shutter curtain material THINNER than Micro-Tools stuff

medform-norm · Feb 13, 2006

Am looking for a source for thin yet still light tight SCM. We normally buy from Micro-Tools, but have found that their cloth is significantly thicker than what was used pre-war. The 1A Graflex is now missing one 'window' of the five that were there originally. Not that we can't live with that, but it would be great to find a better replacement, which also would put the same amount of tension on the springs as the OEM's original shutter.

I've read that someone found Japanese alternative material - but that seemed to be thicker by 50% - so not what we need.

I'll probably end up having to post this at graflex.org as well, at least, that's what I expect people here will advise me to do for lack of a better answer, but, well, I wanted to give it a try here.

TIA,
Norm

Dan Fromm · Feb 13, 2006

Norm, your instincts are good but incomplete. Wander over to www.graflex.org and ask Bert Saunders, either in public or via a private message. Sooner or later he'll notice and respond.

Cheers,

Dan

Ole · Feb 13, 2006

Check with some of the FSU ebay sellers too - Sibir_Sergey sells repair kits for FED's, and seems to have a good source for such things. He's a very nice fellow, although his English sometines takes a little imagination to interpret.

medform-norm · Feb 13, 2006

Dan Fromm said:
Norm, your instincts are good but incomplete. Wander over to www.graflex.org and ask Bert Saunders, either in public or via a private message. Sooner or later he'll notice and respond.

Cheers,

Dan

Dan,
I know Bert, we bought new stiffners for the Graflex from him. I will send him a mail, if I can dig out his address from our archives. Thanks for reminding me. - But why do you reckon he knows how to help with this?

argus · Feb 13, 2006

Medform,
(sorry for abusing your topic)

from the postings I've read from you, I'm really burning to pay you a visit and have a good time exploring your activities...

gij verdoriesche knutselaar!

G

medform-norm · Feb 13, 2006

argus said:
Medform,
(sorry for abusing your topic)

from the postings I've read from you, I'm really burning to pay you a visit and have a good time exploring your activities...

gij verdoriesche knutselaar!

G

Geert, you make that sound like an indecent proposal. Before I know it, you'll be asking me to install a webcam to see me 'at it'.... - I dunno, 'tis a dangerous road.

Dan Fromm · Feb 13, 2006

medform-norm said:
Dan,
I know Bert, we bought new stiffners for the Graflex from him. I will send him a mail, if I can dig out his address from our archives. Thanks for reminding me. - But why do you reckon he knows how to help with this?

He rebuilds Graflex focal plane shutters. That's why.

medform-norm · Feb 13, 2006

Dan Fromm said:
He rebuilds Graflex focal plane shutters. That's why.

I know, but I recall a phone conversation with him saying something like he would sacrifice a window if the material was too thick for rolling up with stiffners. I thought maybe you heard him say something about recently having hit a mine of 'mint' original curtain material.

- I should have mentioned this in the first post. When posting this, I was more thinking of material for other cameras than the Graflex, like the little Zweiverschluss Duplex. That's why I didn't mention Bert in the beginning. His stiffners, BTW, are great!

jon koss · Mar 5, 2006

Hi Norm - Small world. The original thread concerning the Japanese material is here (hope it comes up!)... It is worth a read right through.

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I ended up using the Japanese cloth in my 4x5 rebuild. Sorry for the lack of specificity, but I did not mean to imply that the Japanese cloth is 50% thicker. Rather, it is 50% heavier by weight than the Micro-tools material. Going by memory, the Japanese cloth was .008 inches thick, which is the same as I measured in the original shutter in my prewar Graflex.

My offer still stands, to send a swatch of the Japanese material to you for evaluation. I believe I have a scrap of the Micro-Tools material here also, so I could send both along. It may be that there are two thicknesses of M-T material.

Alternatively, I have a pretty spiffy ball micrometer. If you would like to send to me a scrap of your original 1A shutter (or any other), then I could mic it and let you know the actual thickness. Same for the "too-thick" Micro-Tools material in your 1A. I could mic it for you and let you know how it compares to both the Japanese material and the Micro-Tools stuff I have here.

Hope this helps,
Jon

medform-norm said:
Am looking for a source for thin yet still light tight SCM. We normally buy from Micro-Tools, but have found that their cloth is significantly thicker than what was used pre-war. The 1A Graflex is now missing one 'window' of the five that were there originally. Not that we can't live with that, but it would be great to find a better replacement, which also would put the same amount of tension on the springs as the OEM's original shutter.

