Who makes Porters bellows cloth?

[CRhymer]

Hi Barry,
Thanks for the info. I have had the same experience with blackout cloth - too thick and not pliable, but I have had good luck with it for other darkroom uses. I recall getting some focal plane shutter material from Microtools and was intending to use some of it to rebuild the bellows for a Foth Derby 127 (quite small) - still on the "to do" list. Microtools said they could provide larger pieces at better prices on special order, but it seems impractical for anything except a very small camera.
Cheers,
Clarence

[tdeming]

Hi Tim:

The blackout cloth you mentioned is too thick for my use. It does not fold up thin enough to allow the caneras to close properly. I made two sets of bellows with that stuff. The other thing is that it does not crease well cause there is so much rubber impreganted into it. Thanks

Hi Barry,

The bellows I made for my 8x10 Kddak 2D using this cloth was a copy of the original --about 30" extension, and I didnt have a problem folding it up to properly collapse the camera (about 2.5 -3" thick folded).

I did find in my search for cloth that not all blackout cloths are the same --I went with the thinnest, which may account for our different experiences. The fabric dealer said it was an imported cloth from Europe...

I agree about making the folds though --I used a lot of compression to "set" the folds of the bellows (nothing fancy, just a pile of thick books), and they are a still a bit "roundish" on the edges.

Tim

[barryjyoung]

Thanks Tim

[argus]

Don't know if anyone mentioned this before:

I laminate my own bellows darkcloth:
- 1 layer of brown wrapping paper, so it is easy to fold. Spraypaint it black. You can stick cardboard to it to define the folds.
- both sides covered with thin black satin.

It is not thick but sturdy enough so the bellows won't sack.

Blackout curtains are way too thick, heavy, won't fold, etc...

G

[barryjyoung]

Thank you G

[argus]

you're welcome.

Additional to this, I prefer to use 120grams/m2 paper as stiffeners. Take a lighter paper and it will almost be impossible to retrieve the outlines of the stiffeners when folding.
I also tried 160g/m2 but the bellows became too thick and clumsy in folded (=closed) state.

G