flexible bellows making

Hi folks,

Well, the story goes like this: I started with an old Sinar A1 monorail, chosen because it was 1. cheap, 2. a monorail, and 3, marginally more packable than an F. Discovered that "marginally more" was not "useably more" and got a Shen Hao. Much more portable, but I find that I prefer monorails. Basically I'm looking for a modular Technikardan. I still have the A1, I'm reasonably comfortable around milling machines and drill presses, and figure: why not take the standards off the Sinar and attach them to a collapsible rail. This provides the option for mix-and-match standards, so if I find a non-Sinar 5x7 or 8x10 back I could still use those (not being a gear fetishist I don't mind Frankenstein love children).

The kicker here is the bellows. The first version would use the existing Sinar bellows, which would have to be removed when the camera is folded. The question is: how does one make a bellows that can stay on the camera, TK-style? I've a good feel for working aluminum and steel, none at all for fabric. Is this too ambitious for a first time camera hack?

Barry Young (search on this forum) has written a nifty handbook for making bellows. He should be able to direct you to a source for the book and advise you on materials.

Hi Davet,

If you want to try your hand at bellows making, two cheap materials that you can try out are black-out drapery fabric and simple black (or whatever color you want) cotton fabric. The drapery fabric you need to paint black on one side, because it normally only comes in white. It goes on the inside of the bellows. Use ordinary flat black latex paint and you can thin it down with water if you like to make it spreadon easier. The cotton goes on the outside of the belows. Both materials are easily found at your local fabric store. Use thin poster board (or manila file folders) for the "cardboard" stays.

You will need to get some source such as Barry Young's book (there are other bellows making sources you can find on the internet) to learn how to measure, cut, and fold the bellows.

They aren't all that hard to make, but it will take some time since you are new to it.

The possible difficult thing is that when your camera is folded up, how far apart are the front and rear standards. On my Technikardan, the standards are very close together, and the bellows is made out of a very thin plastic like material that does not have the stays. If your standards are as close together as on my technikardan, you have a real challenge. You might have to go to someone like Western Bellows to get one professionally made to get it that thin when compressed.

I know that there are a lot of members who have also made their own bellows and may have other advice. The best way to learn is just jump in head first and try making a test bellows out of something simple like a grocery bag (not light tight but will easily fold with no stays).

Hope this helps,

Dan Dozer said:

The possible difficult thing is that when your camera is folded up, how far apart are the front and rear standards. On my Technikardan, the standards are very close together, and the bellows is made out of a very thin plastic like material that does not have the stays. If your standards are as close together as on my technikardan, you have a real challenge. You might have to go to someone like Western Bellows to get one professionally made to get it that thin when compressed.

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Thanks all for the advice. Right now the design has the standards about 1" apart when folded, maybe a little less. I think you're right about experimentation...

rwyoung said:

Barry Young (search on this forum) has written a nifty handbook for making bellows. He should be able to direct you to a source for the book and advise you on materials.

Click to expand...

The book Modern Bellowsmaking is available if anyone should desire a copy. It will allow you to make a bellows for any application simply and successfully with no previous experience and will keep you from wasting money and time on making a bunch of incorrect bellows "learning how". email me for details at barryjyoung@yahoo.com.

Thank you Robert, it sounds like you enjoyed your book.

Some resources:

http://www.cyberbeach.net/~dbardell/bellows.html (probably the easiest approach)

http://my.net-link.net/~jsmigiel/bellows.html (better bellows but more difficult assembly)

http://pheugo.com/cameras/folders/folders.html (look for the downloadable book)

http://home.earthlink.net/~eahoo/page2/page2.html (another simple and easy technique)

(there was a url link here which no longer exists) (for designing a tapered bellows)