My entire rebinding project fell apart when the glue didn't set in my cold basement workshop

Spent 4 hours on a Saturday realigning the spine of a 1920s poetry collection from an estate sale in St. Paul, and then the PVA just refused to dry because it was 58 degrees down there, has anyone else had humidity or temp wreck a day's work like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

blakem825d ago

That cold workshop struggle is real. I tried using a space heater once but it dried the outer edges too fast and the inside stayed tacky, ended up with a wavy mess on a perfectly good text block. Maybe a seedling heat mat under the book press could give you consistent bottom-up heat without cooking the spine. Did you try clamping it between some boards with a tiny gap for airflow?

robinwalker5d ago

Yeah the heat mat trick works surprisingly well if you keep it low.