Cutting Through Thick Paper
November 11, 2020 3:00 AM   Subscribe

This is a very similar question as this previous question, just 15 years more recent. I'm looking to cut the interior pages in a book.

I'm looking to cut interior pages within books, think similar to making a book safe. I've used a scroll saw with success, but am curious what other options there are in the advancing machine world. Can a hobby size laser cutter cut through 1-3cm of paper? Or would a CNC machine be able to do it and keep clean edges and not break the bank?

Any specific information regarding models or any anecdotal information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
posted by wile e to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (13 answers total)
 
Best answer: For working on bound books, I think the options haven’t really changed, and some of the ideas in that old question wouldn’t actually work very well. Laser would only work on individual sheets, one at a time; a stack would likely catch fire. A saw or a CNC with a rotating cutter would require the pages to be tightly clamped together close to the line being cut (I’m assuming the pages haven’t been glued into a solid block), which suggests a custom clamping fixture you’d need to fabricate. In general, cutting methods that are good at rapidly and precisely cutting thin materials are going to do their work on individual sheets, not stacks all at once.

Can you say more about what you hope to do? How elaborate are the shapes to be cut? How clean do the edges need to be? Are you wanting to speed up the process to avoid tedium on a small project, or are you looking for ways to viably scale up production for larger quantities?
posted by jon1270 at 4:10 AM on November 11, 2020


An X-Acto knife or scalpel, a steel ruler and a stiff plastic backing sheet inserted at the maximum depth of cut can achieve both reasonable cutting speed and good accuracy with good technique, and you won't find any method that gets you a more cleanly cut edge.

Just don't try to cut too deep on any single stroke. Be patient and let the blade do the work. Making a slicing pass along all four sides, then lifting out as many cut centres as will come easily, is the way to go. Keep doing that until all four cuts penetrate as far as the backing sheet.
posted by flabdablet at 4:16 AM on November 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


Response by poster: @JON1270 I do clamp down on the pages (pre-gluing) with 1/8" backer board on either side. Cutting with a scroll saw works quite well, but being manually done, it does get a little jagged along the edges, but they can be sanded down afterward.

I had made myself an ebook reader cover and other similar items and have received compliments to where I was thinking of gifting some for friends and family. Nothing professional, but to have an excuse to buy a small CNC or laser cutter to clean up the process is a win-win in my book.

@flabdablet I've done the exact-o knife route as well, but it's a quite tedious process. I've found I can get better results using the scroll saw.
posted by wile e at 4:35 AM on November 11, 2020


A hobby laser cutter will not work. It will merely set the pages on fire. A 6W blue light laser will not even reliably cut one sheet of paper at a useful speed; the whiteness of the paper reflects so much light it is almost ineffective. Stack two sheets and try to cut them, and the second sheet will catch fire underneath the first. (And there is no such thing as a blue light laser higher in power than 6W; anything labeled higher is lying about peak optical power vs average, or worse, claiming power supply draw rather than optical power. I work in this space. It's gross.)

Even an industrial CO2 cutter of 40 or more watts will not cut more than a few sheets of paper thick without charring them because of the air collected between them providing oxygen for combustion. Laser char is a constant challenge for any CNC laser process that is operating on organic material.

A CNC machine could do it if, and only if, the pages were clamped solidly between sacrificial pieces of plywood that would hold the pages together as firmly as if they were glued. Otherwise they will tear.

The cleanest, most reliable solution, if you want to turn this into a fast industrial process, is to use a die cutter. This is how children's books are cut to specific shapes, and clothing and leather is cut in bulk for sewing and assembly. Unfortunately, you need a new die for each size you want to cut (not cheap), and the die press itself will not be cheap either.

Good luck.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:08 AM on November 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


With the pages glued together ahead of time, a CNC could work. The deeper the cut needs to be, the larger-diameter cutter you’ll have to use, which means inside corners will be conspicuously rounded.
posted by jon1270 at 6:09 AM on November 11, 2020


Also keep in mind that if the glue you use remains at all gummy, tacky or flexible, or if it melts/softens at low temperatures, it will tend to clog the cutter and make things difficult.
posted by jon1270 at 6:25 AM on November 11, 2020


I think you could do this with a router. Build a clamping jig with 3/4" plywood. Bolts and nuts around the edge to supply pressure. With a 1/2" bit (a long bit) and a guide bushing the paper would be cut at the edge of the jig. It should cut very cleanly.
posted by H21 at 6:37 AM on November 11, 2020


If paper cutting doesn't work, I think a real book cover with all the pages removed and new edges made out of wood would still look nice. You could even put some texture on the edges or use the grain to simulate it.
posted by soelo at 7:37 AM on November 11, 2020


Seconding that laser cutting is right out. I tried (for the exact same reason as you!) and made a cosy fire. Tell me a little more about the magnet in yours please?
posted by J.R. Hartley at 7:38 AM on November 11, 2020


Response by poster: @J.R. Hartley The magnet is to replicate the Kobo sleep cover. When the book closes, the e-reader goes to sleep and when opened it wakes.

In newer versions I've left a few sheets of paper intact so you can't see the magnet hole while reading.

This is very similar to the magnet used.
posted by wile e at 8:00 AM on November 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


Given that oxygen is needed for paper to burn, is it possible to run a laser cutter in a space with no oxygen? That is, put the laser cutter in something like an aquarium, and with even with an open top, if the air inside is replaced with an inert gas that is heavier than air (e.g. CO2 or argon), then no combustion could take place when cutting the paper. You could easily do CO2 by buying dry ice and letting it sublimate. I have no idea if this would work, and if I tried something like this, I'd do it outside to ensure my living space doesn't get too much CO2 in it.
posted by ShooBoo at 9:00 AM on November 11, 2020


That's not practical, ShooBoo. Hobby laser cutters require significant airflow to keep from overheating and all laser cutters require constant high velocity air movement to reduce particulate "flare" deposits adjacent to cut surfaces. These machines generate significant amounts of smoke/airborne particulates, so you'd need to also have a high efficiency recirculating air filter in addition to a tank big enough to hold the laser cutter and your non-reactive gas. Non-recirculating air filters for laser cutters (e.g. for equipment use in a classroom or retail store) run in the thousands of dollars.

Notwithstanding all of that, using laser cutters to try and cut things thicker than about 5mm starts getting into fussy territory with power modulation, sub-surface focusing, possibly doing multiple passes. The sort of thing you dedicate significant amounts of your time to dealing with instead of doing your artwork. I don't think you have to ask me how I know.

Ultimately, it is a completely inappropriate technology for the described scenario.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:50 AM on November 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


That said, they are cool as hell, and also a great way to blind someone if you are the least careless.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:55 AM on November 11, 2020


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