Hi all
I have a yen to (someday) build a bookbinding press. One of the
mainstays of this is of course the press screw which does the
pressing. I'm wondering where to get a large example of one of these
from. I've seen vice screws on (eg.) the Axminster website, and I'm
sure these could be turned to this purpose. They are spec'd at around
28mm diameter. If I were to decide I needed something a bit larger
than this, any idea where to find one?

(Any links to plans or ideas for building such a beast also gratefully
received)

Ta
jon N

On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:56:12 -0700, jkn wrote:

Hi all
I have a yen to (someday) build a bookbinding press. One of the
mainstays of this is of course the press screw which does the pressing.
I'm wondering where to get a large example of one of these from. I've seen
vice screws on (eg.) the Axminster website, and I'm sure these could be
turned to this purpose. They are spec'd at around 28mm diameter. If I were
to decide I needed something a bit larger than this, any idea where to
find one?

(Any links to plans or ideas for building such a beast also gratefully
received)

Ta
jon N

==================================
Most hydraulic 'bottle' jacks for cars have a screw section at the top for
fine adjustment. You might be able to adapt one of these but it might be
better to use the hydraulic action instead of a screw. You can see the
general idea he

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/se...r/press/page/1

and he

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...Imag es&gbv=2

Cic.

--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

"jkn" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all
I have a yen to (someday) build a bookbinding press. One of the
mainstays of this is of course the press screw which does the
pressing. I'm wondering where to get a large example of one of these
from. I've seen vice screws on (eg.) the Axminster website, and I'm
sure these could be turned to this purpose. They are spec'd at around
28mm diameter. If I were to decide I needed something a bit larger
than this, any idea where to find one?

Any decent engineering workshop should be able to run you one off. I used to
make some very pretty ones in brass, with all the other fittings, for a chap
who did fore-edge painting and sold presses for other people who wanted to
try their hand at it.

Colin Bignell

On Sep 18, 7:18 am, Cicero wrote:

[...]

==================================
Most hydraulic 'bottle' jacks for cars have a screw section at the top for
fine adjustment. You might be able to adapt one of these but it might be
better to use the hydraulic action instead of a screw. You can see the
general idea he

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/se...r/press/page/1

and he

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...press&btnG=Sea...

Cic.

I had wondered about using a bottle jack, but was concerned about the
return of the table, and a few other things. FWIW I've just come
across a design for a press based on one on t'web:

http://www.mossworks.com/docs/BottleJackPress.pdf

Looks quite suitable for my purposes, thanks...

J^n

On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 01:01:40 -0700, jkn wrote:

On Sep 18, 7:18 am, Cicero wrote:

[...]

==================================
Most hydraulic 'bottle' jacks for cars have a screw section at the top
for fine adjustment. You might be able to adapt one of these but it
might be better to use the hydraulic action instead of a screw. You can
see the general idea he

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/se...r/press/page/1

and he

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...press&btnG=Sea...

Cic.

I had wondered about using a bottle jack, but was concerned about the
return of the table, and a few other things. FWIW I've just come across a
design for a press based on one on t'web:

http://www.mossworks.com/docs/BottleJackPress.pdf

Looks quite suitable for my purposes, thanks...

J^n

==================================
That one looks quite good, although the return springs (bungee cords)
might not give a smooth return with the possibility of the top plate
tilting and jamming. Nonetheless, it's a clever and simple way of doing
the job - possibly a bit dangerous as those cords will need to be under
considerable tension to retract the column of a bottle jack.

Cic.

--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

Hi Cic,

That one looks quite good, although the return springs (bungee cords)
might not give a smooth return with the possibility of the top plate
tilting and jamming. Nonetheless, it's a clever and simple way of doing
the job - possibly a bit dangerous as those cords will need to be under
considerable tension to retract the column of a bottle jack.

The smoothness of the return doesn't bother me too much. When you
say ... 'retract the column'... I guess you're simply referring to the
bungees having to lift the combined weight of the Jack + platen? Yes,
this is something I wondered about.

