Hi all,
I wasnt exactly sure where to post this, but i guess they are replicas after a fashion so here it goes.
Randomly searching google I found a site that shows how to do your own book binding so I gave it a go and took plenty of pictures.
Looking for a weekend project, for my first effort I downloaded the B-25 .pdf manual from this site, printed it out and well... I'll let the pictures show the rest.
Got a piece of MDF for about $20 from the local hardware and sized it up to the paper i used to print out the manual, you will need to leave a bit of space to the top and sides.
Here you can see the main parts of the book press, the largest piece is the base, the two short pieces are guides to ensure you have a
"square" book, the longest piece is to compress the pages together.
Here you can see the guides screwed into place, and me figuring out the positioning for the press.
The finished book press, note the wing nuts for ease of compressing the pages.
Now the cover, I used light card for this as its a bit sturdier than paper, its cut to exactly the height of the paper, but very much longer.
Lightly score the card along the exact width of your paper
I placed a blank sheet of paper in the front and back of my book, gather all your pages and make sure they are all exactly square, i found it easier to place them in the press and bang the sides lightly against the desk to get them perfect. Place your cover in the jig, place your pages in the jig ensuring the "spine" is under the press. The scored part of the cover should be face up and aligned with the pages. Tighten the wing nuts until there is enough pressure for the pages to not fall out when you lift the jig.
Next you glue the spine of your book, i used normal PVA/wood working glue, you can use epoxy but you must make sure that the glue type you use is flexable when dry!
Work the glue lightly into all the pages with a toothpick or paddle pop stick, your glue choice will determine how long you have to get this right. Not sure if you can see to well in this pic but i used a little to much glue, so make sure you have something handy to remove any excess.
Finally fold the cover over and press it firmly onto the spine of your book, wipe away any excess glue that spills out from each end of the spine.
The surface tension of the glue should be enough to hold the cover in place while the glue dries, if your worried about it just place something heavyish on the spine while the glue dries.
After the glue is dry remove your book from the jig and gently score along the inside of the spine for the final fold.
Cut off the excess cover
And your done, your new replica aircraft manual is complete!
All up this took me about 3 hours, from making the jig and waiting for the glue to dry to the finished book.
I'd be interested to see the results if anyone else gives this a shot!
John.