DIY Bellows Calculator

[ChristopherCoy]

I’m not scared of diy’ing things, but what I am scared of is math. I’d like to build some replacement bellows for the 45MCRX chassis that I have. The upper bellows are a straight square, simple enough. The lower bellows however are a trapezoid, or upside down pyramid - larger at the top than the bottom.

Before I take to disassembling things, I want to make sure that there is some resource somewhere that I can refer to. Does anyone know of a “calculator” of sorts where I can put in some measurements and have it spit out exactly what I need? Maybe even a printable pattern?

 

[Dan0001]

If your original bellows just has a few holes I would recommend patching it rather than replace the whole thing. Some rubberized compound found in auto stores should work. The result is not pretty but my Beseler MCRX patch work has held up over 15 years.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

This is one of the DIY things that is probably worth spending the money to get one already made, because by the time you've made your fourth or fifth one that finally gets it right, you'll have spent three or four times what you'd have spent to buy one (not a criticism of you personally... just speaking from experience of DIY'ing shit that I didn't need to DIY).

 

[ChristopherCoy]

This is one of the DIY things that is probably worth spending the money to get one already made, because by the time you've made your fourth or fifth one that finally gets it right, you'll have spent three or four times what you'd have spent to buy one (not a criticism of you personally... just speaking from experience of DIY'ing shit that I didn't need to DIY).

Ok. The only place I can find replacements looks like they’re around $175-$200. I guess I’ll wait and get those later then. It’s useable as is I’m just in the “clean everything up and replace stuff” mood.

 

[ProfessorC1983]

Not a calculator per se, but I found this page to be useful in thinking about bellows design in general: https://manual.standardcameras.com/0_e/