Photobook binding solutions for home?

[sjgh]

I have been looking up what alternatives are available to print and bind photobooks at home using something like the thermal binders that I see available. Ideally would like to print and bind 20-30 pages of up to "coffee table" photo book landscape size (say 11" by 17") - preferable double-sided. This is for personal consumption and not for clients. I would rather take this route than use one of the many photo book printers.
My simple understanding of this is that one has to buy the covers and thermally glue the pages together in one of the inexpensive thermal binders machines. On the surface looks rather straightforward. My questions are

a) Any recommendations  any experiences would help. How do these books look and hold up? Are there any binding alternatives where one can do it at home rather than take to a professional (and are not the spiral bound spine)

b) What paper's recommended for double-sided printing? Also I am assuming there is no limitations on type of paper I can use as long I measure the spine width accurately when binding.

c) Not sure if there are printable covers that can then be bound with rest of pages (for soft covers). Guess for hard covers one can print a dust cover?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Iluvmycam]

Get them perfect bound. They hold up great. Can't comment on the cheap thermal binding machines. You can also get them Smyth sewn bound if your just doing a few books.

I use spiral binding for my hand printed artists' books. As long as they are not abused they are a nice binding method. Book can open up flat.

I use perefct bound for POD commercial books. I tried numerous other binding systems like wire, comb and bar. They did not hold up for me.

Good luck!

[stevenarnott]

Funny you should bring this up...

I've been working on a handmade photo book for a few weeks now. I put together my second "trial version" yesterday. It came out pretty close to what I wanted, except that my covers were just a bit too short, and the cover photo needed to be printed a 1/4" taller. Almost there...

I'm using Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Book & Album paper, which is both double-sided and short-grained. The grain of the paper must be parallel to the spine of the book. Most paper is long-grained, i.e. the grain is parallel to the longer side of the sheet.

As for binding, I'm sewing the pages together with a needle and linen thread. About 3/8" from the edge of the paper, I draw a line parallel to the spine of the book-to-be, and put marks on the line 1/2" apart, for a total of 17 (my book is 8 1/2 x 11). I use an awl+hammer to punch holes through the paper at each mark, then sew them together, going up once and then back down. I guess you'd say they're double-stitched.

The top and bottom sheets are Inkpress Rag Cool Tone 300 gsm paper, which is very thick and stiff. These sheets get glued to the front and back covers, which are medium-weight chipboard, cut to size in my trusty rotary paper cutter.

I'm planning on spraying the prints for the "finished" books with Hahnemuhle Varnish Spray, to try to keep the ink from rubbing off one page onto its neighbor.

The cover is a panoramic photo, printed on a 12x24" sheet of Canson MuseumArt Canvas 340, which gets wrapped around the chipboard covers and glued to them. The canvas gets attached first, followed by the Rag Cool Tone paper (which is attached to the rest of the book).

I don't have a "perfect" copy yet, but it's getting there. It's a lot of work, but I think (and hope!) it's going to be worth the effort.

Let me know if you have any questions, and remember, the grain of the paper must be parallel to the spine of the book!

[sjgh]

Thanks for the replies and the suggestions. I used the suggestions to educate myself on various book binding options and came to the conclusion that it's doable with some patience - doesn't look that daunting a task and doesn't seem like one really needs any expensive tools to do the one off photobook. I decided to go with the double-sided Moab Lasal Matte and ordered some from B&H. I am thinking printing the pages landscape 8.5 x 11 and possibly stitching them (still need to understand since I will have single pages and not folded signatures what the best stitching approach will be). May also consider alternative of gluing them at spine.

As for the cover I'll probably take the approach as outlined by Steve and adapt it. I did not quite follow why the grain has to follow the spine - may not have a choice based on the orientation of the book on which way the paper's grain runs.