shutter curtain material THINNER than Micro-Tools stuff

[medform-norm]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum147/14291-graflex-rb-auto.html


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

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]

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

http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14291


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