where to find light seals?

[Jerry Bodine]

Great, Jon. Always good to have additional sources. Curious, tell me more about the "high tack" stuff. Is it just sticky on part of its circumference (the part that goes in the groove), so that it doesn't stick to the film holder?

[jonreid]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'part of its circumference'. It's adhesive backed flat sheet. I measured the 'walls' and the flat portion of the groove on my SINAR and cut strips to that width. Peeled the back off and pinched the strip together, lowered it into the groove and stuck in down into the corners by poking it with a thin metal ruler. Anything sitting proud was easily trimmed off with an exacto and a small sawing motion.
Just realised you are worried about the film holder getting stuck. The grooves I re-lined are where the bellows and back clamp into (and lens board at the front).
Film holder doesn't come close to this material.

Jon

[redshift]

My SINAR Norma had disintegrating black string in that groove when I bought it. I replaced it with this stuff and its easy to cut and use and works great.
http://www.protostar.biz/flock.htm

Thanks Jon. I ordered a sheet. Looks like it will have lots of uses! kevin

[Jerry Bodine]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'part of its circumference'. It's adhesive backed flat sheet. I measured the 'walls' and the flat portion of the groove on my SINAR and cut strips to that width. Peeled the back off and pinched the strip together, lowered it into the groove and stuck in down into the corners by poking it with a thin metal ruler. Anything sitting proud was easily trimmed off with an exacto and a small sawing motion.
Just realised you are worried about the film holder getting stuck. The grooves I re-lined are where the bellows and back clamp into (and lens board at the front).
Film holder doesn't come close to this material.

Jon

Sorry, Jon. I responded too quickly without really reading the details of this material. I was thinking it might be like a strand type (string-like) item. But it certainly sounds like it'll do the job. The only light seal problem I've ever had with my Sinar Norma was the one at the film holder interface, and it caused a nasty light leak in the corner when it became unstuck and jumped out of the groove; that threw the film holder out of position and screwed up the film plane - many color trannies ruined from a seven day backpack trip in the mountains.

[Kodachrome25]

My SINAR Norma had disintegrating black string in that groove when I bought it. I replaced it with this stuff and its easy to cut and use and works great.
http://www.protostar.biz/flock.htm

+1 on this, it is thin and does not shed, perfect for LF uses. Cheap too!

[Noah B]

For light seals I use adhesive felt for all of my applications. You can get this at walmart in the craft section or anywhere that sells craft/hobby stuff etc. I've used it on 35mm and medium format cameras and it's perfect. It's around $5 for 4-5 sheets, I cut it with an x-acto to fit. The only pain is cleaning out the old foam, but once that's gone you're good to go. I recently replaced the seals on a Mamiya RB67 back and it works like a charm. Cheers.