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    JacobCoffinMakes’s blog

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      10th Bookbinding Project - The Space Between Dreams

      JacobCoffinMakes · Friday, 6 September - 01:20 edit · 1 minute · 4 visibility

    I've finished my tenth book! I've made four hardcovers, and now six softcovers. This one is slightly different from the others in that I designed the cover from scratch:

    The Space Between Dreams is an odd one to recommend. It's a cult classic with, I think, a very small cult, only available on the Internet Archive as far as I know.

    It's a lot. I read it right around the time I first moved to the city and I think it managed to capture a lot of what amazed me about the place. It's extremely high energy, it's weird, it's great, it's probably problematic, and it's weird. A friend (who would know) was confident it was written with the assistance of hallucinogens (which, considering how much of a role they play in the plot, was probably obvious).

    The philosophical stuff is fascinating, the worldbuilding choices even more so. The characters are great. I find myself hesitant to recommend it, yet I think about it often and reread it every few years. And I very much wanted a physical copy to exist.

    I've mostly covered the process for softcover bookbinding here. I ran the pdf through this tool and printed it out. Then I followed the Penrose Press Pretty Perfect Paperback guide and printed the cover on canvas using a color plotter printer. I cut it out with an Xacto knife, pre-creased it, and glued it to the book block.

    I've finally got the oversizing for the covers figured out (8.6x5.6"), and just had to adjust the last project's cover for the thicker spine on this book. Overall I'm pleased with the results:

    You can get the files I used for this project (intended to be printed on 8.5x11" letter paper) over here.

    #bookbinding #diy

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      Hardcover Bookbinding and Laser Etching the Bookcloth

      JacobCoffinMakes · Monday, 26 August - 19:33 · 8 minutes · 4 visibility

    This is basically my most traditional bookbinding project. I used regular fabric cloth for the cover, and followed the traditional steps. The interesting (to me) change is the use of a CO2 laser cutter to mark the fabric. Here's the steps to making it:

    I think it's fair to say that this book is extremely rare. The author has told me that the one physical copy I've made is the only one in the world, aside from an 'ugly stapled proof [he has] in a drawer somewhere.' The book was released on patreon as serialized fiction, with each of the six sections being made available as early drafts to a certain tier. The plan was that he'd put them up briefly, take them down again, then compile the drafts and eventually release a full published version. For life-happened reasons, the last step never got done (though the author was kind enough to repost the six sections on a discord channel when I asked).

    Just the same, it was one of my all-time favorite stories, so if it wasn't likely to end up somewhere I could buy it, I was at least going to make a copy of my own.

    So I took the six pdfs and started editing them using whichever online tools seemed like they'd do the best job. I started by cropping the files so they'd fit the correct aspect ratio for 8.5x11" letter paper folded in half, but started getting fancier as I went. I removed pages of bonus content from the back of each one so it'd flow better as a book. I merged them all together into one file (to reduce the number of mid-book blank pages from turning it into folio signatures). I even added a second set of page numbers to the bottom because the ones in the top right restarted in every section. I manually added some blank pages front and back.

    By the time I was done, I had something to feed into https://momijizukamori.github.io/bookbinder-js/

    I used that to create letter page folio signatures (with sets of 4 and 3 pages per signature). Now I had something I could actually print. We did so on a regular office photocoppier, and I can't recommend printing each signature separately and organizing them with paperclips enough. I would have lost my mind trying to sort them otherwise).

    We start off the actual bookbinding in a pretty familiar way, taking each signature, folding each page of it in half with the bone folder, nesting them, and adding that signature to the stack.

    Then I used my template from the previous bookbinding project to punch holes through each signature. One really nice thing about not having to trim whitespace from my pages is that the overall page size (and thus most dimensions of the cover except the spine) will remain the same no matter what is printed on the page or which printer I use. So I can reuse things like this template.

    Here's my template with its measurements in case you want to reference it:

    Eventually this left a nice stack of signatures ready to sew together:

    As before, I sewed it together using waxed thread, following the Penrose Press Pretty Perfect Paperback Guide. I know there are a bunch of ways to do this, but I quite like this technique.

    The next step is to clamp and glue the bookblock together. My clamp is pretty crude, it's just a 2x4' screwed to a piece of particleboard, with a couple ragged sheets of wax paper keeping the book from gluing to the clamp.

