Glue For Bellows

[Drew Wiley]

Yes, Barge will get you high, or blow up your shop if you light a ciggie ... good ole high-VOC stuff. And Ian - there are many kinds of contact cement. Most of them are intended to be firm. You wouldn't want to glue down Formica and have it wiggly or peel up, would you? Shoe glue, on the other hand, is intended to remain flexible. The problem with high VOC liquid in certain cases, esp in hot weather, is that it will attack vinyl and potentially melt it. I don't know if any camera mfg is such a skinflint
as to use thin vinyl on actual camera bellows. I would outgas and eventually go brittle itself. I have seen vinyl used for aftermarket compendium lens shades.

[mandoloid]

This thread is still rolling and since I have another bellows project in my future I thought I'd make some phone calls on the subject. I called Leather Supply House (www.leathersupplyhouse.com) in NJ and talked to Mike. He was very helpful and said they use a glue he referred to as a PVCE glue. Flexible, durable, and somehow reversible (repairable). He didn't know what the E meant in the PVCE but said that they sell the stuff along with a great supply of leathers for bellows. BTW, he mentioned using felt for the stiffeners which is a good tip if you are looking to build a really flexible bellows for your wide movements. I also talked to Jose at Calumet who was generous with his time as well. On Cambos he uses a product by Loctite called "Vinyl, Plastic and Fabric", right out of the hardware store. Evidently a kind of contact cement. "just be sure to give it 4-5 hrs to dry" he said. So that's enough info for me to go on as far as the glue. Does anyone know what thickness or weight is best for a camera bellows?

[vinny]

So, after looking into Barge cement I quickly found lots of negative feedback on the new stuff (minus toluene) in the blue tube. The yellow stuff is still available from a few places.
http://www.filmtools.com/bargecement1.html Apparently, the stinkier the better.

[Tin Can]

Thanks!

I will order some good old toluene Barge.

There is a big movement to remove all 'dangerous' chems from consumer store shelves.

Yesterday, my upstairs neighbor got a new water heater, they used one heck of a lot of PVC glue, I was choking all day. The fumes seek ground level, and she complains about my darkroom odors, yet, I don't have a functional main darkroom yet, it's all in my well vented bathroom. and I don't use acetic acid...

She also uses oil paints which are not the most pleasant.

[shannonstoney]

I'm following this thread because I may need to replace a bad bellows. Somebody tried to do it for me, but he left a lot of leaks around the front standard. I think it's because he didn't get the old glue off completely when he took the old bellows off. How do you clean the front and back standards when you have taken off the old bellows, before you glue the new one on?

[Tin Can]

I use a lot of single edge razor blades for this type of work

I buy a 100 at a time and use them bare handed

[shannonstoney]

Ok, I like those things too. Just wondering: after you've scraped as much as possible off, do you use some sort of solvent to get the front and back completely clean?

[Tin Can]

Everybody USED to use Trichloroethene which I think is banned almost everywhere

I lost 2 coworkers to that poison, we had it in spray cans, i used it under a vent hood, they would not, no matter how loud I yelled...or begged, they died

Not kidding

Acetone, Isopropyl alcohol but scraping is what works... I use the razor blade perpendicular to the surface, and replace them often when scraping metal

[shannonstoney]

Ok, I won't use trichloroethylene! I was also thinking alcohol might work.

[tgtaylor]

I used "Goof Off" which worked fine. The can says it is a "general purpose adhesive remover" that contains "Acetone and Xylene." For the glue I used "Pilobond 25" which also worked fine. The bottle says it is "VOC compliant" but doesn't say what it contains.

Thomax