My daughter has many hobbies and often has me make her tools/equipment for presents.
This year she has started doing bookbinding, and for Christmas she asked me to make her a punching cradle. The signatures of pages are laid in the trough and an awl is used to punch holes along the fold, (there is a small gap at the bottom of the "V", this makes it easier to sew them together.
punching cradle.jpg (245.04 KiB) Viewed 8977 times
I don't know what kind of wood it is, (maybe cherry?), but it was a joy to work with an I really like how it turned out.
If I get time I'll try to make some other pieces of bookbinding equipment to go with it.
Ron Dyck
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10ER #23430, 10ER #84609, 10ER #94987,two SS A-34 jigsaws for 10ER.
1959 Mark 5 #356595 Greenie, SS Magna Jointer, SS planer, SS bandsaw, SS scroll saw (gray), DC3300,
About a month ago I made a guide to go with the punching cradle, to make it easy to space the holes evenly.
punchingcradleandguide.jpg (317.28 KiB) Viewed 8609 times
To drill the holes I set the table at 45° so the fence acts as a v block, and I made a spacing jig with some aluminum angle and a broken drill bit for a pin. I still had to center punch the hole locations or the bit would wander.
guide1.jpg (370.37 KiB) Viewed 8609 times
guide2.jpg (367.23 KiB) Viewed 8609 times
Today when I went to visit, my daughter gave me a small notebook that she had made with the aid of the punching cradle. (the coin is a quarter, for scale)
notebook.jpg (277.92 KiB) Viewed 8609 times
Ron Dyck
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10ER #23430, 10ER #84609, 10ER #94987,two SS A-34 jigsaws for 10ER.
1959 Mark 5 #356595 Greenie, SS Magna Jointer, SS planer, SS bandsaw, SS scroll saw (gray), DC3300,
Clever idea to make the punching guide. When making something for the first time, it can be really productive to spend a lot of preliminary time plannning before the actual build of the project. I find that I spend more time planning my projects in my head than I actually spend making them. The more time I take planning, the happier I am with the finished job.
With that punching guide, you now have a template to make more of them if you need.
