Debinding With a Hair Dryer?

[arsg]

Hi, I'm interested in doing some scans, but I don't really trust my shaky hands enough for the boxcutter method. I have read online about people using hair dryers, irons, or even a microwave (this sounds a bit extreme) to debind by melting the glue in the binding. Is this method safe/recommended?

[E-Day]

I've never done that. I have used a hair dryer to remove address labels form the cover. I don't know if using it to debind a magazine would work or how long it would take. Using a boxcutter and a metal ruler should help you make a straight cut without much issue.

[arsg]

I tried the hair dryer on a test dummy (an old catalog). It actually works really good, so long as you're patient and don't start trying to pull pages before the glue's totally melted. I put another dummy in the microwave but that didn't work as good, the glossy pages didn't like it and started to curl. It might work on an unglossed magazine though.

[TheRedEye]

I've done the hair dryer thing to EGMs with basically perfect results, but it takes a loooong time and your hands get really hot (maybe you can use gloves?).

Like arsg said, the hardest part is not pulling the pages out until they're ready. Just pinch them gently and baaaarely pull on them while running the hair dryer up and down the glue, eventually they'll come off by themselves.

The other part to look out for is that the glue is going to pool up as you get toward the end, but if you get good at it the glue will just stay on the cover part.