    The goal is to get it as tightly pressed as possible while keeping the book block nice and square.

    I didn't take a picture of this step for this project, so here's one from the last book. Note how the signatures are jumbled along the edge. I've gotten much better about lining them up recently.

    I usually use my finger to work the glue into the gaps these days, it's faster and makes less mess than the brush. I think it gets into the gaps better too. I do three coats of glue on the spine. For hardcovers like this one, I then glue on a strip of mull or cheesecloth which is a couple inches wider than the spine on either side (front to back), and like an inch or so shorter than the top of the spine (heightwise).

    Then I glue on a strip of watercolor paper (it's supposed to be manila paper but I don't have that).

    Now it's time to start on the actual cover. I size the bookboard so it'll overlap the book block by 3mm on the top, bottom, and open edge. You're supposed to make it 3mm wider for that overhang, but then remove 6mm for the hinge by the spine (so that's actually -3mm) but I haven't had good luck with that, the open edge always seemed too close to the book block, so I just leave it the same width as the book block and slide it out 6mm. Somehow that works.

    To get the spine width, you're supposed to measure the spine of the book plus one thickness of bookboard, but my spines often come out a bit thicker than the rest of the book so I'm sure about that guidance either.

    That's the basic layout but I wanted the color to be darker. I was reusing fabric I bought for a halloween costume, but I was picturing more of a maroon color. I didn't want to buy new cloth when I had a bunch on hand I wasn't using, so I decided to dye this piece.

    I started off trying to use some very old, expired, dark roast, decaf coffee, but the cloth just wouldn't take the stain, likely due to not being natural fibers. So instead I switched to using some old rit dye I had. I took lots of pictures for the coffee and almost none for the rit dye, so just pretend it's slightly blacker and in a different pot. And that I'm using a stick instead of a wooden spoon.

    The nice thing is the rit dye isn't really going to go bad, so I just poured it from the old pot I used (we stopped cooking with it because the nonstick lining had started to flake) into an old jug. I've actually reused it since and it worked fine!

    After a lot of hassle, the rit dye finally made the difference.

    I ironed the cloth to smooth it out:

    And glued the bookboard down onto it. Make sure the gaps between the spine and the front and back is 6mm and that they're square/in line with one another.

    The next step is to trim 45s off the corners (leave one bookboard's thickness between the corner of the bookboard and the cut edge) and to clean up the edges.

    Then I applied glue to the bookcloth and bookboard and wrapped each edge over:

    My attempts at this look kinda crude, but you don't really see this once the endpapers are glued on, so it doesn't bother me yet. Someday I'll probably look back on it and wonder why I thought this was good enough, but for now, it works just fine.

    (You might notice that I glued the cut-off triangles to a scrap of bookboard, that'll come into play later)

    When you apply glue to the endpapers they'll kind of liquify a little and stretch, so trim a couple mm off the leading/open edge. It'll look better.

    Okay, final assembly. This is where it all comes together or goes horribly wrong.

    To do this you place the bookblock inside the cover and get it positioned how you want it. Open up the cover again, slide a piece of wax paper and a piece of scrap paper in between the topmost endpaper and whatever's underneath it. Make sure the scrap paper is on top.

    Get your brush soaked with glue and then dab it on some scrap until its not really soaking where it hits. Use little vertical jabbing motions (Psycho style) to stipple the top paper so its completely glued. Apply glue under the mull/cheesecloth, then put the cloth in place, then apply glue on top of that.

    When there's a good layer of glue everywhere take a deep breath and close the cover onto the page. Open it just a crack, look for wrinkles and smooth them out as best you can. If you open it too far the paper will pull away from the cover.

    When you think you've got it as good as it's going to get, remove the scrap paper but leave the wax paper. Close the book, put something heavy on it, and hope for the best.

    When its dry, flip it over and repeat the whole process.

    We've now hit all the usual steps (except the end ribbon thing but I don't see the point of that). I was honestly very pleased with the results.

    But lets get fancy with it. I had some time on the CO2 laser cutter at my local makerspace, and I'd seen online that people had managed to etch bookcloth, so I wanted to try finishing things that way.

    We started with some tests, on very low power and working our way up. We weren't sure how well the poly-blend fabric would handle the laser, or what kind of damage it would cause.

    We started with the settings for printer paper (95 speed, 10% power) and worked up by 5% increments, finding that the quality improved each time.

