r/comicbookpressing • u/Electrical_Ad2652 • 7d ago

Using laundry pressing machine?

Has anyone tried using a home laundry pressing machine to press comics?

We have a Sienna Empressa at home and I was wondering if it could be used to press comic books.

https://a.co/d/0aRSLHfc

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u/hightimesinaz 7d ago

You need to be able to press at 145-160 degrees, the minimum temperature of this thing is 212°. You’re going to ruin your books.

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u/agamoto 7d ago

It's interesting, you'd definitely have to alter how books are traditionally pressed, you'd need to get rid of the cushy bottom too so you've got the heat platen and a firm platform to press against. I don't think you'd want to use it's steam features at all. It's got a 10 second auto-shutoff, a minimum temp of 212F and 100lb of force. That's a lot of heat but that would rapidly cool down after the autoshutoff and it's not a lot of dwell time for the temperature to get into the book, but you might still damage the cover. A golden age book could probably take 212F for 10 seconds, silver covers could go to brown town, and I'm not sure what would happen to a modern/prestige book's cover gloss/ink at that temperature and pressure even for such a short duration. You could reduce the risk of damage to the book by using additional paper or board between the release paper and the platen maybe... I wish I had one around, would be fun to experiment. Nice size. I'd probably use it to press treasury editions, magazines... Might be handy to quickpress flat entire wraps when doing conservation.

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u/Electrical_Ad2652 7d ago

I didn’t realize the minimum temp on that pressing machine was so high. Thank you for pointing that out to me. I suppose it might not be appropriate for comic books.