Just discovered a cardboard trick for neat signatures

I was binding a journal and had trouble with signature alignment. A cardboard guide fixed it quickly. What do you use for keeping things straight?

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3 Comments

miller.dylan7mo ago

Can you describe how you position the cardboard guide to align the signatures (like, do you clamp it down or something)? I've had trouble with pages moving around when I try to bind them. A steady guide like that could really save time.

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iris_adams7mo ago

That steady guide sounds like a fix, but clamping it down just makes your mistakes permanent. If the first signature is even slightly off, every single page after that follows the same error. You're better off letting the paper find its natural place as you work. Hand pressure gives you feedback you can't get from a rigid tool. What saves time now often costs more time later when you have to redo the whole thing.

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ray_morgan7mo ago

Have you tried just pressing it down by hand as you go? I actually find it's easier to eyeball each signature against the last one instead of using a fixed guide.

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