Crimping machines

On Feb. 6, Karla Geerlings wrote:

> My library has been looking into the possibility of making our own
> phase boxes in-house.  We have not, however, been able to locate a
> commercial supplier for a board crimper or creaser.  We would be
> willing to have our own built, or to modify a board shear in some
> manner if we knew where to begin.

I have successfully used a modified board shear for crimping for
many years.  The modification is fairly simple and easily undone,
allowing normal use of the board shear.

I took an old 24" guillotine blade that had surpassed its useful
life on the guillotine, filed the edge so it would no longer cut and
mounted it on the board shear clamp.  To mount the guillotine blade
I bored out the threads in the bolt holes, and had corresponding
holes drilled and threaded in the board shear clamp.  The guillotine
blade mounts on the back side of the clamp, the side opposite the
shear blade, and is secured with thumbscrews.  When mounted there is
about 3/4" clearance between the table and the guillotine blade.

A good crimp requires that there be a corresponding groove opposite
the crimping blade into which the blade can press the material to be
crimped.  I created a false table top for the board shear composed
of binders board and archival board.  The binders board provides the
base and two pieces of 60 pt board are laminated to the binder's
board leaving an 1/8" gap between the pieces that forms the groove
corresponding to the blade.  I will admit that this makes kind of a
cheesy base and it has always been my intent to redo it.  However,
after probably ten years it still does the job though it looks
somewhat battered.

Once the above is set up, board is crimped by simply aligning it
properly under the blade and using the clamp foot pedal to bring the
clamp down and press the crimp.  The quality of the crimp is quite
good. The guillotine blade goes on and off as needed in a matter of
a minute or two.

A brief note regarding board shears: my board shear has a flat
surface on the side of the clamp where I mounted the guillotine
blade.  Mounting the guillotine blade required very little
modification.  However, I know there are board shears out there with
protruding bolts on the back side of the clamp that are used to
secure a row of press plates on the front of the clamp.  A friend of
mine had such a shear.  The solution was to drill a series of holes
in the guillotine blade corresponding to the bolt heads such that
they protruded through the blade, allowing the guillotine blade to
snug up tight against the clamp.

Should anybody be interested in trying this solution and need any
further clarifications, please feel free to ask me.

Pete Jermann
Preservation Officer
Friedsam Memorial Library
St. Bonaventure University
St. Bonaventure, NY 14778
716-375-2324

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:71
                 Distributed: Monday, February 10, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-10-71-011
                                  ***