Graflex.org

marktweedie · Joined: 19 Dec 2005 Posts: 2

I have just acquired my first Pacemaker Speed Graphic which is in fine order except that the bellows have lost their stiffness in a couple of the folds near the joint with the camera body. The resulting floppiness pushes the bellows inwards when it is not fully extended.

I have two fears: 1) that the bellows might encroach on the lens coverage and be visible on film ( I have yet to test - only got the camera yesterday!) and 2) that the bellows will become weak and leak light.

Does anyone have any idea how best to restore these folds to become more rigid?

Thanks for any help.

glennfromwy · Joined: 29 Nov 2001 Posts: 903 Location: S.W. Wyoming

Without benefit of being able to examine it in person, I would say the glue that holds the covering/stiffeners/fabric all together has failed. The bellows are easy to remove from the body. It should have clips that attach it to the body, which are accessed by removing the back. Remove the clips. then gently bow the mount plate outward until it pops out of the camera. Do NOT try to straighten the little bent over tabs on the bellows mounting plate. They WILL break off.
If your camera does not have the retaining clips to hold the bellows to the camera, it gets a bit harder to remove them and be able to reuse. This kind is held on by only the little bent over tabs. Extreme care and patience. Once the bellows have been removed, you can get into them to reglue where needed. Some folks do it with a hypodermic syringe inserted through the fabric liner. Good luck......

_________________
Glenn

"Wyoming - Where everybody is somebody else's weirdo"

disemjg · Joined: 10 Jan 2002 Posts: 474 Location: Washington, DC

If your camera has a top mounted rangefinder, I believe you will find your bellows clipped in place as Glenn describes. Note that the clips are not symmetrical; they have dimples that go to the rear when you reassemble them. If you have a side mounted RF, then it will be crimped in and that will be much more difficult to deal with.

If you are lucky the separation will be around the seam on the underside of the bellows, and may not extend around the sides and top. You may in fact be able to fix this without even removing the bellows, so try to determine just how bad the separation is before you fight a crimped in bellows. I have fixed several bellows with partial separations at the seam, and never had to remove the bellows to do the repair. You need to remove the front standard from the rail (by dropping the bed and sliding it off) so you can get at the bottom of the bellows better. Work some rubber cement into the open pleats through the seam (I use a long Q tip stick) and press the material together. Unless it is separated badly you will be surprised how easy it is. Try not to get the glue where you do not want it.

If the separation is more widespread, things will be tougher but not without hope. Pull the bellows, and proceed to rebond it using the rubber cement. Do not be surprised to find it full of little cardstock plates that reinforce the pleats, keep track of where they go. They are bonded between the fabric liner and the outer skin, and provide the "bones" for the pleats.

45PSS · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:12 am Post subject:

And if the bellows is not seperated and are just floppy then you can glue another layer of fabric to the inside of the bellows using a tight weave light weight black fabric and latex/neoprene based contact cement. Rubberized material used for focus cloths and changing bags works well. Check the darkroom department of a high end camera shop in your area as they might cary it, if not then http://www.adorama.com/VWFCL.html?searchinfo=focus%20cloth&item_no=1 may be the ticket. Full lenght inside covering of a Pacemaker bellows on all sides will add 1/8 to 3/32 to length of closed bellows with the linked material.

_________________
While a picture may be worth a thousand words, a quality photograph is worth a million.

[ This Message was edited by: 45PSS on 2005-12-19 19:16 ]

marktweedie · Joined: 19 Dec 2005 Posts: 2

Thanks for the input everyone. As I was not going to use the camera over the Christmas period I carefully closed the camera with the bellows correctly concertinad and left it for a week or so. Subsequently I ahve taken care that the bellows always sits properly and it seems to have regrooved itself to fold properly with no other intervention.