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