Hi Michael,
I had already covered the original bellows with a Nylon Taffetta
material and the bellows now looks like a better than new bellows.. If I
had recoated the bellows with the Hootch I felt the brush marks would
still be evident and I also wanted the experiment of recovering. ..... The
fabric I covered it in is a very thin .0045 thickness nylon Taffeta
material that is coated on one side with urethane. Although not
completely light tight, as a covering material is very nice and durable.
The glue was Loctite General Purpose Spray Adhesive ( contact type ) which
goes on very thin and even..... It did made a difference in the way the
bellows closes but I think that is mostly due to the bellows that I had
recovered...
The bellows had stiffeners that were only about a 1/2 inch wide
with maybe 1/6 inch spacing in between...It does not allow for the added
fabric thickness in the bends completely ... It kind of wants to stay
partially ( just a little ) open now, which to me is a good thing as the
spring in the bellows now is uniform and on a larger bellows I think it
would help keep it from sagging. When compressed though, it is still very
small.
I have to admit that this bellows size was very small and yet it was
still a wrestling match to cover it and do it nicely... The trick was to
put the old bellows onto a sheet of glass using the "low tack" ( very
important that it was low tack ) double sided tape. This gave the very
flat working surface that was needed to do a nice job with out getting a lot
of air bubbles into the lamination..To do the seam, I used seam sealer and
used double sided tape on glass to keep it together for drying. ... Next
time I think I will just use contact cement as the seam sealer. The Seam
sealer , although extremely good , took 12 hours to dry.
On Larger bellows, I am going to look into a canvas stretcher if I
want to recover. If your not fussy though just the coating would have been
sufficient.
John Cremati .
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Hendrickson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Cameramakers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 4:22 AM
Subject: [Cameramakers] Re: Bellows Patch and 'bellows patch'
> Actually, regarding "Hootch"
>
> John, it sounds to me like you have committed an act of genius!
>
> I've been wondering about how to make up a mixture of this sort for
> eons!
>
> Regarding the Toyo bellows: Rather than cover with nylon, why not just
> put another thin coat of Hootch with a paint roller? Nice consistent
> pattern without the additional thickness of more fabric. Even if you're
> doubling the thickness of the coating, you won't come close to the
> thickness of fabric.
>
> Plus, the more thickness you get, the harder it is to re-fold? Maybe?
> Wouldn't the fabric thickness throw off the ratio between thickness and
> distance between strips?
>
> Anyway, PLEASE do let us know how it all ends up!
>
> Additionally, any tips on where to get these items? (Of course I'll be
> looking locally. Upholsterers/roofers/neon-ers will soon be scratching
> their heads, asking each other "who *was* that weird guy?".....)
>
> THANKS!
>
> --mh
>
>
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