Use this article when your shop assembles hardcover cases — covering boards, turning in, jointing, and pressing — and you need Estimator to price the case-making step on every casebound quote. After this you will have a case-making binder that prices correctly on quotes for hardback books, with the case-making and stick-smash labor appearing on the price breakdown.
Steps
1. Configure the case-making binder
Open Estimate Setup → Binding Machines → Case Making, then add or open the binder you want to configure. Fill in the fields below.
Identification
Name — recommended format is brand and model, so the machine is easy to recognise on quotes (e.g., "Case Maker 1").
Tags — link this binder to upstream presses and substrate groups it can run after. Estimator uses tags to pair the binder with compatible work.
Cases this binder accepts
Sheet sizes — the press sheet sizes the cover material can arrive on. Select from the drop-down (e.g., SRA1, B1). The options come from your configured substrates.
Case width (min/max) and case height (min/max) — finished case dimensions in millimetres or inches (e.g., 105–350 mm, or 4–14 in).
Spine width (min/max) — case spine range in millimetres or inches (e.g., 3–80 mm, or 0.1–3.2 in). The max value gates whether the line can handle thick casebound jobs.
Grey board — particular to case making
Grey board calculation method — choose how Estimator costs the board: per area or per sheet. Pick per area if your supplier invoices by m² or square inches; pick per sheet if they invoice per pre-cut piece.
Grey board cost per area — board cost in tenant currency per m² (metric) or per square inch (imperial). Use this when per area is selected.
Grey board cost per sheet — board cost per pre-cut sheet. Use this when per sheet is selected.
Grey board sheet width / sheet height — the dimensions of the parent board sheet you buy in (e.g., 700 × 1000 mm or 28 × 40 in). Estimator uses these to compute how many cases fit per sheet under the per sheet method.
Grey board piece width / piece height — the dimensions of one cut piece needed for one case. Estimator multiplies these by Grey board sheets per book.
Grey board sheets per book — how many board pieces a single case consumes (typically 2 — front and back boards — plus a spine strip if your case design includes one).
Stick-smash — particular to case making
Stick-smash output per hour — the second-stage casing-in rate, where the printed text block is glued into the finished case (e.g., 300 cases/hour).
Stick-smash make-ready labor — fixed labor for setting up the stick-smash station per section (e.g., €0.20).
Stick-smash machine rate per hour — hourly running cost of the stick-smash station (e.g., €40/hour).
Stick-smash labor rate per hour — operator cost for the stick-smash station (e.g., €25/hour).
Speed
Output per hour — cases assembled per hour at the primary case-making station (e.g., 500 cases/hour). The output type is fixed at books in the editor, though the unit is cases for this binder.
Cost
Machine rate per hour — hourly running cost of the case-making station covering amortisation, electricity, and consumables (e.g., €120/hour).
Labor rate per hour — operator cost per hour (e.g., €25/hour).
Make-ready labor cost — fixed labor cost added once per case-making section (e.g., €0.15).
Minimum charge — floor amount. If the calculated case-making cost is below this, Estimator applies the minimum instead.
Make-ready and spoilage
Running spoils % — extra cases spoiled as a percentage of the run quantity (e.g., 1–3%). Casebound spoilage is higher than soft cover because hinge or turn-in failures often require a rebuild.
Over copies — extra cases produced on top of the ordered quantity (e.g., 25 for high-volume, 5 for short-run).
Open the card view on the machine row to set additional details:
Volume markup tiers — tier the markup by quantity.
Run speeds — override Output per hour for specific cover stocks or substrate weights.
Save the change. The Pending Changes count increments by one in the sidebar.
2. Connect the case maker to the product category
Open Case Binding Categories under Binding Machines and add the product categories that may use this binder (e.g., Hardback - Casebound Books). On the part row of the bound part, open Production Steps and add the case-making operation so Estimator includes it on every quote that selects this category.
Save the change. Pending Changes increments again.
3. Apply the changes
Open the Pending Changes panel in the sidebar and review the staged edits to the case maker and the product category. Select Apply Changes to publish them to live setup.
The Pending Changes count returns to zero and the case-making binder is now part of the active configuration.
Things to know
The grey-board fields and stick-smash fields are specific to case making. Saddle stitch, perfect bind, wire-o, and pad glue do not have these — leave them blank on other binders.
If a casebound quote prices the case material at zero, check whether you set Grey board calculation method but left the matching cost field blank. Per area method needs Grey board cost per area populated; per sheet method needs Grey board cost per sheet populated.
The Spine width (max) value caps the routes Estimator will pick. A 90 mm spine on a hardcover encyclopedia will refuse this binder if you set max to 80 mm — bump the value up if your shop can genuinely make thicker cases.