Watched a newbie try to sew a text block without a cradle yesterday

He stacked the signatures on a flat table and wondered why the spine kept shifting, has anyone else seen people skip basic tools like that and end up with crooked books?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicehernandez6d ago

Did that friend of yours have to completely redo the spine after trying to skip the cradle too? I heard about someone else who stacked their signatures on a kitchen counter and ended up with the text block looking like a crooked staircase. They spent hours trying to glue it straight but the damage was already done. A simple cradle costs like 20 bucks or you can even make one from scrap wood. Sometimes watching people learn the hard way is the only way they'll remember, but it still hurts to see.

sarah8186d ago

Man oh man, I have a friend who tried exactly that. He stacked his signatures on a cheap table, no cradle at all. The text block came out looking like a total mess, all crooked and uneven. He spent a whole weekend trying to fix it with extra glue and clamps. In the end, he just had to cut his losses and start over from scratch. I felt so bad for him, but now he actually built a simple cradle from scrap wood and won't skip it anymore.

taylorellis7d ago

Learn by messing up, right? Getting the spine to sit straight without a cradle teaches you why that tool exists in the first place.