disassemble a paperback ?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by kacir

Put the book between two wooden boards, so the spine that needs to be cut out is poking out, the rest of book you want to keep is between boards. Now press the boards firmly together using several heavy-duty carpenters clamps, or series of screws, whatever.
Now remove the spine with a belt sander.
This is quick & dirty alternative to the bookbinders plow.
http://temperproductions.com/Plough/plough.html

A plough is much easier to make in a small workshop at home than a guillotine.
http://www.csparks.com/Bookbinding/L...ss/index.xhtml

Using a sander to remove the spine is a bad idea for the same reason using a saw blade is; no matter how fine the grit or fine the teeth, they will leave a friable edge that will continuously crumble, no matter how well you clean the cut edges, leaving a deposit of paper dust in the scanner that will very likely eventually ruin a scanner (found that out the hard way!). There is also the dust created during the spine removal. It is bad enough using a saw blade but it would really be horrible using a sander! Yikes!

A knife blade of some kind, be it on a guillotine, hand held, or in a plough, leaves a much smoother cut than can be obtained with an abrasive or a saw blade and, thus, will shed considerably less, if at all, depending on the quality of the paper and its age.

I was very suprised to learn book plows (or ploughs, as it used to be spelt) are still being commercially made. I'm going to keep a copy of the directions linked for making one just in case I get a feral follicle shaft up my onager and dabble in book binding again. When I played around with bookbinding in the past, I used a homemade book press (not as elegant as the one in the instructions provided here but actually more effective since the entire book could be inserted in the clamp) and, while the book was in the press with the portion to be trimmed hanging past the edges, used a large, flat gaining chisel about 2" wide as the knife edge to cut the paper. Much like a plow, I held the flat of the chisel flat against the edge of the clamp and at a slight angle from the surface of the pages to be cut and drew the chisel across the edge of the clamp, slicing off several pages per pass. It took many passes to get through an entire book and required a steady hand (something I don't have anymore in my dotage) to keep the chisel flush against the edge of the clamp, but the result was a cleaner cut than one often sees on commercially produced books. It was tiresome and time consuming, though. The chisel had to be kept razor sharp, taking care to grind and hone only on the bevel and NOT to remove any material from the flat of the chisel when sharpening.

If one has only a few books to remove the spines from, one could clamp a book between two thick boards in a vise, letting the portion to be trimmed away protrude past the edges of the boards, then use a chisel to trim away the pages. I'm guessing it would take about 10 minutes to get the book properly clamped and another 15 minutes to plough away the pages. It would take a very steady hand to keep the chisel parallel to the cut.

Ploughing used to be the only way book binders had to trim books. The technique dates back to the 15th century. Jost Amman has a wood cut of a bookbinder ploughing a book in his 16th century Book of Trades. The plough pictured is very similar to the one in the directions in the link provided.

Post Edit: I copied the book binding site for future reference, including the directions for making a plough. I would kill to have access to that guy's machine shop. Yes, I know how to operate the machinery; Daddy was a machinist, I took machine shop and welding classes in college and worked for a short while in a machine shop. I also used to be a cabinet maker.

If you click on the back button at the bottom of the plough how-to link, you will see an example of using a chisel to trim a book. The pictures and description aren't very clear but you have to use a linear slicing motion across the face of the pages being trimmed with the chisel cutting edge held a a slight angle above the face being cut (the flat is kept flush against the clamp). Also, you MUST make sure the flat of the chisel is dead flat all the way to the edge. Only the bevel should be ground and honed to sharpen it. If you take any material off the flat, the cut will gradually taper up away from the clamp. I would recommend regrinding the chisel bevel to make a longer single surface bevel. The thinner the cutting edge, the more pages you will be able to cut with each pass. They make simple hand jigs for holding chisels at the proper angle for grinding and honing. Just be careful not to overheat the chisel when grinding it. A flat grind is easier to maintain than a hollow grind.

[Valloric]

Huh. I must be the only person who does it with a vise and a chainsaw.

Seriously.



Although it's been a while since I've done it.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Valloric

Huh. I must be the only person who does it with a vise and a chainsaw.

Seriously.



Although it's been a while since I've done it.

JASON! Is it really you!?

