I have finished my first bellows yesterday

[Andrey Donchev]

I just wanted to share with you all my joy of finishing my first bellows yesterday. It is for the 12x12 wet-plate camera I'm finishing right now. It is made out of two layers of fabric found in the local fabric shop. They where quite dense when alone and when combined they made a totally lightproof solution.



https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-NUuJamAv5fQ/TlSb4Yywm4I/AAAAAAAAAnU/EzgQlHtKWeE/IMG_0110.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-lU7YkJaivfU/TlSb4IuQdPI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/MkwHtrniads/s512/IMG_0123.jpg



A doddle! Will show you the new camera in a few days!

A.

[salihonba]

beautiful! good job!

[GPS]

Kudos to you, Andrey. Many of those on this forum who want to build their own bellows could learn from you. Nice also to see home made bellows with correctly made/folded corners!
What exactly is the fabric made of? Cotton? Artificial material? If it is just cotton it will be very prone to pinholes when used often. Hope it is not the case.

[Ari]

Very impressive, Andrey.
Will you be publishing your bellows-making technique?

[Andrey Donchev]

Thank you all for the kind words! The outer fabric layer is combination of cotton and some artifitial material. The inner is artifitial only. My bellows making technic is combination of all information found on internet and most specially the manual found on the J.B. Harlin site (http://jbhphoto.com/articles/bellows/bbuild.htm).

A.

[jayabbas]

Very nice work Mr. Donchev. How many hours of skill in your bellows?

[alex from holland]

Bravo !
For Michiel's camera ?

alex

[northcarolinajack]

That is a great job. Just installed a new bellows on my Kodak full plate, but would not even try to make a bellows. Would like to hear the details of your adventure, however.

Jack

[David Karp]

That is a great looking bellows. Looks like it was made by an experienced professional.

[GPS]

...
It is made out of two layers of fabric found in the local fabric shop. They where quite dense when alone and when combined they made a totally lightproof solution.
...
A.

It seems you've found the right material combination - quite a difficult achievement (as J.B.Harlin noticed too). A possibility to initiate small business with all those interested...? ;)

[Joe Smigiel]

Looks good!