nature of the 3 dimensional chess pieces probably requires something which can be poured over the pieces. I will attempt to perfect the wrapping of the putty- aside from the crease it does make a good duplicate, and the mold seems to be infinitely re-usable.

In the end, the Alumilite 2-part silicone is the winner. The 3D Gel would have been great if only the mold lasted. If you only need to make a single duplicate, I’d recommend the 3D Gel, but if you need a mold which will last, the silicone is the best bet.

Every now and again this blog strays just a tad off the path of fine arts such as painting and art history, to more of an arts and crafts topic meant for artisans. Many of you might appreciate this, as I notice many artists have eclectic interests and try to get their hands on all kinds of creative projects.

That’s exactly what I sought to do with my new wood-turning hobby. I got myself a nice little mini lathe and I expect to turn chess set after chess set in all kinds of styles. I always wanted to get my hands dirty with carpentry but never really had the means. With wood turning I won’t be making any old mail boxes, but rather I’d be embarking on an artistic journey where I can really use my creativity.

It started when I carved my Alice In Wonderland chess set out of clay not too long ago. The combination of the Alice themed chess set and a rekindling of an interest in the game drove me to set up a chess website called Blitzqueen.com (blitz is a really fast game of chess, and the queen is the most powerful piece). That’s Arthur Rackham’s Red Queen in the logo above.

So far the site has a history of chess page, a “how to play” page, and a work in progress “strategy” page which seems to be getting pretty popular already. I’m working on either borrowing or (God willing) writing some java to include examples of historical games that you can navigate through. Eventually I’ll get some freeware up so visitors can play online, or download a program.

The ultimate goal, however, is to supply as many styles of chess sets people can purchase cheaply for themselves or as gifts. I plan on carving more themed sets like the Alice set, as well as some classical medieval sets such as the Lewis pieces of ancient Scotland, and military sets such as Napoleonic, American Civil War, etc.