/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Hmm, that post was longer than I thought it would be.

>TL:DR
>Any tips on making a hollow book? Also ways to cut through alot of paper quickly?

>>335852

use white glue (elmers) or something, stack heavy shit on it, and let it dry for a WEEK or more. when paper etc is that thick, it takes forever for the moisture to escape.

as an experienced maker of things, and a teacher of tech at a uni, i'd say the biggest mistake new people make is time. things take longer to make than you'd expect.

plus mistakes are completely normal, even experts fuck up all the time ("expert" means, really knowign how to fuck up with minimal side effects!)

YOu cant wait too long, but you sure can not wait enough.

also, cutting out the sheets will take time. even if there is a better way, doign it manually, slowly is fine. a lot of 'making' is understanding the behavior of materials, it sure requires a brain but it's not an intellectual problem.

>>335854
Hmm... I totally get what you're saying, but I only have a few days to do this. Plus my hand cutting is sloppy, I was thinking I could use a heated blade or something, to speed things up.

I used a exacto knife to carve out all the pages one by one then I used a gluestick around the borders of each cut out page (and the bottom of the book with the borders of the last page). Obviously this took several hours but it worked out great.

>>335863
Just throw it in the fire. Or better yet get a chainsaw.
Its either cutting through it one by one with a blade or just not fucking doing it. Listen to that dude he knows his shit.

The only quick way I could see doing it would be to glue it up, with some spacers on the first page so you don't glue it to the cover. Then put it in a vice to keep it flat. You'll also squeeze out the excess, which could help your drying time a little.

If you're really pressed for time, put a heat lamp near it and a fan blowing hot dry air at it.

When it's all glue'd up, take a router to it to remove the interior material (No idea if this would work.)

>>335872
Haha, alright better get started tonight then. And yeah I actually do consider using an old handheld polisher to kind of saw through the paper with a sharpish blade.

What about cutting downs ways with a dremel? We have a paper drill press at work (printer /graphic designer here), but that thing wouldn't work unless you didn't care what the interior edges looked like.

>>335877
So thats what those things are called. Yeah I have one I could use. I can test it on the first book to see how it looks I guess.

>>335863

>speed things up

this is precisely what i mean by 'takes time'. you cannot generally 'speed things up' unless you know what the job is, and how to do it, first!

maybe let it dry for two days, or a day minimum. if the glue is not dry you're just gonna fuck it up over and over, and so, you are taking the time to do it right.

or find a better glue, etc. but one way or another, making physical things alwasy takes time.

>>335912
Roger that. I have the edges glued and am letting it sit now. I'll give a day and a half before cutting even if that will only give me a day and a night to do the cutting.

>>335852

I did it and it worked fine. Pretty much followed this graphic >>335940
or one very similar. My only problem is that I watered the glue down too much. Still works but the paper doesn't stick together as well as it should.

>>335863
>heated blade
It's paper, not butter.

Niggas always trying to make this shit harder than it needs to be. I'll introduce you to two very simple method of making a false book
(1)
>Take hard cover off of book
>Go to flea market or thrift store and buy a VHS with a hard plastic case
>Paint plastic case white
>Glue hard cover over plastic case
BOOM! Literally like two minutes of work
(2)
>Fold hard cover back or remove completely
>Put rulers on the edges and clamp the pages shut (try to get clamps with a very wide jaw)
>At this point you can pretty much use just about any cutting implement the cut out the pages. If you have the clamps tight enough you shouldnt have to worry about ruining your pages
>(alternative) set it on fire. Fire needs circulated air to burn. If you use the wide jaw clamps like I recommended and metal rulers and have them clamped as hard as possible it should only burn out the center and leave the edges intact since air can't circulate around the pages where they are clamped
>glue cover back on if applicable
Boom. Simple as that. If you have the supplies already then you should be able to make one of these in a matter of minutes.

>>335852
When I worked at kinkos when we would drill pages to make things have binder holes, we would use slow steady speeds, clamp things before gluing, and waxed out drill bits liberally. If I were to try and do it quickly I would try it that way. removing the cover and reattach later would be the way I would go.

>>335940
This is the exact guide I followed a few years ago. Can you guess which the hollow'd is?
Sorry for crap quality.

>>336037
It's Edgar Allen Poe. It's ALWAYS Edgar Allen Poe

>>336038
Nope. 2 out of 3?

>>336039
If it was me I'd have glued all the smaller blue books together and made one very large hollow book

Close enough. I didn't have the shorter blue books at the time though but would have been a good idea actually. But keep in mind I wanted to avoid suspicion so glued the blue notebooks what were just sat there for years unused.

Inside. You can tell I got a bit impatient towards the end.

Is it really necessary to glue to the pages? How difficult would cutting the pages be if the rest weren't glued?

Well it's been about 20 hours... I'm really itching to start removing pages.

>>336037
I'd NEVER ruin a Poe's book for this o_O

>>335940
I also followed this, and I found it pretty simple. Also, I glued some canvas on mine, looks fancy.