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Basic question up front- How do you fix the old, scraggly book binding of pages falling out of your books?


GW is notorious, but I've been having issue with other books as well. Some with the pasted type, others with the wired in page type that the pages slowly over time fold and refold, to the point of falling out of the book.

HOW do you fix the binding, with the pages that have reduced with the strip fold in the book binding, and is there somtthing, or someone to do to get these books in order again?

Trying to read Rogue Trader, and some of the older books again, with the book pages falling all over the floor is... disheartening to say the least.

I use games workshop modeling glue where the pages have fallen out, and clear packing tape where the cover is ripped (both the tape and the cover are shiny, so it works). You could also go to a bookstore or library and ask there, but they'll probably refer you to a book restorer (which honestly will cost WAY more than it would to just replace the thing).

You could alternatively get it in e-book or PDF format.

I scan my old books and make them into PDFs to put onto my iPad.

You're allowed to do this [I've e-mailed GW to make sure, and they'd prefer you don't, but say that as long as you don't give it away there is nothing they can do.]

Take them to staples or any other place which binds documents and ask for it to be rebound with a spiral bind. Essentially they will trim off the very edge binding and then just run a spiral through like a notebook

I go to staples and have them spiral bind it and put a plastic front and back cover on it. They cut the binding and punch it. The lady i go to does it right every time.

Grot 6 wrote:Basic question up front- How do you fix the old, scraggly book binding of pages falling out of your books?

I treat them well, so they don't fall apart.

I used a sharp hobby knife to carefully de-bind the entire book, then put each page in an appropriately-sized page protector. I've got my little WHFB rule-book divided into two small binders. That way, they lay flat on a table, and I can have it open to two separate places in the rules if I need to.

It's a hard bound book. GW "Hard bound"...

As to staples, will they do hard backed books? I'm talking about RT books here. They had s!@#$ binding to begin with, you know- the same as all GW hard backed books do.

For hard back books like that, you are going to probably have to take it to someone who specialises in book restoration. Mainly because the other options would involve tearing about the book to put it back together again.

Live with it or, if it's a book you can't live without in it's current form, take it to a specialist book re-binder...as alphaomega stated above.
Not sure of cost though, but if it's a book you really need, cost shouldn't matter...

Actually the Original RT hardback is the only GW book I have where the pages have fallen out, that said it's all stored loosely in the hardcover on the shelf.

I have thought about using hot glue to stick it all back in since its a bit gummy like the original binding but I'm a bit to worried about damaging it further (it already has most a pot of chaos black over it?).

Kroothawk wrote:

Grot 6 wrote:Basic question up front- How do you fix the old, scraggly book binding of pages falling out of your books?

I treat them well, so they don't fall apart.

Although I haven't had a problem with the majority of my GW books, there have been a few that the binding began coming apart early on in their life. So, it isn't just an issue of taking care of a book. No matter who binds a book, there will be instances where it is done poorly, and no amount of care can help to keep that book together.

With that being said, in the past I have had codexes spiral bound when too many pages began coming loose to bother with. I actually like using the spiral bound books better as I can let somebody else page through them without worrying that they are damaging the binding.

Spiral binding can work with a hardbound book if you leave out the hard cover. Photocopy the hard cover and put that into your spiral bound edition if you think you'll miss having the cover there.

Softcover? Cut out the spine. Punch holes. Three-ring binder.
Hardcover? Treat the book well and it shouldn't have problems. If it becomes too bad though... Take all the pages out. Punch holes. Three-ring binder.

Trying to fight decay is futile. Overhaul the books completely instead. No chance of a page falling out of a three-ring binder unless it's REALLY busted.

I try to make PDFS ... but then burn the pages out of spite ...

I had to repair my hardbound RT book. The cover was intact and still attached to the biniding, but Sections of pages were coming loose. I've seen a number of RT books with this problem.

I opened the book very wide and used a VERY SMALL small amount of PVA along the lenghth of the book to reattach the sections that had come out. It seems to beholding up well.

Scipio Africanus wrote:I scan my old books and make them into PDFs to put onto my iPad.

You're allowed to do this [I've e-mailed GW to make sure, and they'd prefer you don't, but say that as long as you don't give it away there is nothing they can do.]

Would love to see this email!

In any case, usually by the time a book totally falls apart, the new edition is out anyway. And if not, well,

$MORE CASH FOR THE CASH GOD$

Solorg wrote:

Scipio Africanus wrote:I scan my old books and make them into PDFs to put onto my iPad.

You're allowed to do this [I've e-mailed GW to make sure, and they'd prefer you don't, but say that as long as you don't give it away there is nothing they can do.]

Would love to see this email!