Is it possible to use a bottle jack upside down? if so, you could fix
it to the top of the frame, pointing downwards, and the bungees would
only have to lift the platen, and the bit of the bottle jack that has
just been 'released' ... whatever that's called.

J

Hi there

Why not make the top plate fixed, and use gravity to retract the lower plate?
Is there anything WRT bookbinding to require the bottom plate to be fixed?


Yes, this is a design idea I have been thinking about. A couple of
possible points:

- it starts to make the thing a bit top-heavy, which is not so good.
- The 'moving' plane has to have a bit of float to it, and in this
design that would be the part which carried the whole book, prior to
it coming into contact with the fixed upper plane. I'm not sure if
this is impractical for bookbinding (I'm not an expert in the art!)

More thoughts welcome - ta.

J

On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:01:34 -0700, jkn wrote:

Hi Cic,

That one looks quite good, although the return springs (bungee cords)
might not give a smooth return with the possibility of the top plate
tilting and jamming. Nonetheless, it's a clever and simple way of doing
the job - possibly a bit dangerous as those cords will need to be under
considerable tension to retract the column of a bottle jack.

The smoothness of the return doesn't bother me too much. When you say ...
'retract the column'... I guess you're simply referring to the bungees
having to lift the combined weight of the Jack + platen? Yes, this is
something I wondered about.

Is it possible to use a bottle jack upside down? if so, you could fix it
to the top of the frame, pointing downwards, and the bungees would only
have to lift the platen, and the bit of the bottle jack that has just been
'released' ... whatever that's called.

J

==================================
I don't think it's just a case of lifting the jack and platen. The bungee
cords will have to force the jack's column back down into the housing.
This requires considerable effort, which is usually applied by the weight
of a vehicle or other load. I think you would have to experiment to see if
the bungees were strong enough to do this or decide to do it by hand. That
shouldn't be a real problem unless you go in for mass production with a
time and motion programme in force.

I don't believe the average jack will work upside down. Whilst making a
small press recently to remove car stub axles I came across the
information that most of the common car type hydraulic jacks will only
work on their side if the handle side of the jack is facing downwards.
This restriction would seem to suggest that they won't work upside down
but it's worth testing individual jacks - under load - to see if they will
do so.

Cic.
--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:56:12 -0700, jkn wrote:

(Any links to plans or ideas for building such a beast also gratefully
received)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=018

Hi Cic.,

I don't think it's just a case of lifting the jack and platen. The bungee
cords will have to force the jack's column back down into the housing.
This requires considerable effort, which is usually applied by the weight
of a vehicle or other load. I think you would have to experiment to see if
the bungees were strong enough to do this or decide to do it by hand. That
shouldn't be a real problem unless you go in for mass production with a
time and motion programme in force.

All fair points. You could have a separate non-elastic rise mechanism
- a cord on a cam or something - such that you release the bottle jack
and then raise the platen in a separate operation. But this is
starting to get over-complicated IMO.


I don't believe the average jack will work upside down. Whilst making a
small press recently to remove car stub axles I came across the
information that most of the common car type hydraulic jacks will only
work on their side if the handle side of the jack is facing downwards.
This restriction would seem to suggest that they won't work upside down
but it's worth testing individual jacks - under load - to see if they will
do so.

I too strongly suspect they won't work upside down. I'm starting to
think that the original plan of a decent press screw may be the best
way to go ...

Jon N

On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:03:34 -0700, jkn wrote:

Hi Cic.,

I don't think it's just a case of lifting the jack and platen. The
bungee cords will have to force the jack's column back down into the
housing. This requires considerable effort, which is usually applied by
the weight of a vehicle or other load. I think you would have to
experiment to see if the bungees were strong enough to do this or decide
to do it by hand. That shouldn't be a real problem unless you go in for
mass production with a time and motion programme in force.

All fair points. You could have a separate non-elastic rise mechanism - a
cord on a cam or something - such that you release the bottle jack and
then raise the platen in a separate operation. But this is starting to
get over-complicated IMO.


I don't believe the average jack will work upside down. Whilst making a
small press recently to remove car stub axles I came across the
information that most of the common car type hydraulic jacks will only
work on their side if the handle side of the jack is facing downwards.
This restriction would seem to suggest that they won't work upside down
but it's worth testing individual jacks - under load - to see if they
will do so.

