Bellows material......Again.

[John Koehrer]

Wandering around IKEA the other day I found some roller blind used for room darkening. They're very flexible, thin(.65mm) and opaque.
The blinds are available in different widths X 77", three colors, white, black and gray.
They seem to work OK for light proofing a room and the catalog # is"tuppler"

A second thing I spotted was a hanger, for what I dunno but it hangs from a ceiling has eight arms and two spring clips on each arms and is about 12-13" in diameter.

 

[Steve Smith]

I have just bought a roller blind for my darkroom from a company in the UK (Argos). This too is sold as a blackout blind. Mine is black with a cream backing but they are also available in red, blue and green.

At night it is more than adequate at cutting out light from neighbouring properties, etc. but during the day there are a few pinholes showing. I think it would work fine as a bellows material if doubled up or lined with something else. In fact, I have an offcut which I intend to try out.


Steve.

 

[CRhymer]

Hello John,

Do you perchance mean "tupplur" ?

Cheers,
Clarence

 

[John Koehrer]

Hello John,

Do you perchance mean "tupplur" ?

Cheers,
Clarence

By golly, I did!

 

[spoolman]

Bellows material.......again

If anyone is interested,check out this site:www.diycamerakit.com.They supply a material for making bellows.It might be a little pricey.Rhey will also make a bellows,in kit form,supply all hte necessary material including ribs and adhesive but you supply the dimensions to them.

Check them out.


Doug

 

[sv@diycamerakit.com]

In my opinion, .65mm (.025") is too thick for most applications. The material I provide is 0.015 and even that is too thick for some select folding cameras that have to fold extremely tight. I would also suggest you test all materials using a methodology similar with the one I used (see this link) . A lot of materials that SEEM lightproof (including ones that are listed as lightproof) are actually not. In case of long exposures mid-day (pin hole exposures for instance), you will get fogging with some of these materials. I'm currently testing a material that is 0.005" thick, we'll see how that works out, but that will be more expensive.

As far as the prices, currently (I was recently able to drop the price) the material is $2.50 a sq foot.That makes it about $10 for a 4x5 camera.