Does anyone know the range of pressure required to press comics ? — like to press deep creases out of Bronze Age books — if anyone knows or has a machine with a psi or total pound force read out that can tell you please let me know. Thanks
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I’m assuming you’re using a pneumatic pressing machine. Those typically don’t go lower than 15-20 PSI. I don’t have experience w these because I use hand lever presses and I measure the pressure based on feel, not PSI. If you are using a pneumatic press, use lighter pressure. 10 PSI if possible. Generally you don’t need much pressure to get creases out. It’s everything you do before the press that matters most, like massaging the crease out with a ball bearing and introducing humidity.
Def do more research though, good luck!
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I am a newbie to getting books pressed. I decided to give CCS pressing a try of 25 books, all modern mostly from the 80’s and alot of the books came back with grading notes, with “light cover bends” and light creasing"
Does pressing not remove these types of defects? overall disappointed with the CCS pressing results.
Yes if you read some of the other threads here on pressing, people would tell you not to send books to ccs grading. You really want the monkeys at CGC to press your books? They do a quick press and that’s it. They won’t give you the attention and care that a lot of third party pressers will give your books. Search around there’s lots of good recommendations for pressers with good reputations.
80’s books are extremely easy to press because the paper stock is very malleable, shows you how careless ccs is with your books. When I started pressing myself I’ve learned through trial and error. Realized that certain defects you had to press them multiple times. I would press the books and leave them in a cold press to stop reversion. Heard horror stories of people who got their books pressed by ccs and got it graded only to see the reversion of the ticks and bends back onto the book after it was encapsulated.
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thanks for the feedback, I am regretting submitting to ccs pressing, really poor results. the turnaround time was incredibly fast, books received April 1 and all 25 books were pressed and graded and shipped by April 11. not sure if this is good or bad. but everything was done in 9 business days. regular service.
Some creasing is permanent when the paper fibers are broken. There’s no undoing that, just smoothing out as much as possible. Here’s an example from a giant size X-Men 1 I just pressed. Creasing could not be removed completely. It’s rare but it does happen.
Here’s the back cover in the slab. Creasing is mostly smoothed out and unnoticeable but the graders still noted the creasing in the notes. So it’s possible (though unlikely) that CCS did a great job on your books, maximized the grades and the graders noticed stuff that could not be completely removed. Look at the books closely and try to find whatever they’re noting. Going forward, try a local presser w a good reputation.
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dP, do you use 10x magnification when you’re working on the creases? I’ve heard some pressers say that’s what CGC uses when they’re grading your books. I don’t know how they would know this when CGC hasn’t officially said so themselves. Watching that 9.9 transparency video from CGC, the grader had a cheap little lamp on the side and was just eyeing the book on the corner and spines, zipping through the books in seconds 
Those were just modern books but I would assume they would take more care and scrutinize your books a lot more if it’s a GSX1 (unless if you’re the CEO of Comic Connect/Metropolis).
No I don’t lol but I’ve heard theories that they use magnification for checking paper textures to try and catch cleaning methods that they’d consider to be conservation or restoration. Despite what they say, I do believe CGC has different grading standards for different tiers. If they come under enough pressure and scrutiny over handing out 9.9s to bronze age and older, I predict they’ll eventually admit to having different grading scales for different eras.
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