    Once that was done, I banged out a quick cover layout by measuring the book, drawing a vector rectangle in those dimensions, and positioning the raster title in the middle.

    We ran it with the lid open (runs as a test with just a visible dot) and made sure the rectangle followed the edges of the book.

    I had to prop the cover open a little so it'd be more level (I used one of the little connector things we use to pin warped things to the work surface). Then it was just a matter of hoping for the best and rerunning the file with the lid closed.

    It was kinda high stakes but I'm very pleased with how it tuned out.

    #diy #bookbinding #lasercutter #etching

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      Bookbinding Resources

      JacobCoffinMakes · Thursday, 22 August - 13:13 edit · 2 minutes · 4 visibility

    I've been working on a few more books. I've moved mostly to making hardcopy versions of some of my favorite extremely-self-published novels, some of which were only available briefly as serialized fiction on a blog, a pdf on the internet archive, or a series of PDF drafts on a paywalled patreon.

    These are much easier in a few ways: The lack of images and backgrounds means the files are much smaller, and the lack of backgrounds means I don't have to trim the pages to make up for a lack of whitespace. This means the actual book size is more consistent, because the final page size isn't dependent on which printer we use. That makes making the covers easier.

    The downside is that the files are generally 8.5x11" PDFs, and I'm making the signatures by folding 8.5x11" letter paper in half, which changes the aspect ratio (I now have more appreciation for the A-series paper they use over in Europe).

    All these novels are available online in one form or another at this point, so I feel safe providing the printable bind-your-own-book version to anyone whose interested. I'll keep adding print-ready files to this folder as I go, but basically, if you see any books I make and think, 'I'd like one of those' then this is where you can get them.

    I'm doing this partly because these books are fairly rare in any form, but especially in the long-lasting paper format (I think only one exists at all for one of them) and I really like them and want them to exist long into the future.

    So: what do you need?

    A bunch of 8.5x11" paper (or in the case of the Fully Automated rulebook, 11x17")

    Bookbinding tools: An awl, bone folder, waxed thread, needle, PVA glue, a surface to work on. If you're making the FA! rulebook, you'll need a cutting board and razor knife. For hardcovers you'll need stiff cardboard and fabric, for softcovers some kind of large stiff, paperback-cover-style paper to print on, or canvas if you're lucky enough to have access to a color plotter printer.

    I use this template for punching the holes in the 8.5x11" folio signatures (but almost any layout will work as long as you apply it consistently):

    These files: https://mega.nz/folder/uMdGxIoS#u7QDqzdvSzuPq-AUpNTdCQ

    This guide: https://www.penrosepress.ca/blogs/nerd-time/nerd-time-with-brianna-pretty-perfect-paperback-binding

    If you want to make your own, this is my favorite tool for turning PDF files into printed signatures: https://momijizukamori.github.io/bookbinder-js/

    If you want to do hardcovers you'll want a guide for making them out of bookboard (stiff cardboard) and fabric, but they're fairly common. I've been following the instructions from a book but the stuff you need to know to make the covers is split up into different sections which you're supposed to do in order to build your knowledge step by step and that makes it annoying to reference.

    I've found various online PDF resizing tools to be useful in getting the files prepped for turning into signatures, but make sure you don't care who has access to your file if you use them, as there's no way to know what they'll do with their copy of anything you give them.

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      A Quick Paperback Bookbinding Project

      JacobCoffinMakes · Wednesday, 24 July - 01:30 edit · 4 minutes · 6 visibility

    One more bookbinding project.

    It looks like one of the advantages of this hobby is suddenly being able to get physical copies of books that aren't available as anything other than PDF ebooks. I've got a handfull of favorite books from various authors which were extremely self-published, sometimes as serial fiction later edited into a PDF. One or two eventually got a limited print run, or the author made it available on a Print-On-Demand site, but at this point, I think I've found and bought all of those. That leaves a few that I'm very happy to finally be able to hold in my hands while I read them.

    Vatsy and Bruno was one of those. Written in 2010 by Adam "Rutskarn" DeCamp, and published on the old version of https://www.chocolatehammer.org/ , Vatsy and Bruno is a high-strung, noire, dark-comedy-adventure story set in a radio-era city under the thumb of vague oppression. It's a fun story, and one that feels like it should be typewritten on paper (preferably cheap, grubby, fish-stained paper with some suspiciously blood-like smears).