In any case, usually by the time a book totally falls apart, the new edition is out anyway. And if not, well,

$MORE CASH FOR THE CASH GOD$

You're allowed to do this anyways, no permission required (so long as you do not distribute it for personal gain).

I took a class on book preservation and repair for grad school and here is the resources we used.

http://www.philobiblon.com/bkrepair/BookRepair3.html

I highly recommend it

Talarn Blackshard wrote:I try to make PDFS ... but then burn the pages out of spite ...

It's really not hard to make a pdf of a book.
Especially when all the pages have fallen out.

Stack them up, in order, and put them into the sheet feeder on your laser mfc (or in my case, the one in my wife's office) select double sided scan-to-pdf, and start.

It's how I do other books.
It scans them as searchable text, too.

I hope my wife doesn't leave that job.

Talarn Blackshard wrote:I try to make PDFS ... but then burn the pages out of spite ...

Burning books is just wrong on so many levels.

My friend works at Fedex/kinkos and rebinds everything for me with spiraling binding

... use spiral binding

Kirasu wrote:My friend works at Fedex/kinkos and rebinds everything for me with spiraling binding

... use spiral binding

Spiralbind 4 lyfe.

Spiral binding costed me like $3 a book. Not bad at all.

thehod wrote:I took a class on book preservation and repair for grad school and here is the resources we used.

http://www.philobiblon.com/bkrepair/BookRepair3.html

I highly recommend it

This is what I am looking for. Thanks a bunch for that site.

Like I said, the book is an old first edition RT Book. Thanks, but no on the spiral binding, cutting up the book, or ripping up the rest of the pages just to put it in a binder.

Hard covered, RT book has craptastic string binding, with some crud that is supposed to be glue, but isn't.

The page binding in that site was exactly what I'll do to the book.

Yes Staples will do hard backed they did my buddies FoW stuff

Kroothawk wrote:

Grot 6 wrote:Basic question up front- How do you fix the old, scraggly book binding of pages falling out of your books?

I treat them well, so they don't fall apart.

I assure you, good sir, that despite the most gentle of treatment, my Necron codex inexplicably began falling right the feth apart soon after I got it. None of my other uhh... 5 codexes? or rulebook, or IA books had this problem. So I believe it does happen due to non-abuse. It happened to me, anyway.

I usually use a scanned version so I didn't care much, but I would have gotten it punched and binder'd if I needed it more.

As others have said, spiral binding. Kinko's can do it for you. Not only does it prevent the book from falling apart, but it makes the book so much more useful for reference.

The book repair resource linked has solid information (that's standard practice for the pros, as well - I did tip-ins for four years at a major university library and I was taught to do things exactly like that), but tipping in is a less than ideal solution for anything beyond reinserting a few pages. For one, it shrinks the margin which, depending on the book, can obscure text. Perhaps more importantly, it changes the stresses placed on the pages (two pages moving, only one is attached at the spine and they are now flexing farther in), which can lead to further damage.

Page damage is not as much of an issue with newer books, which usually fail at the binding before the rather resilient glossy paper starts breaking down, but it may have a greater impact on older books. Without having physically seen any of the older books, I can't comment on the risks with much surety, but as a former librarian with experience in preservation and the maintenance of ludicrously old stacks, I feel it's my duty to comment. *touches hand to heart, mutters secret librarians oath proudly, kills all witnesses*

Honestly, though, we had some specialist equipment - Tyvek sheets, burnishers, tacking irons, FilmoplastR (translucent vellum with an acid-free, heat-set adhesive) - but probably 70% of repairs that weren't sent for rebinding (not always minor, since binding IS expensive) were done with PVA glue, and another 20% were glued after sewing the folio. You can fix it without resorting to spiral-binding or a 3-ring binder, but it's probably not worth it if you've lost more than a handful of pages.

oadie wrote:Honestly, though, we had some specialist equipment - Tyvek sheets, burnishers, tacking irons, FilmoplastR (translucent vellum with an acid-free, heat-set adhesive) - but probably 70% of repairs that weren't sent for rebinding (not always minor, since binding IS expensive) were done with PVA glue, and another 20% were glued after sewing the folio. You can fix it without resorting to spiral-binding or a 3-ring binder, but it's probably not worth it if you've lost more than a handful of pages.

I wish you good luck on escaping with your life, after betraying the secrets of the Librarian's Guild, you're sure to be flagged as extremis traitorous in the Black Volumes. No one escapes the Libquistion, and the 3d6 Dewey Decimal Damage.

Ouze wrote:No one escapes the Libquistion, and the 3d6 Dewey Decimal Damage.

Dewey Decimal? Psh! Maybe if you bug your local children's librarian. The big boys use LC (Library of Congress) call numbers for stacks and SUDOC for government docum*BLAM*...[Transmission terminated by, um... totally not the Libquisition. Yeah...]