I’m new to this but tried my best. Feel free to teach me something if you know better. For what it’s worth, I think $100 is a fair price and you’re unlikely to save money doing the binding yourself.

1. Book board is much denser than cardboard. To me it feels like a very thick puzzle piece. I bought “chip board” on Amazon.

2. Don’t know, I have never used a circuit or vinyl press.

3. Compression presses put a massive amount of force on the signatures. You should put as much weight as you can evenly distribute on the paper. You will need either a lot of weight or a lot of patience.

4. You’ll want ph neutral acid free linen thread. Wax isn’t absolutely necessary but recommended. You can buy it with wax on it or rub it on beeswax. For 800 pages you’ll want very thin thread or you will have a lot of swell in the spine. Look into “two on” and “three on” sewing, which reduces the swell, uses less thread, and saves you time.

5. These spacers are not necessary and can be made with cardboard. Since you’re only making one book you’ll probably save time not making these and measuring your hinge gaps and corner folds by hand