    Making this one actually took a bit more prep work on the files.

    I started with the PDF DeCamp released on his website over a decade ago. This, unfortunately, wasn't really sized or laid out for bookbinding (re. the wide margins, the page size, and all the page numbers being on the right side of the page). I could get really fancy with editing this, but it's just for me, so "good enough done quick" was the order of the day.

    I wanted to print this with no extra trimming, so I planned to use 8.5x11 paper folded in half. Unfortunately, the PDF was, itself, scaled for 8.5x11" paper, and when you fold that in half, the aspect ratio changes. So when I fed the PDF into the tool I use for interposing the pages it stretched it vertically quite a bit. It was also showing some fairly large margins, which was unfortunate as those came from the original file. So keeping things "good enough" I threw it into an online PDF cropping tool, cropped it closer to what I'd need, and let it stretch the file a little.

    I spent a good bit more time on the cover.

    The original covers were also the wrong aspect ratio, but they had almost everything I needed.

    I used them and a cover from one of the three sections the story was originally released in, to bash this together:

    The cover, spine, text, and back cover were all made from DeCamp's own art, just re-arranged to fit this aspect ratio. From there, I followed the same process as before, but with much faster prints (no giant backgrounds) and no trimming the pages (no giant backgrounds) so that part was easy.

    Fold, punch, sew, glue:

    I took each signature (stack of four pages meant to fold together) and folded each page in half with the bone folder, being careful to make sure I knew which side was 'in'. Then I nested them together.

    I made a guide to lay out the six holes in each signature, and used it to punch holes through the fold with the awl. Then I sewed them together following the Penrose Press Pretty Perfect Paperback Guide:

    Once the book block was all tied together nice and neat, I clamped it and glued it with three coats of acid-free PVA glue.

    My book clamping station certainly looks ragged enough to do the title characters proud.

    While it was drying, I swung by the makerspace and printed the cover. I need to remember to oversize these by a few millimeters, because the first one is always a little small. Ah well, maybe I'll find someone with a bookbinder's guillotine someday.

    I folded the cover and glued in the book block just like with the previous project.

    I find it easiest to attach the cover in three steps, back, spine, front, but I'm sure real bookbinders have better systems. I start with a flat smear of glue down the inside of the back cover, right beside the bound edge and to set the book block down on it. Then I glue the spine with the book upright (this time I tried on top of the bone folder, which has a similar shape). Then I glue the front cover. I squirted some acid-free fabric glue down the spine and used a paperclip to work it further down, to where it hadn't stuck, and then held it in place by hand for a bit to get a closer fit. I like this stuff, it bonds well and it seems to set much faster than the PVA. This time I also used it to glue the bound edge of the front of the book block to the inside of the cover too, so we'll see how that works out.

    The results:

    Cover size aside, I'm pretty pleased with it. If ever there was a book to glue into its cover the wrong way around, this would be it, but I got that right this time. I'm glad to be able to read it properly, and to finally be able to put it on my shelf.

    Edit: I got the cover size right on the second attempt:

    It looks like around 8.6x5.6" is the dimensions you want for the front and back covers, spine height 8.6" and whatever width you need maybe plus a little.

    I also found that gluing the back, then coating the inside of the spine (on the book block and the cover) in glue and just holding it for half an hour, pressing on all the low spots, to make sure it's as tight a fit as possible, works the best for the spine. After that, the front cover is easy. Just add a line of glue along the edge, get it positioned good, and put a weight on it.

    #DIY #bookbinding

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      Bookbinding Continued: Trying Canvas Softcovers

      JacobCoffinMakes · Monday, 22 July - 19:34 · 3 minutes

    Hardcovers are cool, but I actually prefer paperback books for regular use, so the next few copies of the Fully Automated! rulebook I made were softcovers, with the canvas cloth (printed on with a plotter printer) for their covers. Since I documented the hardcovers, I thought I'd write up the process for binding the softcovers too.

    The first steps are all the same, because I was following the same Penrose Press Pretty Perfect Paperback guide. This meant I was still printing, trimming, folding, sewing, and gluing a book block with folded signatures.

    I used the same interposed PDF I made using this site. There's no way I could keep track of the page order on my own. But this time we found a different print setting that scaled the pages down a little, but lined them up better on the paper so I didn't have to remove as much from where they didn't overlap. I liked this, along with the slightly smaller page size. The interposed files are available on the FA! website, in case you want to make your own copy.

