Bellows Material

[Colin Graham]

Back Again,

Then there was that forum link. It was like the Monty Python "Argument" sketch without the humour,
"Yes it is."
"No it isn't."
"Yes it is!"
"No it isn't!"
"Yes it is!"
And so forth. A teeny bit tiresome and pedantic. And Yes you are right, horses for courses. There was more I wanted to note dfown that I thought of yesterday but............That was yesterday and I am droning on, so.........

Anyone else with ideas?

Tim



.

That thread was a mess, but in my defense the link to the info about making a bag bellows was in the very first post of that thread. The rest of the thread is strictly for volunteers.

[mit nitram]

Hi Again,

Where shall I start. Well, looks like I didn't send my last post (again, Ooops), so LabRat I know the materials are going to cost me, but it is the labour (note spelling, the correct way! Ha ha.) cost where the saving is made and $100 is still a lot of money for me.

Then Fr. Mark, so much to say and quite right.

Now Jody S. Yes very inexpensive route.

If fact everybody is right I don't think I disagree with anything, but the main reason for making bellows? Some of you may have missed the point.

Doing it yourself is very satisfying.
Cost saving.
But the main reason, to have a go!

To have a go. Yes I might fail but I can try again (and watch a few more vids online), to have a go, though. Man is a great explorer and adventurer, we gain knowledge doing these "silly" things.

Have fun.

Bye for now.

[mit nitram]

Don't take offense, Colin, just having laugh (trying to. Hand bags dear, hand bags).and it was a good link.

[mit nitram]

P.S.

I have just dug out a book-

Developing
C.I. Jacobson & R.E. Jacobson
18th revised edition
A Focal Manual of Photo-Technique
Focal Press Ltd
ISBN 0 240 44770 0

Full of recipes for developers and such like.

[John Layton]

Won't something shiny inside just introduce possibly unwanted reflections? (more food for thought to "reflect" upon as you indulge in those cakes!). Am curious...just what is a pontefract cake?

[mit nitram]

I've given shiny stuff on the inside more thought. Light would be scattered everywhere but where it was needed, the film plane. You don't want anything interfering with the rays of light travelling towards it, the film plane that is.

Pontefract cakes are liquorice sweets, Wikipedia has a decent article for a change.

[Yorkie]

Won't something shiny inside just introduce possibly unwanted reflections? (more food for thought to "reflect" upon as you indulge in those cakes!). Am curious...just what is a pontefract cake?

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontefract_cake

[mit nitram]

Nice one, Yorkie.

[martiansea]

Resurrecting a somewhat old thread... I know there's been several threads on this topic, and I've browsed what I found... I'm going to attempt making a new bellows for my Seneca Improved View 8x10 and so of course I'm curious what is a good fabric to use. The Thorlabs BK-5 looks like the choice for total light blocking blackout, but people have expressed reservations about possibly the interior being too shiny, etc...
Someone in one of the threads mentioned bookbinding cloth as a possibility. So I went to my local bookbinder's resource, Talas, and I think there is some very good possibilities with this particular one for the interior: https://www.talasonline.com/Laval-Bo...tity=1&laval=3
choose the Carbon Black one. Flocked velour black is always a good choice for inside a camera... I ordered a sample swatch book of this one, as well as sample swatches of several others that seem like attractive possibilities for the exterior cloth. So, we'll see. From what I read in other threads, apart from opacity, the thickness of the cloth is important depending on how tight the bellows need to fold up, so this is something I will be taking into account when I judge the swatches.
I had thought this might be a great choice for the exterior: https://www.talasonline.com/Bonded-Leather but a review mentions it being specifically difficult to fold for a bellows, so maybe that's not such a good choice after all. I'm thinking I may end up with the velour for the interior with the BK-5 for the exterior, but who knows, maybe that velour is already quite opaque and I can get away with a more pedestrian (and colorful!) bookbinding cloth for the exterior. Anyway, we'll see what properties the swatches reveal. I just hope they aren't too thick.

[Jim C.]

Anything flocked would be a terrible choice for bellows interior, flocking is a electrostatic process of applying very short fibers
onto a surface coated with a flexible 'glue', the chance of the fibers shedding over time from the folds is a great one since
the fibers are rubbing against each other as bellows are opened and closed.
I'd steer clear of bonded leather, it's the luncheon loaf of leathers, it's too thick, if you want to use leather for the outer
covering of your bellows Columbia Organ Leathers is a good place to look at, or for that matter any place that supplies
pneumatic organ restoration supplies.