Making a Hole Punching Cradle

Making a hole punching cradle is made easy with this little template, which I hope will be useful. Designed especially to aid punching holes in signatures for bookbinding, this little cradle will help get the holes evenly placed. Please download the PDF below and follow the directions to put it together. The directions are printed onto the template for ease as well.

You will need:

  • Glue
  • 2mm card, A4, long grain
  • Cutting mat
  • Craft knife or stanley knife
  • Metal ruler
  • An awl (aka bradawl / pricker)
  • Gaffa tape

Instructions:

  • Stick the template to some card, approx 2mm thick.
  • Using an awl/bradawl, pierce the 8 black dots.
  • Cut all the dotted lines using a craft knife.
  • Assemble all the bits.
  • Tape along the middle gap from the back with strong tape, e.g gaffa tape
  • Please do not share this template, instead share your creations and tag @thebookhutter.

I will be going over this design as part of my #teatimetutorials on instagram, please do come and have a look and join in with your own cradles if you make them.