    I ended up printing two sets of pages on 11x17" tabloid paper, which was a good fit for the 8.5x11 pdf pages. I'm a bit jealous of the A-series paper sizes now that I've worked on another, smaller paperback, and found that the aspect ratio changes every time you fold these sheets.

    There are 266 pages in the rulebook. 4 pages fit on each sheet, but each sheet needs at least 4 cuts, more if I mess up, plus endpapers. So each stack took at least 270 cuts to trim. Paperbacks without backgrounds are a little easier, but if you have access to free color printing...

    As with the hardcover, I folded each page with the bone folder, nested them together in their signatures, punched holes through the fold with the awl, and when I had all the signatures done, I sewed them together:

    Then I clamped the book block into my crude book clamp and painted on three coats of glue:

    This time we skip the mull/cheesecloth, and watercolor paper, and go right to the cover. We also don't have to take the time to fabricate the cover since it's just cut out from the printed canvas.

    All done. Though I did take some time to carefully fold the corners with the bone folder. I also made sure to keep a piece of scrap paper between the canvas and the bone folder so it didn't polish up that edge and make it shiny.

    I found it easiest to attach the cover in three steps, back, spine, front, but I'm sure real bookbinders have better systems. That said, my next step was to put a flat smear of glue down the inside of the back cover, right beside the bound edge and to set the book block down on it.

    Once that was dry, I got a good layer of glue on the inside of the spine:

    I also smeared some on to the spine of the book block to help them find each other.

    The spine is kinda funny shaped - the threads stick out a bit, leaving spots that might not get good contact. Sometimes the spine bows out in the middle a little. I needed the spine to have good contact with the cover while it dried, and my answer to this was to set it up on end, on a fluffy carpet, which generally pushed the cover up into those recesses pretty nicely.

    If that picture isn't clear, the book is on end between two boxes, so the spine is on the carpet. Ideally you don't want to glue the book to the carpet.

    Then I glued the cover to the front of the book block:

    Be sure to work fast so it doesn't wrinkle like this. I don't usually stop to take photos when I'm staining, urethaning, or gluing stuff, but that gets the gist of it anyways.

    Once it was attached, I squirted a little acid-free fabric glue into the gap between the spine and the cover where it hadn't quite stuck, and held it by hand until it was glued together. I'm pretty pleased with the results:

    Of course, I also have to include a dire warning at the end. Make absolutely sure you glue the book block in the right way. Don't flip it over while handling it and forget. For one of these books ended in tragedy:

    This is the first page. I glued it in upside down.

    Of course, it still works fine, and it'll get put to use with the rest, it just makes the person reading from it look a little silly.

    #diy #bookbinding #TTRPG

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      Bookbinding the Fully Automated! Rulebook

      JacobCoffinMakes · Tuesday, 2 July - 18:16 edit · 6 minutes · 3 visibility

    I recently started trying to learn bookbinding (and because I never liked practicing by making something I didn't need, I'm starting with a 266-page solarpunk TTRPG rulebook I helped make).

    I joined the Fully Automated discord a while back, mostly because I was looking for a place to talk worldbuilding in the genre. I read the lore/setting part of the rulebook and it actually helped me start thinking bigger than I had been around ways the world could be better. If there's a solarpunk timeline from our modern day, through conflicts and crumbles and collapses, gradually rebuilding towards something eutopian, then they're much closer to that high-tech, post-scarcity end-state than the solarpunk stuff I normally write. But there's something kind of fascinating about that world, and it makes for a great place to tell stories.

    I offered them the use of the art I'd already made, and then I got involved in writing and editing the lore, including contributing a couple sections around rural areas and reuse, which, true to form, they expanded into something bigger than I had come up with on my own.

    Since the game is an open source, all-volunteers thing, we didn't do a print run, just released a series of PDFs. But I have free access to a printer that can do 11x17, a plotter printer that can print on canvas, my SO's unused bookbinding kit, and enough patience to learn to bind at least a few copies, so I decided to give it a try.

    The first step was rearranging the pages into signatures. These are small pamphlets of folded papers that get sewn and glued together to form the book. This turned out to be way easier to do than I expected, as there are several online tools for interposing PDFs. I found and really like this one: https://momijizukamori.github.io/bookbinder-js/

    This allowed me to take the regular letter-sized (8.5"x11") PDF and rearrange it into signatures of four or five 11"x17" pages, with two pages per side. It handled reordering the pages so they work correctly once the signature is folded together and stacked with the others. We also took these interposed files and made them available on the FA! website.