[simplyparticular]

I have the Fujuitsu ScanSnap in this video, but I've never tried to scan a book with it. So if you don't mind the dust and you're not afraid of power tools:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M95Ob4kIak


And the knife/cutter method:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tx2JmW_p4c

And cwith a guillotine cutter with a clamp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP4NbFaYZVI

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by simplyparticular

I have the Fujuitsu ScanSnap in this video, but I've never tried to scan a book with it. So if you don't mind the dust and you're not afraid of power tools:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M95Ob4kIak


And the knife/cutter method:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tx2JmW_p4c

And cwith a guillotine cutter with a clamp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP4NbFaYZVI

The scanner in the first video appears to be the older ScanSnap 500 or 510. They have been replaced with the ScanSnap s1500. Once difference from the earlier machines is the s1500 software allows directly saving with OCR for searchable PDFs or Word docs (the scanner comes with both Adobe Acrobat and a special, ScanSnap compatible version of ABBY FineReader). OCR for either Word doc or PDF is still slow as frozen snot; overnight sounds about right for a book of the size shown. Because of the sheer number of books I have to scan, I'm only using OCR to scan tech magazines to searchable PDFs. Books I'm leaving as image only PDFs. The entire scanning process is now simpler and faster (due to the easier to use interface) with the s1500.

I'm sure you all are sick of me saying this but cutting the spine off a book with a saw is not a good idea. Safety concerns aside, no matter how fine the blade, the cut will have an edge that will be crumbly and will shed paper dust inside the scanner and will eventually ruin the scanner (been there, done that). I tried repeatedly (brushing, blowing with compressed air, vacuuming, etc. to clean up the cut edge but it just kept crumbling. The only edge fine enough to make an edge that will keep dust shedding down to an acceptable level is a knife blade of some kind.

I liked the idea for clamping the book using the WorkMate. Danged clever. I'll have to keep that tucked away in my memory banks.

One other note, never clean paper dust from a scanner with compressed or canned air (it can void the warranty; fortunately, I had read the directions first so I got mine fixed under warranty). Use a vacuum instead.

The second video shows an inexpensive alternative to using a guillotine. Although time intensive, it will do a far better job that won't eventually ruin a scanner. Removing the cover from most paperbacks will be much easier if one first heats the spine with an iron. That will loosen the hot melt glue used on most paperbacks enough the cover should be easy to pull off.

The guy in the third video had me cringing most the way through it. The guillotine he was using is exactly the same one I'm using and he is having the same problem. It is a knockoff of one made by Stack according to the current product description on Amazon who sold me the one I have (I'm waiting on a claim I just recently filed with them). The blade on the guillotine is exposed and extremely sharp (I wound up in the hospital after snagging my thumb on the blade while setting up a book for cutting). The fastest and safest way to set up a book for cutting is to use the floating fence to push the book against the lowered blade and clamp the fence down. Then raise and lock the blade and, from the side where the fence is, push the book through enough to insert a shim between the book and the fence and the book then pull the book back against the fence. The idea is to keep one's hands away far away from the raised blade. Lightly tighten the clamp and use a long handled tool of some kind to tap the spine to push the book snugly against the fence (again, keeping the hands far away from the blade). Finish tightening the clamp (it has to be very tight), then pull down the blade to cut off the spine. Leave the blade down! Release the clamp and the fence and remove the book from the fence side. The blade should always stay DOWN until just before making a cut. When moving the guillotine, tie the blade to the clamp lever to ensure the blade stays against the cutting strip.

The problem the guy was having with the guillotine (other than begging for serious injury) was the clamp is secured, among other places, to a tiny tab of metal with a threaded hole in it. The tab is too small for the stresses on it. On mine (and probably his), the screw hole blew out and the clamp now warps toward the blade mechanism, putting it in a bind. That is why it took the guy in the video all his strength to pull the handle down. I have to use same effort. It's not caused by a dull blade. I went from an easy pull to almost impossible in a span of two small books.

[NASCARaddicted]

Originally Posted by Valloric

Huh. I must be the only person who does it with a vise and a chainsaw.

Seriously.



Although it's been a while since I've done it.

Recently I also thought about using a shotgun to shoot the spine off. But the problem is that I don't have a shotgun.

[LSM]

Hi all. I followed most of the scanning discussions and especially Lady Fitzgerald's. I purchased a Scansnap and guillotine. while waiting for the guillotine to be delivered, I pulled out and started using my rotary cutter and mat from quilting. I liked it so much, I refused delivery on the guillotine when it came. The rotary cutter gives a clean edge. I use my 12" x 6" plastic ruler to hold down the section of book, and then cut off the binding. Works very well.