01
Square up a suitably thick piece of binder’s board. I am using 2.0 mm thick Thompson’s Mill Board for a small octavo. Since my tray walls abut the outside edge of my base board, rather than sit on top, I only include the amount of material that will be within the tray, plus the book. In this case, I am adding a couple of thicknesses of covering cloth and two Suedel covered, single-ply Bristol board as ‘pads’ in the vertical measurement, and a single Suedel pad, a piece of cloth, and 3.0 mm board (the fourth wall) in the horizontal measurement.
02
Cut along lines but leave a millimetre for the book’s entry and exit of the box. A book is not protected if it has to be forced into a tray or a compartment, or if it jostles around from too much room.
03
The depth of the walls is measured by taking the base board and adding the requisite amount of material that will line the base of the trays. In this case, it’s a single layer of cloth (represented by a single-ply of Bristol), and another layer of Bristol which will be adhered to the back of the paper-flocked Suedel.
04
I take a pointed needle and rest it on the foredge, top and bottom edge, and spine and scratch a mark in vertically standing board. The offset of the point of the needle from its edge will give the little room I need for a comfortable depth. Pressing down too firmly with the needle will give a false depth. Mark the deepest point with a square and cut. The grain of the tray walls should run around the tray.
05
Cut the top and bottom walls to the width of the base board and the foredge board to the height of the base board plus two thicknesses of board. This is very easily accomplished on the board chopper with a square.
06
I glue the trays up on wax paper with melamine boards whose edges are waxed with paraffin. Glue both tray wall and base board. Add weights to the top of the melamine boards to ensure that solid contact is made at the butt joints all around the tray.