    Once I had the interposed version, I could print off the signatures:

    I really recommend printing each signature separately so you can paperclip them together and keep careful track of which pages are inside it. It's really, really easy to completely lose the plot on the numbering - I almost couldn't figure out how to put a four-page signature back in order once or twice, if it had been mixed with other ones I'd have been really confused. But it's easy as long as you keep them in their sets and remember which side is up (because its the only sheet/side where two page numbers show in order).

    The free printer I had access to couldn't print without leaving a margin so I had to trim them by hand. I started off using a papercutter on the short sides, but eventually switched to using a straightedge and scalpel on all the sides.

    The next step was folding the signatures folio-style using a bone folder:

    And then punching holes so I could sew them together. Some guides have you sew each signature separately, then sew those together, but the one I followed (and recommend) does them all at once.

    The folded piece of paper is a template marked and punched so all the holes in all the signatures line up as closely as possible.

    Next, I sewed it together using the Penrose Press guide, being careful to pull the threat as tight as I could before tying it off on each signature. I really like how secure this seems to make the binding.

    Even if you tie it tight though, it'll still have some gaps. That's were clamping and gluing it helps! The guides I followed suggested just stacking books for weight at this part, but I went ahead and built a really ugly book press with a piece of scrap particleboard, scrap 2"x4", some wax paper, and a couple deck screws. I pre-drilled the holes, wrapped the boards in the wax paper, and screwed them together so the book block could be clamped between them:

    That's when scope-creep hit and I switched plans from making this first copy a softcover book to making a hardcover.

    I followed my SO's bookbinding book, and this guide for the spine, and added a section of cheesecloth (in place of mull, which I didn't have) and manila paper in roughly the dimensions they specified. These help hold the spine together and attach it to the cover (called the case).

    Next, I roped the Fully Automated folks into making a back cover for me, and I put together a printable version with a spine and everything. I took a lot of measurements, made my best guess, then went to our local makerspace to print it on their plotter printer:

    It's slightly large but I'm happy with it!

    The next steps came pretty much entirely from this guide.

    I cut some bookboard (stiff cardboard) to size, and did my best to line it up with the image showing through the canvas. Once I had them in place, I traced them lightly onto the back of the canvas in pencil, held it up to the light to see if it was good, and made corrections until I had good lines. Then I measured out to the edges of the sheet and trimmed it down:

    Then I glued the bookboard to the canvas:

    I forgot to take some pictures for the next step (sorry) so you'll have to rely on my descriptions. First I cut the corners off the cover at a 45 degree angle 1/8" out from the corner of the bookboard. I used a carpenter's square to mark the angle. Then I folded the sheets over the bookboard and glued them.

    Then it was time to glue the book block into the case. This happened fast enough that I didn't dare stop to take pictures. I slipped some wax paper between the endpaper (a blank sheet I included on front and back when I used the interposing software) and the rest of the book block. Then I painted it with glue as quickly as possible, being careful to first glue the cheesecloth to the paper, then painted it over with glue as well. Then I carefully closed the cover onto the sheet. The endpaper was just about a liquid at that point, despite how lightly I stippled on the glue, so I'm glad I didn't have to try to make changes. I flipped it, and let it dry for awhile.

    Then I repeated those steps on the other side and left a heavy laptop sitting on it.

    Its always tense waiting while the glue dries on a project, hoping its not clamped crooked, or the glue isn't running and sticking to something it shouldn't. Especially when you're combining the end result of two other projects. Luckily this one turned out mostly okay:

    I can see where the endpapers stretched (just like one guide said they would) causing them to reach further towards the fore-edge than I'd have liked. But it generally looks pretty smooth and clean so I'm not very bothered by that.

    All in all, I think not bad for my first bookbinding project!

    #bookbinding #diy #solarpunk #book

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      Mountain Bike to Cargo Bike - Step 1: Rear Cargo Rack

      JacobCoffinMakes · Thursday, 13 June - 22:46 edit · 5 minutes

    I posted to the slrpnk.net utility cycling community a little while back looking for advice on turning my old steel-framed mountain bike into something I could use to haul groceries and maybe some bits of furniture I find on trash day.

