![]() Try this with a few reader copies 1st and feel your way thru it. I place the comic on the rack with the centerfold open, cover and back facing down to the bottom of the bin. Immediately start your timer upon placing rack with comic in the bin, after the 15-20 seconds, remove lid and remove rack and comic. 4) Pour boiled water into bin, about 2 cups, place rack with comic in bin, cover bin with lid, leave in for 15-20 seconds depending on condition of comic, NO MORE THAN 30 SECONDS EVER! You will have a soaked book. 3) I have an electric water kettle that heats to a boil pretty quick. 2) Baker’s cooling rack with legs, to place your comic on, while in the storage bin. You can really tell in the side by side below the drastic difference after a single pressing.ġ) 24″x12″圆″ plastic storage bin with lid, the kind you can pick up at your local Wal-Mart. The back of the book looks substantially better, but the front isn’t where I would expect it to be yet. This pressing was for 30 minutes 175 degrees. ![]() Another problem is when the cover is slightly larger then the other pages resulting in a line being pressed into the cover along the shorter edge.Īfter a single pressing you will notice below that the book already looks considerably better. The only possible solution I see right now is to remove the staples before pressing and return them after. This happened when the staples of the book were not centered on the binding fold, resulting in the staple impressions being pressed through the other half of the book. I still have a couple problems that I don’t yet have solutions to. I also tried to press books for long periods of time with no heat at all. If I didn’t get the desired results after the first pressing I would repeat the process which got me to where I wanted to be most of the time. I’ve found that 150-200 degrees for around 20-30 minutes yields great results. The darkened page issue was resolved by reducing the temperature but increasing the duration of pressing. I had concerns about the sulfuric acid and chlorine used to produce parchment paper, but was reassured that due to the short exposure time it wouldn’t be an issue. The parchment paper was a logical choice for its heat resistance, low surface energy and non-stick properties. The black ink sticking the the boards was resolved by adding a layer of parchment paper on both sides of the book during the pressing process. I resolved the “pressing line” issue by purchasing magazine sized back boards so that even if the book slightly shifted in position I still had adequate coverage around the perimeter of the book. Another problem I encountered was that sometimes the pressing process would darken the overall color of the book and cover. The later would happen more frequently with silver and golden age books. The second problem was that the black ink from the comic would stick to the back board during pressing and be ripped off the book. The first problem I encountered was the book moving slightly in the press, thus “pressing” the backboard line into the book, ruining it. This resulted in mixed results for a few different reasons. I first started pressing “test” books by sandwiching them between a pair of larger comic backing boards. ![]() It has an adjustable temperature setting from 150-350 degrees, 18.5″ x 23″ working area, and can produce over 1,200 lbs of pressure. I use a Bienfang / Seal 210M Commercial Dry Mounting Press. It’s not clear from the above scans, but the book is rather wrinkled and wavy from water damage as shown below. I would suggest wearing cotton gloves when handling the book to protect it from the oils in your skin. I freed the book from the inner case by carefully cutting the plastic encasement on 3 of the 4 sides with sharp forceps. After the seal was broken the inner case, label and book were easily removed. This was done by carefully inserting a flat blade screwdriver into the left and right side of the case, and twisting it near the bottom to “crack” the bottom seal. ![]() The first step was to release the book from the CGC holder. Our example book is an original Avengers #1 that has been graded 1.8 / Good- by Certified Guaranty Company, LLC. This is a tutorial on how to use non-restorative techniques to improve the appearance of comic books. ![]()
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