Bellows Making

[tylercooney]

I was wondering if you have any information regarding making my own bellows. I am trying to make them for a 20x24inch camera that I am starting to build. I have searched google and come up with very little information. I found one good site but it leaves some things out. One of the main problems I have is folding the bellows. I made a test one out of paper and it is very difficult to fold. I am not sure that I have the spacing of my stiffeners correct. Any information regarding contruction that you have would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Louie Powell]

http://home.earthlink.net/~eahoo/page1/page1.html
http://my.net-link.net/~jsmigiel/bellows.html
http://www.rhoadescameras.com/Camera%20Creation/Bellows/bellows.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~eahoo/page2/page2.html

[Ron Marshall]

http://www.daniel.mitchell.name/cameras/folders/folders.html

[Jim Galli]

I've actually made 3 successful bellows so far using mostly this fellows technique.

http://www.cyberbeach.net/~dbardell/bellows.html

I never bothered with the practice paper one, I just jumped right in and the first one came out fine. I just started folding and it seemed to kind of fall in place. For a camera that large you would want like 1 1/2 or 2 inch folds I would think. By bellows 3 they were even starting to look pretty nice. I use the light weight dark out material that Porters Camera sells. I haven't had to make any fancy forms so far. I've got 3 more to make but last winter a pipe broke and destroyed my room. It's repaired now, but somehow I haven't taken up the bellows projects again. Maybe this winter.

[Colin Graham]

Here's (http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=221125&Product_Count=&Category_Code) the material for bellows Jim mentioned.

One of the things I discovered in making them is that the adjacent stiffeners need to be reversed because the folds reverse. It's a given that for a tapered bellows the down fold is shorter than the up fold (going front to back), but as the adjacent side has its folds going in the opposite direction the stiffeners need to be reversed as well, so that the center of each pleat (every 2 folds) doesn't line up exactly. My first few tries I kept lining the stiffeners up all the way around and the bellows kept twisting after they were folded. After I reversed the size stiffeners for the adjacent sides they folded perfectly. Hope this makes sense.

Anyway, probably one of those things that's perfectly obvious to everyone but me. :rolleyes:

[erie patsellis]

Tyler, depending on your budget, you may be able to find a set of bellows for less than $50 (sometimes free). And as a bonus, get a barrel lens or two. Keep an eye out for a process camera (used to be used frequently in graphic arts, now not much) I got a 23"x25" set of bellows 4' long, as well as a set of 150 & 240 Hexanon GRII lenses and a nice soon to be vacuum easel for the grand total of $0.

I've made several sets of bellows and they're not very hard at all, just time consuming.

erie

[tylercooney]

Tyler, depending on your budget, you may be able to find a set of bellows for less than $50 (sometimes free). And as a bonus, get a barrel lens or two. Keep an eye out for a process camera (used to be used frequently in graphic arts, now not much) I got a 23"x25" set of bellows 4' long, as well as a set of 150 & 240 Hexanon GRII lenses and a nice soon to be vacuum easel for the grand total of $0.

I've made several sets of bellows and they're not very hard at all, just time consuming.

erie

Where would I start to look for something like that? ebay? I would be willing to pay 50 dollars for the right bellows.

[erie patsellis]

Ebay, or depending on where you live (bigger city), go around to the print shops (real printers, not the quick copy places) and ask if they have or know anybody getting rid off a process camera. the big trick is to find one close enough to drive to, if you lived near Peoria, IL, I know of a reseller up there that has 20 or 30 complete cameras, for around $100 or so. Roller transport processors in the same price range (up to 43" wide) that could easily be converted to run b&w prints (or possibly RA4, if you wanted to dig deeper).

erie

[erie patsellis]

btw, smaller vertical cameras make nice 8x10 or larger enlargers, too....

erie