The Guillotine and the Saw

How does one go about making nice pretty scans of sheets of paper that happen to be so inconveniently bound in a book?

I’m not kidding about the saw. Last Sunday I decided to scan in some aging technical manuals, but they were at least an inch thick each, and there was absolutely no way I was going to scan them on a flatbed scanner. Let me tell you how it went..

Table Saw and Band Saw

Since the books were already destined for the recycle bin, I took them to the basement and very carefully fed them to my table saw, using a special guide known to woodworkers as a “sled” to keep the book on solid ground while making it much easier for me to keep my hands away.

The result was actually pretty satisfying. I was able to trim off about a sixteenth of an inch of spine, leaving a rough finish, just like the edges of the pages on cheap book-club hardbacks. I then fed all of the pages through the sheet-fed scanner in a matter of ten or fifteen minutes.

Some time back I tried a less scary method and used my band saw for the job. A band saw is somewhat less dangerous than a table saw, but the cut line was a little wavy for my taste. The books scanned in fine anyway.

Book Guillotines

There really is a better way, if you are willing to pay a couple of bucks. Just go on down to your local office supply/copy-and-print center and ask them to cut the spines off for you. They have a hujamungous paper cutter that can cut phone books clean in half without breaking a sweat.

This afternoon, I called up both Staples and the Copy Center Formerly Known as Kinkos (a.k.a. “FedEx Office”) and I asked them what they would charge per cut of their killer paper guillotine. Staples wanted two dollars, while Kinkos was willing to chop away for a buck thirty.

Of course, your mileage may vary, since these were stores in Jersey, and yours might charge differently.

I didn’t ask them what they considered a “cut”—can you just hand them a foot-thick stack of magazines and ask them to do all of them in one shot? You probably should clarify the total price before they start cutting.

The next time I have a book to scan, I’m going to leave the power tools alone and stop by Kinkos.

[UPDATE: I stopped by the local Kinko's today and asked the guy at the counter if he would cut a whole stack of magazines at once. He said "Sorry, but our guillotine paper cutter is for cutting paper only." Oops. Undeterred, I called a different Kinko's when I got home and asked very clearly if they would cut a stack of magazines, and they said they would. I guess it depends on which person you ask, so if it doesn't work, try a different place.]

[UPDATE 2: Here's a page from a fellow who agrees with the guillotine approach, saying that Kinkos et al. will do the chop; he warns you to remove all staples first!]