Unfortunately with the computer taking over and with price gouging on books has more or less forced the majority to "put up with" reading on screen.
The system has failed us in not providing on the "promise" of localised (where you live) instant printing and delivery of cheap books from online.
In my view we have essentially gone backwards because of the advancement of technology.
Which one do you have?
I've also had good luck with libraries, for things like spine repair and binding advice. Larger branches will probably even have their own equipment for book-binding sitting around somewhere.
Very weird
I say that and I am a very tech-inclined person, so to speak. But books are always a different matter.
Never made a bookpress, but have transferrable knowledge. You didn't need a rigid piece of wood, you need a piece with a slight curve so the middle touches first and the edges after. When the nuts are tightened it will go straight but be pushing hard in the middle. In case you don't have a bent piece of wood, you can plane or even sand the subtle curve (I would guess 3mm/ 1/8" would do for an A5 book). I am itching to try this.
'Real' books seem to have some kind of linen scrim rather than tissue. I should imagine this helps with tensile strength like glass fibre tape does to GRP. Evo stick has a very pungent solvent smell, worth taking care of ventilation to avoid getting high
Sounds like an ideal job for a 3d printer. You can program in the thickness, height, and amount of flex, and as long as you print it with the vertical axis vertical the "grain" of the print will make sure it flexes instead of breaking.
(Personally, I just use a hole punch and zip ties when I make books, though.)
Or, you know, a piece of timber and some sand paper.
The consumer-grade 3d printers I have exposure to would have trouble with some combination of piece length, tensile consistency, strength and durability you'd want in a book press. Printing alone would take longer than sanding and drilling. And I suspect a printed part wouldn't be so forgiving of adjustments made after manufacture.
Using the 3d printer because it's fun and a learning experience is fine, but calling it "ideal" when it doesn't offer any real improvements over the cheaply and easily made "traditional" material is going a little bit too far :-).
However!
Hardwood simply looks better than spruce.
I realized I accumulated way too many books. They take up a lot of space, I don't read many of the often but would hate to lose the information. Thus I've slowly converted over the years. Also many pdf format books are cheaper than paper copy these days. I still keep the important books as paper copy but a bulk of the rest now fits is a harddrive available on my home network.
So yeah I recommend you always look for a pirate version first before you decide to scan.
You will come across a lot of spam, but if you know what to look for it's pretty easy to quickly distinguish fake sites from the legit ones. If you don't know what to look for you will discover that soon enough after you've run across enough fake and real sites.
Edit: I see below that you already do this. Leaving this comment up though in case it helps other users.
I’d love to do this for the bookshelf of reference books that I still occasionally reach out to but are taking up a ton of space.
For other commercial books, the easiest thing is something like 1DollarScan.com which will tear open the book bindings and scan for you.
Other approaches that worked in the past include 1) knew a family member who worked in a copy store where I could play with a fast scanner. 2) Some publishers like Oreilly's in the past let you get pdf copies for free or nominal price if you provide proof that you bought a paper copy. 3) I have scanner at home for small books or documents but it is usually too much manual work.
But largely over the past 5+ years, I only buy DRM free pdf books. Many of the technical book publishers have sales throughout the year on their website where you can buy books at steep discount. I'm just a pdf book packrat :)
Which one did you use?
I get the sense that it wouldn't work as well with less than hundreds of pages though...
It doesn't have to start at global scale mutual destruction. A smaller community can go through a crisis and be left with little means. Does it make sense to suffer really primitive living conditions while waiting for someone to come and reinstate the tech we're used to?
Isn't it better if, in addition to hoping for external help, we make an effort to avoid forgetting our legacy?
In the unlikely event that it's needed, I can still take pen and paper notes at a hundred words per minute. I can still take and develop film photographs with expired chemistry. I'll still do fast multiplication with a slide rule. I'll cook food safely with a mercury thermometer and camping stove, I'll shave with a sharp blade and be in the next city before you know it on a bicycle.
These are all things you can practise even if you live in a city and deal with computers a lot.
Edit: Oops, accidental rant.