I too strongly suspect they won't work upside down. I'm starting to think
that the original plan of a decent press screw may be the best way to go
...

Jon N

===================================
I think you could get over the lifting issue by using a single lever which
could be strong enough to retract the jack column and raise the top platen
in one movement.

I would suggest that you check the capacity of the vice screws from
Axminster before you buy. The screw *thread* is actually 23mm diameter
(not 28mm - just measured one I've had waiting around for some time). The
28mm referred to in the catalogue is the internal diameter of the handle
part - you're supposed to supply your own 28mm cross handle to go through
that. These vice screws are really not intended for applying serious
pressure (I'm guessing) and would probably be damaged if you tried to
apply pressure over a large area such as you're considering.

There are screw jacks and ratchet jacks on the market which you might
consider which are obviously designed for heavy work, unlike the Axminster
range. You might use the original press you found as a prototype and work
out how to replace the bungee cords with a lever as I've suggested.

Cic.
--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

I think you could get over the lifting issue by using a single lever which
could be strong enough to retract the jack column and raise the top platen
in one movement.

True, if it could be made elegant.


I would suggest that you check the capacity of the vice screws from
Axminster before you buy. The screw *thread* is actually 23mm diameter
(not 28mm - just measured one I've had waiting around for some time).

Thanks - that's useful to know. They did seem a little thinner than
advertised from the images I'd seen.
The
28mm referred to in the catalogue is the internal diameter of the handle
part - you're supposed to supply your own 28mm cross handle to go through
that. These vice screws are really not intended for applying serious
pressure (I'm guessing) and would probably be damaged if you tried to
apply pressure over a large area such as you're considering.

This guy does a slightly beefier one for about twice the price

http://www.fine-tools.com/G300659.htm

I'm not sure just how much pressure I'll need, and the other thing to
bear in mind is that this depends not just on the screw; old presses
often have large cast-iron plates on the back of the floating platen,
to spread the load I assume. This implies that both platens should be
pretty damn rigid. I've seen a few images of homemade presses and they
don't seem to take this into account...

J

(using Gentoo Linux, as it happens! ;-)

On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:16:56 -0700, jkn wrote:

I think you could get over the lifting issue by using a single lever
which could be strong enough to retract the jack column and raise the
top platen in one movement.

True, if it could be made elegant.


I would suggest that you check the capacity of the vice screws from
Axminster before you buy. The screw *thread* is actually 23mm diameter
(not 28mm - just measured one I've had waiting around for some time).

Thanks - that's useful to know. They did seem a little thinner than
advertised from the images I'd seen.
The
28mm referred to in the catalogue is the internal diameter of the handle
part - you're supposed to supply your own 28mm cross handle to go
through that. These vice screws are really not intended for applying
serious pressure (I'm guessing) and would probably be damaged if you
tried to apply pressure over a large area such as you're considering.

This guy does a slightly beefier one for about twice the price

http://www.fine-tools.com/G300659.htm

I'm not sure just how much pressure I'll need, and the other thing to bear
in mind is that this depends not just on the screw; old presses often have
large cast-iron plates on the back of the floating platen, to spread the
load I assume. This implies that both platens should be pretty damn rigid.
I've seen a few images of homemade presses and they don't seem to take
this into account...

J

(using Gentoo Linux, as it happens! ;-)

===================================
The rigidity is usually achieved by a 'web' of stiffeners (much like a
spider's web or wheel spokes)to reduce the weight of the platen and to
ensure that the edges are under the same pressure as the centre. You can
see that the example you cited uses an extra thickness of timber to
achieve this.

That extra thick vice screw you found *might* be the answer but of course
the pressure generated actually depends on your personal strength and how
well you can anchor the whole press whilst you're twisting the screw. I
think you would create a better working tool by following your original
idea of an hydraulic jack especially if you can work out a satisfactory
lever system for releasing the pressure. Personally I would not feel safe
using the bungee cords as they would sooner or later break down in use.

Cic.

--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================