Hot glue for spine rounding was a disaster for my last 3 rebinds

I thought I'd save time by using hot glue instead of PVA for rounding the spines on a batch of 5 hardcovers last month. Figured it would set faster and let me move on. Nope. The glue cooled way too quick and got brittle. Three of them cracked open when I tried to round the spine. Now I'm stuck redoing those three from scratch. Learned my lesson - PVA might take longer to dry but at least it stays flexible. Has anyone else tried a shortcut that backfired like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

avery3661d agoMost Upvoted

actually hot glue can work for spine rounding, you just gotta use a low-temp gun and work in smaller batches. i've done it a few times when i was in a pinch and it worked fine, but yeah PVA is way more forgiving. your mileage may vary though.

schmidt.blake1d ago

yeah and if you let it cool a bit before applying it gives you way more working time too