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My press broke mid-project and I used cinder blocks as a weight
I was pressing a stack of signatures last Saturday and my old book press snapped right at the hinge point, completely ruined. I ended up stacking about 60 pounds of cinder blocks from the garage on top of a piece of plywood to get the job done, and it actually worked okay. Has anyone else had to improvise with random stuff when a tool failed on them? What did you use?
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rodriguez.felix1mo ago
Question if a snapped hinge and cinder blocks is really that big of a deal. People act like it's the end of the world but a little weight is weight, works fine.
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bennett.nora1mo ago
Yeah, rodriguez.felix kind of nailed it with "weight is weight." I mean, it's not like the press knows it's a cinder block versus a fancy lead weight. The whole point is just to keep even pressure on the signatures so they don't warp or shift. If anything, the cinder block approach is maybe even better because you can stack a few of them to adjust the weight as you need. Like, if you're doing a thinner book, one block might be too much, but you can pull one off and use half the stack. And honestly, a busted hinge is a pain, but for a quick fix, it's hard to beat something you already have lying around. I'd probably just duct tape the piles together to keep them from wobbling, but otherwise, that's a pretty solid improv.
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