E-reader Hardcover

This ible is a combination of being in love, being broke and being in need of a solution. Me and my girlfriend recently had our 7 year anniversary and she gave me an E-reader! But spending all my money on various festivities I lacked the funds to buy a proper cover to keep this awsome present safe, I had to go D.I.Y.!

If you like to read but don't want to lug around all those books and E-reader is really sweet to have, however some people prefer the feeling of holding a book. This ible solves the problem of protecting your E-reader / tablet while giving you more of a reading sensation.

Tools:

Pen / pencil

Hobby knife

E-reader / tablet

*Optional* scissors

*Optional* dremel

*Optional* a few small glue clamps

Materials:

Old hardcover book, make sure your e-reader fits in all 3 dimensions. (Unless you read scifi, then you might need some more dimentions)

Wood / hobby glue

*Optional* piece of fabric

Alright lets start by figuring out what size cover you need, place your e-reader face down onto an unwanted book to see if the x and y dimentions fit.

Next lay the book down with the back cover bent back, this allows you to place the e-reader next to it and check if the z dimention(thickness) checks out (I know you should do that to a book but you're gonna do much worse in a minute:P).

When you have your unwanted book that fits the requirements, place your E-reader face down on a piece of cardboard and trace it. Cut this template out and go on to the next step.

Place your book upside down on the table, open the back cover and place your template on the second to last page (I'll explain why in the next step). Make sure its centered lengthwise but a little off center towards the outside on the horizontal axis. This is to acommodate the spine, with books they put the printing further from the inner edge than the outer one.

Now trace the template with your hobby / exacto knife! take out the cut piece and cut the hole onto the next page. Keep this going untill the cut pages add up to about the thickness of your e-reader.

(If you use a bit more force (be carefull!), you might be able to do multiple pages at a time)

*optional*

If you want your cover to have a neutral look and a little better feel you might want to follow this extra step:

Take a piece of fabric and make sure it covers all of your book, cut out a rectangle so that you have the size of your book plus about an inch(+/-2.5cm) and go to the next step.

Ok so this step takes a while and can get a bit messy but it is quite fun:P.

I chose to cover the outside with some fabric, mostly to get a neutral cover instead of the book I was destroying, and secondly because its a better feel to hold. Now, I made the mistake to start on the pages rather than doing the cover first, so don't make the same mistake and do the cover first (picture 11)!!

Take your fabric and your book and cover the spine of the book with glue(make sure to get glue into the folds on the side). Place the book in the center and press the fabric into the fold on the side of the spine. Take your scissors and make two small cuts in line with the spine of the book and cut the small fabric piece in half(pictures 8, 9 and 10). Cover the front and back of the book with glue and place the fabric over the cover. Now put some glue on the inside edges of the book so you can fold the fabric over and glue them down, you might (like me) want to cut off a small piece in the corner so it doesn't create a bump. Take the last and first page and glue these over the fabric on the back and front cover to hide the fabric edges. The next part can be a litlle fiddly, put some glue on the edges of the spine and use your knife to poke the small fabric flaps into the spine (pictures 15 and 16).

Now get your glue and start gluing down each of the pages, I think one by one is the best approach because this allows you to keep the glue in check. Just keep going untill all the cut pages are glued down, wipe away any excess glue with something like a paper towel.

Alright now that the main work is done you can do some optional work, the edges might look a bit scruffy and you need access to the buttons so lets put in a little extra work to finish up this project.

I used a dremel sandpaper bit (don't know the real name but I think its the best description) and put it in by drillpress, you can use a dremel but that way is a bit harder to keep straight I think.

Work your way around the edges untill all the glue beads and paper bumps are gone. As for the buttons, I used the dremel bit to "carve" out a small rectangle to allow access to the buttons.

Now dust off the paper dust, load up your favorite book and enjoy holding a book instead of a piece of plastic while you read!