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Pressing and Microchamber Paper
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53 posts in this topic

Ok, so I am giving my books to my guy to be pressed soon and I am in a bit of a pickle here. I am one of those nerds that drank the kool-aid and put microchamber paper inside the front cover, back cover and centerfold of most of my better books. I would strongly prefer not to take each book out of its bag to remove the paper before giving them to be pressed. Does anyone know if the microchamber paper is safe to be pressed? Maybe the press heats the paper and the microchamber paper coating reacts and chars or something along those lines.... I know it sounds like a long shot but does anyone have any opinions here? Not too big of a deal either way I imagine.

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I would definitely remove m-paper from your books before attempting to press them. By leaving them in you would be adding an extra variable to the process IMHO. 

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16 hours ago, mrc said:

I would definitely remove m-paper from your books before attempting to press them. By leaving them in you would be adding an extra variable to the process IMHO. 

Seconded.  Why inject an unknown into the equation?  Invest some of your time and take the extraneous paper out in advance.

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4 hours ago, dporges said:

If "your guy" is taking books from people and throwing them into the press without opening them and examining them, you should probably get another guy.  (I bet he's not, though.)

 

34 minutes ago, justafan said:

I would expect that the professional presser would at least inspect the comic for inserts or specks prior to pressing as anything of that nature might affect the press. I guess u could always tell them ahead of time.

Yes I'm sure he does but I didn't want to put him through more work as he has done very good work for me and the price is affordable and fair. FC and BC are likely fair game but the centerfold might be a little much.

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On 5/19/2019 at 12:50 AM, Bejack3 said:

I would strongly prefer not to take each book out of its bag to remove the paper before giving them to be pressed.

Why would you prefer not to take each book out of it's bag to remove the paper?

On 5/19/2019 at 12:50 AM, Bejack3 said:

Does anyone know if the microchamber paper is safe to be pressed?

I actually can't believe someone is asking this question.

:eek:

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3 hours ago, VintageComics said:

Why would you prefer not to take each book out of it's bag to remove the paper?

I actually can't believe someone is asking this question.

:eek:

Because it took me an hour to remove mc paper from 25 books and the mc paper might be chemically inert and safe to be pressed?

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2 hours ago, Bejack3 said:

Because it took me an hour to remove mc paper from 25 books and the mc paper might be chemically inert and safe to be pressed?

Pressing a comic with microchamber paper won't chemically hurt your book.

But it will leave an indentation in the comic wherever there is microchamber paper.

Think about it. The entire reason people press books is to apply pressure to remove indentations. If there is anything foreign in or on the book, that foreign object (even a piece of paper) will create an indentation on the book under pressure.

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3 hours ago, VintageComics said:

Think about it. The entire reason people press books is to apply pressure to remove indentations. If there is anything foreign in or on the book, that foreign object (even a piece of paper) will create an indentation on the book under pressure.

.....if a piece of paper were, for example left in the centre pages, I doubt very much it would have any effect on the resultant press job?  

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7 minutes ago, october said:

Is it safe to leave it in the bag and board when pressing?

 

Asking for a friend.

I actually can't believe a friend is asking this question

:eek:

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On 5/19/2019 at 12:50 AM, Bejack3 said:

Ok, so I am giving my books to my guy to be pressed soon and I am in a bit of a pickle here. I am one of those nerds that drank the kool-aid and put microchamber paper inside the front cover, back cover and centerfold of most of my better books. I would strongly prefer not to take each book out of its bag to remove the paper before giving them to be pressed. Does anyone know if the microchamber paper is safe to be pressed? Maybe the press heats the paper and the microchamber paper coating reacts and chars or something along those lines.... I know it sounds like a long shot but does anyone have any opinions here? Not too big of a deal either way I imagine.

Pressing does quite a bit of damage to books, so if you don't care whether you damage books by pressing, then why would you care about the negligible effect of pressing books with microchamber paper in? It would be like a murderer worrying about chipping his victim's fingernail polish during the process of committing the murder.

Edited by jimbo_7071
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26 minutes ago, mrc said:

What damage does pressing do to books?

1) Cover shrinkage. If you look many pressed books, you'll see a thin line of newsprint peeking out past the edge of the cover. It's normal to see a little bit at the very top of the cover (probably from the cutting process), but if you can see white all along the edge of the cover, it's a dead giveaway that the book has been pressed. It is more noticeable when a presser is aggressive with temperature and humidity in order to reduce cycle time.

2) There will frequently be extra stress lines around the staples. This become apparent when you look at before and after pictures of the book.

3) In the case of GA books, it's not unusual for pressing to blow out (split) the spine.

4) Books have lost pieces around the edge or at the corners due to pressing. I'm not sure why this happens. Maybe bits of paper stick to the pressing machine because the paper that's placed between the press and the comic isn't seated properly, and the edge of the cover is actually contacting the press itself?

These are only a few of the ways in which pressing can damage books.

Edited by jimbo_7071
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11 minutes ago, jimbo_7071 said:

These are only a few of the ways in which pressing can damage books

So to clarify, you're saying that pressing can damage a book, not does damage a book?

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