Re: bellows patching magic

Larry Bullis (kingfisher@halcyon.com)
Tue, 18 Nov 1997 12:44:04 -0800

>>I've been using Duro Plastic Rubber for years. It is a wonderful, globby
>>black goo that is somewhat hard to control. Seems to me I've cut it with
>>turpentine. It works pretty well, but I'm really interested in that
>>stuff Richard is using.
>
>
>Latex is terrible and doesn't age gracefully. There are people alive today
>who are living proof of this. This stuff flows nicely and that's what is is
>supposed to do, flow into cracks and seal them. I think it is a neoprene
>like product. When dry acetone will dissolve it. Neoprene is resistant to
>acetone I believe, at least it is to gasoline (petrol to you Terry).

I've tried this for painting on bellows with mixed results; I think your
stuff is probably better for that. So I don't propose it as a competitor
to your material, which I want to try also.

Duro plastic rubber has one BIG advantage however: It is available for a
couple of bucks at almost any hardware store (here in the US). It comes
in a tube, which can be resealed. I keep a tube of it in my camera
toolkit (I have a box of tools for this, since I build my own cameras).
If I'm away from the studio, and something happens to a bellows, I know
that I can affect a quick repair with a piece of rag and a tube of Duro.

As far as permanence goes, I have been using it for maybe 15 years, and
have never had a problem. It is literally holding some of my cameras
together. I use it mostly as a glue, which doubles as a light seal. It
is what I always use for gluing pinholes and other optics. The camera I
made for the Camel through the eye of the needle project (can be seen on
the camel page - the page is unfinished, but there is a picture of the
needle-eye glued into the Polaroid camera) was made with it. It is
smeary and gooey, but in its way a wonderful sculptural material. I
rather like working with it. Just what else would you use to glue a
needle into a gash in a piece of brass, and then the whole affair over
the hole where the lens used to be?

Here's what the tube says.
"Duro
Black Plastic Rubber
Seals-Caulks-Insulates
Never becomes dry and brittle"

"Clean up excess material with naphtha or toluol".

"contains: toluol and synthetic resins".

Maybe you chemists can tell what it is from this. I have to pick some
up today to use at school.

Larry Bullis
Skagit Valley College