Watching beginners nail their spines all wrong is driving me nuts

I was at a guild meetup last Saturday and saw three people in a row using PVA straight on their book cloth with no prep. The glue soaked right through and warped the whole cover. Have you guys had luck with any particular method to stop PVA bleeding like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

tara6421mo ago

Wait what, you actually saw three people in a row do that with no prep? That's wild honestly, like did nobody at that meetup warn them beforehand or something? I get that everyone starts somewhere but man, watching that many fails in one go would've had me biting my tongue so hard lol. I personally learned the hard way too, completely ruined a project with that exact same PVA bleed issue. The spray bottle trick you mentioned is pretty much what I do now too, but I actually do it backwards from what wendy131 said. I spray the cloth lightly with water first, let it dry, then do a really thin coat of PVA mixed with a tiny bit of water, and let that dry before the final full strength layer. Seems to lock things down way better for me. Honestly though, the type of book cloth matters a ton too. Some of that cheaper stuff just soaks up glue no matter what you do. Have you tried using a heat tool to dry each layer faster? Just a thought.

jasonallen1mo ago

Oh man, I feel your pain on this one. I had the exact same disaster my first time binding a hardcover in book cloth. What finally worked for me was a two step process. First I hit the cloth with a very light mist of water from a spray bottle, just enough to dampen it, and let it dry flat. Then I applied the PVA with a foam brush in thin, even coats, letting each layer dry before the next. That pre-wetting seemed to tighten up the weave so the glue sat on top instead of soaking through. Been using that trick for years now and it's saved me a ton of frustration.

wendy1311mo ago

Oh yeah, the spray bottle trick works great. I do the same thing but with a 50/50 water and PVA mix as a seal coat first, then go back with full strength glue once that dries.