Build-A-Notebook

by William Meng

This repository contains the design files, Bill of Materials (BoM), and instructions for my Build-A-Notebook seminar that I held in the Columbia Makerspace on November 10, 2018.

I've provided both the Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files for customization and the DXF files for lasercutting.

Photos and more details on my website here!

Bill of Materials

Tools

• Laser cutter (we used a Thunder Laser Nova51)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Leather hole punch
• Awl (or thick needle)

Because it takes quite some time to perform the lasercutting, I recommend making all the lasercut parts prior to the seminar so that students can get started with assembly right away.

Also, make sure you have enough of each tool to share amongst however many students you have!

Materials

The materials needed to build one notebook are as follows:

• 2 covers (lasercut from 1/8" acrylic sheet)
• 2 inserts (lasercut from 1/16" acrylic sheet)
• 1 spine (cut from leather sheet)
• 6 bookbinding screws
• ~25 sheets of paper
• 2 staples
• a few feet of string

You'll have to do some math to figure out how much of each material you need to buy! To get you started:

• a 24x12" sheet of 1/8" acrylic makes 3 covers
• a 12x12" sheet of 1/16" acrylic makes 25 inserts
• an 8x13" sheet of leather makes 4 spines

Here are some options for buying the materials. I recommend buying a good variety of colors and styles for each material, so students can customize the notebooks to their liking!

• 12x12" panel of 1/16" thickness acrylic
• 24x12" panel of 1/8" thickness acrylic
• 8x13" faux leather sheets
• bookbinding screws (silver)
• bookbinding screws (brass)
• bookbinding screws (black)
• cotton twine
• cardstock
• paper: square grid
• paper: isometric dots
• paper: assorted colors

Instructions

Lasercutting

There are 3 parts that need to be lasercut:

• covers (1/8" acrylic)
• inserts (1/16” acrylic)
• spine templates (cardstock)

Each notebook will need 2 covers and 2 inserts, so to make 100 notebooks we’ll need 200 each. Each table will need at least 1 spine template, so let’s make 10 or so.

Covers

• In Thunder Laser, set the imported DXF units to Inches.
• Import DXF file: Notebook cover 24x12.dxf
• Prepare the material: 1/8" acrylic, 24x12” sheet
• Set power and speed
• Min power: 75
• Max power: 95
• Speed: 10
• Align laser head to top left corner of material, and make sure material is not rotated relative to the bed.
• Begin cutting.

Inserts

• In Thunder Laser, set the imported DXF units to Inches.
• Import DXF file: Notebook insert 12x12.dxf
• Prepare the material: 1/16” acrylic, 12x12” sheet
• Min power 75
• Max power 100
• Speed 15
• Set power and speed
• Align laser head to top left corner of material, and make sure material is not rotated relative to the bed.
• Begin cutting.

Spine Templates

• In Thunder Laser, set the imported DXF units to Inches.
• Import DXF file: Notebook spine template.dxf
• Prepare the material: cardstock
• Set power and speed
• Min power: 10
• Max power: 30
• Speed: 100
• Align laser head to top left corner of material, and make sure material is not rotated relative to the bed.
• Begin cutting.

Assembly

1. Use the a pencil to trace the spine template onto a sheet of leather. Use scissors to cut out the perimeter of the leather spine, then use the leather hole punch to punch the holes. Make sure to use the punch with a correctly-sized hole.
2. Stack and align the holes of the covers, spine, and inserts. Then secure them with the bookbinding screws.
3. To form the interior of the book, fold several sheets of paper in half and staple in order to form a section. If you would like to assemble multiple sections in the same book, you can use a bookbinding technique such as the 5 hole pamphlet stitch, or Coptic binding.
4. Use the awl to punch holes in the spine to coincide with the top and bottom edges of the paper.
5. Tie a string through the holes you just punched and around the middle of the paper section. Tie it off with the tautline hitch knot.
6. Voilà le carnet!

License

© William Meng 2018. The design files and instructions contained in this repository are licensed according to CC BY-SA 4.0.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.