I've read that someone found Japanese alternative material - but that seemed to be thicker by 50% - so not what we need.

I'll probably end up having to post this at graflex.org as well, at least, that's what I expect people here will advise me to do for lack of a better answer, but, well, I wanted to give it a try here.

TIA,
Norm

medform-norm · Mar 5, 2006

jon koss said:
Hi Norm - Small world. The original thread concerning the Japanese material is here (hope it comes up!)... It is worth a read right through.

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I ended up using the Japanese cloth in my 4x5 rebuild. Sorry for the lack of specificity, but I did not mean to imply that the Japanese cloth is 50% thicker. Rather, it is 50% heavier by weight than the Micro-tools material. Going by memory, the Japanese cloth was .008 inches thick, which is the same as I measured in the original shutter in my prewar Graflex.

My offer still stands, to send a swatch of the Japanese material to you for evaluation. I believe I have a scrap of the Micro-Tools material here also, so I could send both along. It may be that there are two thicknesses of M-T material.

Alternatively, I have a pretty spiffy ball micrometer. If you would like to send to me a scrap of your original 1A shutter (or any other), then I could mic it and let you know the actual thickness. Same for the "too-thick" Micro-Tools material in your 1A. I could mic it for you and let you know how it compares to both the Japanese material and the Micro-Tools stuff I have here.

Hope this helps,
Jon

Hi Jon,

thanks for the reply, the link to the other thread and the offer. I have measured the MT material and it is 0.3mm and the Japanese is 0.2mm - so it might seem nothing, but it will really make a difference. I think I will go ahead and order straight from mr. Asahi for the Ihagee Zweiverschluss (double shutter) camera to see what it's like and maybe use it on other shutter curtain jobs lying in waiting. If it is as good as you say it is, I might even be tempted to re-do the shutter curtain for the 1A Graflex, although it's not something I'd be looking forward to after all the time I've already spent on that camera...

I'll post results when there is anything worthwhile to report.
Cheers, Norm

epatsellis · Mar 5, 2006

Just a heads up for those who are looking for bellows material, he also sells sheets up to 1m x 3m (roughly 39" x 117")

erie

jon koss · Mar 5, 2006

medform-norm said:
Hi Jon,..thanks for the reply, the link to the other thread and the offer. I have measured the MT material and it is 0.3mm and the Japanese is 0.2mm -...Cheers, Norm

Hi Norm - Please don't spend the bucks on the Japanese material until I confirm the thickness. I was going by memory so give me some time to confirm if you are close to an order. Mr. Asahi himself may know the thickness.

Also, I may be interested in more cloth myself. The 5x7 Press that I so lovingly lubricated (but did not swap out the curtain) became so freewheeling that it snapped the dang curtain the first time I actually set it up and tried a real shot. This was after at least ten successful test firings!! Next time I will just rebuild as a matter of course and be done with it. In any case, if we do a joint purchase maybe we can save a few bucks.

Thanks,
J

medform-norm · Mar 6, 2006

jon koss said:
Mr. Asahi himself may know the thickness.

J

Hi Jon,

Mr. Asahi listed the thickness of his cloth on his website, which I found in the old thread you linked to - and which looked familiar upon visiting it. Must have been there before.

About a joint purchase: how do you figure we do that, seeing that I am located in Europe and you in the States. Don't get me wrong, I'm all ears, but I don't see what your plan is.

Cheers,
Norm

who hasn't ordered anything yet...

jon koss · Mar 25, 2006

Hi Norm, sorry, this thread slipped off my radar screen. Have you ordered anything by chance? If so, do you have any observations? As far as a joint purchase, the only thing that comes to mind: if committing to a large buy lowers the price dramatically, then it might be worth shipping the "master roll" to one address and then parceling it out from there. Sort of like the Amidol thread a while back. Don't worry, no offense taken on the joint purchase concern. This would not be my first scatter-brained idea! By the way, the Press Graflex is still taunting me from the shelf in the closet, much like the telltale heart. It really needs some attention!
Jon

medform-norm said:
Hi Jon,
Mr. Asahi listed the thickness of his cloth on his website, which I found in the old thread you linked to - and which looked familiar upon visiting it. Must have been there before.
About a joint purchase: how do you figure we do that, seeing that I am located in Europe and you in the States. Don't get me wrong, I'm all ears, but I don't see what your plan is.
Cheers, Norm who hasn't ordered anything yet...

Scheimpflug · Apr 10, 2011

Bringing back an old thread here...

Did you ever figure out a suitable shutter curtain material?

shutter curtain material THINNER than Micro-Tools stuff

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