>I was wondering if any of you has tried folding your own bellows, and if
>so if you might have any tips? I know I can buy them, but recently got
>curious about how to go about making them. Actually, I've been thinking
>about building a view camera from scratch. Any ideas or help would be
>appreciated.
I recall that at one time I myself started a thread on this very topic. I have
made my own simple bellows and used it successfully for a slide copying set-up
I made once upn a time. It was not large in size, 3" on a side, but could be
extended a fair distance ... maybe 8 inches or so.
I made mine out of the brown paper used in grocery bags and pretty much guessed
at the process ... the seam ran down the middle of one of the sides. It was
lots of fun (the folding part). Below is a note that was posted by a subscriber
to the PhotoForum list, Joe Angert. I retrieved it from a FAQ site maintained
by this list and whose contents you can get by e-mail. To get a
table-of-contents of the FAQ files available at this site just send a message
to: ritphoto@rit.edu and in the Subject: line say: faq$txt and in the
message body say: send
Andrew Davidhazy, andpph@rit.edu
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Note 27.12 -< Bellows - basic instruction in making one >-
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>Does anyone know how to make bellows? Is there a published set of plans?
I've never seen a published set of plans but I've made plenty of bellows in my
time. I'm currently using a 2x3 Century Graflex that I restored including a new
bellows. I used to do camera repair full-time some years back and I was fond of
restoring some of the grand old cameras.
Go to your local Tandy leather store and pick up a nice thin skiver. A skiver
(sp?) is a split sheep skin -- it's thin and pliable. Next get some black shoe
dye -- the liquid type, and a good quality contact cement. The last ingrediant
you'll need is a sheer fabric -- I go to the fabric store and buy some of the
synthetic stuff they use to back window curtins.
Use a pencil to draw the folds of the bellows onto the outside of the leather.
Use an existing bellows as a model. (Leave some excess leather to trim later.
Coat the inside of the leather with the contact cement and adhere the fabric to
the leather. This will provide the stiffness needed so that the bellows will
hold its shape. When the cement is dry -- use the shoe dye to throughly dye the
inside of the leather/fabric black. When the dye is dry you can start folding.
Use large paper clips to hold the corners together as you fold and crease.
Eventually the bellows will want to take its own shape.
Use the contact cement to seam the bellows together and finally dye the outside
whatever color you like -- I like red. With good care you'll have a bellows
that will last a lifetime.
Holler if you need more help.
Joe Angert
St. Louis Community College
Jcangert@aol.com