    I got a ton of helpful suggestions, and started out on what I think will be a gradual project as I make incremental improvements to this bicycle.

    Step 1 was adding a rear rack, so I could add cargo panniers, or a basket behind the seat.

    I settled on this one because I liked the extra support legs, and because it claimed to be able to support more weight than most other designs (something I remain skeptical about, but I'm pleased with the overall construction so far).

    I did find that the right side seat stay was too crowded for two of the wraparound attachments to fit, so I'd need to use the built-in attachment point just above the rear gear.

    Unfortunately, the lower support rod segment was too short to reach the attachment bolt. But that was fixable - the rod was just a length of 3/8 steel round stock with a flattened section where it bolted to the wraparound attachment bracket. It would be pretty easy to make one of my own.

    I started by buying some 3/8” steel rod and a fresh can of propane for my offbrand bernzomatic torch (on two trips, one by train, one by bike because I didn’t realize the old one was empty till I tried to use it).

    (Test fitting the 3/8 rod into the upper section of the telescoping rear post)

    Then I got some of my old forging tools together. Without a proper forge or anvil, I knew it’d be pretty sloppy blacksmithing, but I didn’t need this to be particularly fancy.

    From left to right: 3/8ths steel round stock, fireplace glove, a steel block I found on the side of the road (my anvil, at the moment), my favorite forging hammer (combination round peen and straight peen), offbrand bernzomatic torch, lighter because I couldn't find my striker, and a face shield because you should wear safety goggles while forging (and this was easier to find)

    I didn’t take any pictures while working because I didn’t want to waste additional fuel. Basically I just heated the end up as much as I could without a way to contain the heat, and hammered the daylights out of it whenever it seemed to be as hot as it’d get. It was halfway closer to cold forging than proper blacksmithing but I managed to spread the end of the rod flat enough to drill a hole through safely.

    I used the drill press, a metal-drilling bit, and a bunch of tap oil, and went through the center of the piece without any real difficulty.

    Once the hole was positioned, I used the grinder to clean up the overall shape of the forged part a little. Like the old wisdom says: a grinder and paint makes me the welder (or blacksmith) I ain’t.

    (Top: the new one. Bottom: the original/stock part)

    I decided to go much longer than necessary, which I suppose adds a little weight, but also some strength as we’re not relying on as much of the hollow tube it attaches to for structural support.

    Once it was cleaned up and the oil removed, I spraypainted it. It would have been easy to go with Gloss Black to match the rest of the bike rack (I had a can of it handy) but I decided to paint it blue. I’d just put some work into making this part custom, and I’m working on rethinking if my goal needs to be to make something look like a product in the first place. For now I don’t mind calling a little attention to it.

    Plus, the bike never looked great, which works great for me. One of my relatives found it rusting in a sandpit, gave it to me my first job away from home, and I’ve replaced piece after piece back when it was my sole means of transportation. For quite awhile it was held together with zip ties and various kinds of tape (and featured a fender made from cut-up gatorade bottles and duct tape) and the overall look meant it wasn’t exactly a high priority target for theft.

    I gave the paint the full 24 hours to dry, then assembled the last bit of the rack.

    Looking decent!

    I have some panniers a relative gave me to hang over the rack if I can ever figure out how these straps work, but I wanted to see if it would work with a big steel basket I got out of a dumpster awhile back.

    Turns out it was ridable, though heavier than I'm used to. Cargo would likely make it even more tippy, though maybe not more so than those child seats I've seen around? Just the same, I suspect if “bicycle pickup truck” was a good idea, more people would be doing it so I took it off.

    I just didn’t trust the attachment system on the hand-me-down panniers to stay attached and not get tangled up in the rear wheel and chain. Each side had an adjustable strap with a hook, and a loop of strap sewn on. It just seems like with the flex and stretch of the cloth bags as the bike moved and bounced along, it’d be too easy for the hook to come unhooked, at which point it’d be awesome at snagging a spoke or something.

    My answer wasn't pretty, but it worked. I removed the hooks (didn't damage anything so I could put them back someday) and fastened it together with zip ties instead. When I go to buy bigger panniers someday (these are fairly small) I think I’ll want ones with buckles or something more secure but still removable.

