My $8 spray adhesive ruined a $45 rebind, here's what I do now

I used to just spray glue straight onto the spine cover without any masking, and it worked fine for a while. But last month in Portland, I tried to rebind a vintage atlas and the adhesive crept under my paper guard, staining every single page edge with that yellow gunk. I spent 6 hours trying to salvage it with sandpaper and a razor blade, but the damage was permanent. Now I cut precise masks from painter's tape and use a scrap piece of cardboard as a shield, even for tiny touch-ups. I also switched to a brush-on PVA for anything under 50 pages, and I only use spray for full cloth covers. That one mistake taught me to test every adhesive on a cheap paperback first, no matter how confident I feel. Has anyone else had spray adhesive bleed through on a textured cover, and what did you do to stop it?

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