To Cut Unusual Shapes
Any odd shapes having straight lines may be cut by the following method: Make a sample of the shape and size required; then take a piece of No. 70 strawboard a little larger than the pattern. The board must be squared up, and the odd-shaped card laid on it; then put the two pieces under the clamp and adjust the strawboard against the back gage and the sample card even with the clamp in front; then run the clamp down and draw a pencil line around the sample card on the strawboard. A piece of wood can then be glued on to the strawboard along the pencil line at the back and another at the end. If a bunch of cards is laid into this box gage and the board pushed up against the back gage of the machine, a narrow strip of wood or board must be glued on the clamp right over the card, so that a pressure may be secured on the stock. This clamp-stick must, of course, fit into the box gage, so that it will take up the difference in thickness between the pile of stock and the height of the box gage. These gages may be made by means of a square and a pair of dividers, as well as in the machine.
Celluloid may be cut into narrow strips by using the method described above. A sharp knife and rubber bands are all that are necessary.
Trimming Books
A common error made by printers is to make up forms nearly the full measurement of the leaf, thereby leaving the binder very little trim margin. A standing rule of every printing and binding establishment should be to allow one-eighth of an inch trim margin for the fore-edge, head, and tail of all stitched tablets and quarter-bound cut-flush books. All sewed books should have three-sixteenths of an inch for the fore-edge, and one-eighth of an inch for the head and tail trim margins. The trimming of letter-press work should be standardized, so that paper-covered books are trimmed a trifle larger to permit a retrim when books are returned for a substantial cover. To illustrate this, a sheet 24 × 38 inches made up into thirty-two-page signatures, when folded, is 6 × 9½ inches. The paper-covered books should be trimmed 5-7/8 × 9-1/8 inches; one-eighth of an inch is trimmed off the head, the balance off the tail, while the fore-edge has one-eighth of an inch trim. These books, when returned for permanent covers, as they frequently are, have one-sixteenth of an inch trimmed off the head and tail; and one-eighth of an inch off the fore-edge. This gives the standard book size, 5¾ × 9 inches for the bound volume.
When the entire edition is to be bound with a permanent cover, provision is made for three-sixteenths of an inch trim at the head. This enables the printer to standardize forms without varying the head margins, and gives the binder sufficient margin to trim inaccurately folded sheets.
To trim books on a cutting machine, take as many as will make a pile about three inches high, and jog at the head and back. Set the back gage the exact size to which the book is to be trimmed; put the books in the machine with the head against the side and the back against the back gage. Run down the clamp, provided the machine has a hand clamp; an automatic or self-clamp requires nothing more than to pull the lever. When the cut has been made and the machine stops, remove the books and put to one side. Repeat this operation until all books are trimmed on the fore-edge and lay aside in piles with the backs out.
To trim the heads and tails, fillers must be made to take up the thickness of the back. Cut strips of straw or binders' board about four inches wide; glue them together; fan out and press. Put the books in the machine with the heads against the back gage and the trimmed fore-edges against the side; then lay the board filler on top in such a way that the fanned-out ends are sufficiently away from the back to permit an even pressure of the clamp on the books. Pull the lever, and repeat the operation for subsequent books. The filler can be glued to the clamp and the books put directly under it.