    Edit:

    I just made my first grocery run with the cargo bike! I’ve got the rear rack shown above, some basic secondhand fabric panniers secured with straps and zip-ties, and a milk crate from a consignment shop. I went for a pretty light grocery run for the first trip, just two totes of frozen stuff, and it rode just fine on the way home.

    I think I’m going to upgrade to bucket panniers at some point soon, but I’m glad I can at least start using it like I’d planned.

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      Solitary Bee House Update

      JacobCoffinMakes · Wednesday, 12 June - 14:18 edit · 1 minute

    I posted awhile back after making a home for solitary bees, sharing that it had gotten some use. Its important to replace the sticks annually to prevent parasites from being passed from bee to bee as holes are reused.

    Thanks to some winter storms, we had lots of downed branches to clear, so I had no shortage of sticks available for use as future bee housing:

    (One pile of many)

    The holes need to be between 5" and 6" deep, so I started cutting the sticks into 6.5"-ish lengths.

    This doesn't look like much but it took a lot of eight-foot branches to make these piles.

    The next step was drilling holes. Different size bees need different diameter holes, so I read a few guides and picked out a range of drill bits between a metric #2 and a full half-inch (I don't think solitary bees care about unit standardization) to make sure any potential tenants can find a cozy caliber to call home.

    I used the drill press to start the holes then used a set of extra long metric bits in a screwgun to get the full length the bees need

    This didn't always go perfectly. I didn't break any bits, but sometimes the holes were crooked enough to punch through the side of the stick and I'd set them aside.

    Then I just had to bag up what I'd made and replace the sticks in the bee house:

    (Background omitted because it's easier than tidying the shop.)

    I'd thought I'd made enough sticks for two years, but it took almost all of them to fill the bee house. Glad I prepared as many as I did.

    I think I'd call that move-in ready.

    #diy #bees #woodworking

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      Caliper Fixup

      JacobCoffinMakes · Monday, 27 May - 21:42 · 2 minutes · 3 visibility

    I bought this set of outside calipers at a junk store in my hometown (sort of a consignment, thrift store deal, with lots of old furniture, and the contents of like half a dozen garages right down to the old jars of mismatched screws. I sort of use it like a hardware store).

    I like this design a lot, I like the lack of a spring on the jaws, and that you can fasten the little distance measuring arm to the side it measures on, so you can close the calipers around something, tighten that wing screw, then open the calipers to get them back.

    They had some surface rust, so I decided to clean them up. The first step was to disassemble them. Not difficult when there's only three pieces involved.

    I let them soak in some evaporust for about 8 hours. I really like this stuff, it hits the sweet spot between very effective and not especially dangerous, and it's reusable! They do overestimate how effective it is in their instructions though, so it often takes longer.

    The calipers, straight out of the evaporust. You can already see some text which was hidden before, along with the initials AM from a previous owner.

    Now that the worst of the rust had been dissolved, it was time to switch from chemical to mechanical cleaning. I sanded it down with 400 grit emery cloth.

    The calipers with only one side sanded.

    As I cleaned up the sides, I found a few neat bits of history:

    Here's some funny nicks up near the joint on one side. I wonder what caused them. And the previous owner's mark on the right side, AM. This is a big part of why I love old tools. I love the history they carry with them, even if I don't know all of it.

    Looking better, but still a ways to go. I was surprised to find that there weren't any markings on the little distance arm. I'd been expecting to find little angle tickmarks or something, maybe even printed numbers, but there weren't any to be seen after the evaporust, or once I started gently sanding off the remaining rust and the black crud evaporust leaves behind.

    Once I had most of the rust gone, I switched to steel wool. I didn't want to take too much material off the surfaces, and I felt the more flexible steel wool would hit inside the pitting from the rust better.

    The steel wool shined it up quite nicely. And here's a closeup of some of the surface pitting left over by the rust on the left side. The back of these calipers didn't have this kind of damage.

    It was tempting to leave it here, but I didn't want the rust to return, so I decided to treat the calipers with cold blue, to provide some protection against oxidation. There are other ways to protect steel, but I like the look and it seems to hold up well enough.

    Cold blue always looks a little rough when it first goes on (this stuff is a gel you don't want to get on your hands. You wipe it on, leave it to darken the metal for 60 seconds, and wipe it off again) but a little burnishing with 0000 steel wool will tidy it up:

    There we go, still pretty shiny, but not as likely to rust again. Not bad considering how it looked in the beginning. Hope you'd approve, AM.

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