Ok, so this has NOTHING to do with puppets but I was wondering if anyone knew what kind of glue I could use that would be durable for a flip book.  Remember when we were kids and we would get a small pad of paper and draw sequences of drawings and then flip them....it would be instant animation.  I used to do that all the time and LOVED it!!!  Well, I want to make my own flip books now but with a twist.  I want to do mine on the computer, print them out, cut them, then assemble them.  So a premade pad won't work in this situation.  I don't want to just staple it b/c it will also be too thick and I don't have a professional stapler.  I took a graphic design class in high school and we had a machine that would press and glue paper that was very industrial.  It could easily leave you with only one hand if you didn't pay attention....weird that they let h.s. kids work with it.  Well anyways, we would make tiny pads for flip books when we were little.  I can't remember what kind of glue was used but since we are puppet builders, I thought one of the members might have some insight on this.

Thanks for your thoughts and sorry it isn't puppet related!
Nikole

I should state that it is not a glue that is put between layers but spread on the edge.....hmmmm....maybe like a bookbinding glue?

I'll have to research more into bookbinding supplies/tools.

You are on the right track with bookbinding.   Check out this site: http://www.hollanders.com/  They call it PVA Glue which I believe was mentioned recently in another post.

Aha... something that I actually know a little about - after spending a year and a half working in my university library's book conservation lab repairing, restoring, and rebinding old books and working in a printing shop in the Seattle area for awhile.

Shawn is correct... PVA = Polyvinyl Acetate = generic white glue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_acetate

There are different brands with slightly different qualities, but you probably won't go wrong using good old Elmer's glue for this project. While you do need a good layer on the spine of the book, that alone might only make it as strong as a notepad - allowing sheets to be easily removed. Adhesive binding works best if you get a small amount of glue inside, between the pages along the edge of the book.

It would be difficult for me to go into a technical explanation of how the process is performed here, but the gluing process itself is actually not that hard. It involves clamping the unbound book in a lined vise to keep all of the pages aligned and then fanning them, (pushing them over), so that you can glue all of the inside edges of the pages at once. To make it even stronger you'd notch the spine with a series of small saw cuts before gluing - but that would probably be overkill on a flipbook.

A web search on double fan adhesive binding, (also known as "perfect" binding), might produce an illustrated tutorial, otherwise see if your local library has any books on bookbinding...

http://www.philobiblon.com/tutorials.shtml

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22double+fan+adhesive+binding%22

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22double+fan+adhesive+binding%22+tutorial

http://www.google.com/search?q=perfect+binding

http://www.google.com/search?q=perfect+binding+tutorial

Good luck!

 

Ron G.

Wow....thanks Shawn and Ron!  You guys always pull through for me.  Ron, your description on the fanning was spot on.  I totally understood it as I read it.  I found a youtube video from one of the links you showed me that shows your explanation and it shows it exactly as you described.



Thanks again!  I want to make little flip books of my puppets and dolls to add with every order.  I am also making an animated logo flip book as my "business card" to hand out to potential clients to book puppet shows.  I think it is something "different" to help me stand out.

Aloha,
Nikole 

I also found a video that shows the machines that we used in my high school graphics design class.  Can you believe that high school kids were allowed to use these?  Especially the kids that were in that class....YIKES!  I am surprised that no one in my class lost a hand or finger.



Nikole

I want to make little flip books of my puppets and dolls to add with every order.  I am also making an animated logo flip book as my "business card" to hand out to potential clients to book puppet shows.  I think it is something "different" to help me stand out.

Wow Nikole, that will definitively help you stand out. You have so much cool ideas!!! I hope that you will share your end product with us all in pictures. I would love to see that flip-o-business card

Pupet hug,
SHould

HA HA HA....flip-o-business cards....too funny!!!  Yes, I will definitely show and tell.

Aloha,
Nikole

I want to make little flip books of my puppets and dolls to add with every order.  I am also making an animated logo flip book as my "business card" to hand out to potential clients to book puppet shows.  I think it is something "different" to help me stand out.

That's brilliant - you never cease to impress me Nikole.

Good luck!



Ron G.

I also found a video that shows the machines that we used in my high school graphics design class.  Can you believe that high school kids were allowed to use these?  Especially the kids that were in that class....YIKES!  I am surprised that no one in my class lost a hand or finger.

Geez... in the book lab/bindery shop in the college library we had a guillotine press, which was similar to the first contraption pictured in that video, using hydraulic pressure to slice through thick stacks of paper, or trim an entire book at one time. The one we used was designed so that once you had inserted the paper you stepped down on a pedal that brought a heavy metal bar down to hold the paper in place and keep it from shifting, and then as a safety feature you were required to place a hand on either side of the machine and push two different buttons at the same time to bring down the cutting blade - in order to keep you from accidentally sticking your hand under the blade when it was coming down.

Then again, I was telling my son the other day how when I was 11 years old they had not one but two wood shops in my junior high school, (middle school), with great big table saws and all of the rest of that cool stuff. The larger of the two shops also had a metal shop and foundry where we melted and cast aluminum, used machines to slice through sheet metal, etc. We got safety lectures at the beginning of every year, but the class was full of the usual gang of idiots, (as they say in MAD Magazine), and people did go to the hospital once in awhile.

35+ years later my son's high school doesn't even have a wood shop...

 

Ron G.