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Okay, I seem to be at a roadblock....

 
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Rangemaster



Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 412
Location: Montana, Glacier National Park

PostPosted: Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am in the need of some very thin leather, like was used on the outside of the old Kodak 2D cameras, I am in the process of restoring one and have to redo the bellows due to many years of drying out.

Anybody have a secret supplier they may want to leak the information to me, I have checked with the guys in England and they said 6-9 months, and I am not that strong to wait that long!!!

Dave
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RichS



Joined: 18 Oct 2001
Posts: 1468
Location: South of Rochester, NY

PostPosted: Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I'll say "Good Luck!" and hope for you the best

I went through a similar search when I wanted to repair the bellows on my Century Universal. No luck whatsoever. For a lot of money and for small pieces, you can get such leather from some antique book restoring/binder places, even on the net. I'm sorry I don't remember who but a search of leather book and binding would bring them up. There's a few big places that do deal in such leather, or possibly. I didn't pursue it...

But if you find a source of such leather, please let me know!!!


Ahh, checked my bookmarks... Try Gaylord at:
http://www.gaylord.com/bookrepair.htm
to get an idea...
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[ This Message was edited by: RichS on 2004-06-07 19:58 ]
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Rangemaster



Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 412
Location: Montana, Glacier National Park

PostPosted: Tue Jun 08, 2004 3:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Rich,

What did you end up doing with your Century, I was thinking about dieing some very thin elk hide that I have the right colors and applying to the corners to fix the worn through areas. and trying to make it look as if it was re-enforment material that had been put there on purpose......of course I guess it would be put there on purpose..

Dave
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RichS



Joined: 18 Oct 2001
Posts: 1468
Location: South of Rochester, NY

PostPosted: Tue Jun 08, 2004 4:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I replaced the bellows!

Which is partially true. I had one bellows that was a replacement and still good. For the next camera, I had another replacement bellows that's not so good but looks light-tight. I just shot the first test shots with that camera today...

The final fix will be a new bellows from Camera Bellows. ot cheap, but from what everyone has told me, the only place to go...

After all that, I have at least one original leather bellows that I'm going to try to repair. There's no rush, so I haven't tried to nail down a leather product yet. Most of the reapirs will be reglueing and trying to get the old leather back into it's original position so the splits won't be too obvious. For the missing sections, I just hope to find something that will work.

The problem with the CU is a nesting bellows. It's 29 inches that collapses to 1 inch! A real trick... So there's no room for anything thicker at all... I have held three of these in my hands and worked two cameras so far and I still can't understand where all that material goes when it's collaped!

So, right now I'm hoping that _someone_ finds a good repair leather and then when I'm ready to tackle the original, they tell me where to get it

Good luck with yours!
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Rangemaster



Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 412
Location: Montana, Glacier National Park

PostPosted: Tue Jun 08, 2004 4:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I did get a bit lucky this evening, I was looking at them and the 2D bellows don't have allot of taper to them and the last 2 inches behind the front standard was the real problem, so after looking a bit more at the cracked leather, I was able to peel the dried out leather from the inner cloth and carefully trimmed the bellows a bit shorter, not enough to make a difference, since I still have not found the rear rail for this particular camera yet, and I was able to reglue the inside wood mount back into the bellows with rubber cement, then I took some of my thin elk hyde and rubber cemented that over the seam, a little codoban die and it will look pretty good, I also fashioned some corner patches for each one of the corners on the bellows folds and it seems to be light tight and after the die job, should fit the bill.

The next trick is going to be the back, after looking more, figured out this was a 6.5 X 8.5 full plate camera! that someone had put filler pieces in to make it work for 5 x 7, unfortunately they had fixed the film holder area off center, making it very difficult to use. So now onto rebuilding the back, or finding a original 5 x 7 back as the chassis on this one and the 5 x 7 are the same, the only difference was the spring back.

Hmmmm, if it is not one thing, then it is another.....

but being as picky as I am, I will keep searching for a leather source.

Dave
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clnfrd



Joined: 26 Mar 2002
Posts: 616
Location: Western Kentucky Lakes Area

PostPosted: Tue Jun 08, 2004 12:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thin leather? Would any of this help?

http://www.micro-tools.com/Merchant2/restore.htm
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RichS



Joined: 18 Oct 2001
Posts: 1468
Location: South of Rochester, NY

PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 7:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:

On 2004-06-08 05:09, clnfrd wrote:
Thin leather? Would any of this help?

http://www.micro-tools.com/Merchant2/restore.htm

I haven't asked them, but they don't offer any thickness for that leather. And it's "Morroco grained" which may not be too good for a bellows...

I think we'd need someone who has purchased this stuff for a deffinite opinion...


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Thomas Evans



Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 10
Location: Northern California

PostPosted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 1:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

For specialized leather, try this site: http://www.leathersupplyhouse.com/
They say: "Your Search for the highest quality Leather Supplies and Musical Instrument Leather is over! Twenty-one years ago, The Leather Supply House began working with leather tanneries around the world, dedicated to learning their process in order to meet the needs of Builders, Restorers, Designers, & Craftsmen like yourself. The Leather Supply House now stocks Leather and Organ Tools, Rubberized Cloth, and much more. Were not just leather anymore!
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