Topic: How to fix leaky bellows?

[Glen]

I finally started feeling a wee bit better lately, (permanent spinal injury; long story) and a good thing too, because I'm really tired of laying flat on my back in bed for days/weeks at a time, so I decided to get up and about, and attempt to find a way to adapt my lovely 1917 Kodak Autographic 1A folder to accept 120 roll film. Turns out it's quite simple really; just a matter of sticking plastic wall anchors into each end of a 120 spool, and then make a mask to support the narrower film. Piece of cake.

Then I got the bright idea that I should at least shine a light into the back of the camera to check for any leaks in the bellows, although the camera looks absolutely flawless; as if it is brand new. So how bad could the bellows really be!

Well, quite bad, it turns out. Although it shows no signs of wear on the exterior, the flashlight clearly tells a different story. So my question is... what can I do to fix these multiple leaks? I assume (hope!) that there must be some product out there that can be applied to fix light leaks in bellows, (I'm about to Google this shortly) and I'm hoping that some of you may have some personal experience with fixing these; that you may feel like sharing some of your wisdom?

I really, really want to use this camera. It's a real beauty; the finest I have ever seen. (well, aside from the bellows, that is!) The Anastigmat 130mm f7.7 lens looks like brand new. The leather is immaculate. The shutter is perfect. It even still has the original engraved stylus for "texting" a message onto the film. If there is any (affordable!) way to get this fine camera back to being light-tight, I know that it will take beautiful pictures. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated!

Thank-you all!

Glen

[Keith]

I've always had great success with black Sikaflex. It's a very high quality silicon that remains flexible and is light-tight.
Buy the smallest tube you can (it's not cheap). You don't need to use a lot.
Oh, and don't get it on clothes or your fingers - it sticks like s... to a blanket! 

[sapata]

Glen, the Sikaflex seems to be a great idea, but I fixed the bellows of my Autograph with a mix of detergent, black liquid shoe polish and white craft glue. The bellows were in really bad shape and in some parts I had to apply some thin black paper on the holes to help.

It worked really well for me!
http://www.picturenoise.blogspot.com.br/search/label/Kodak%20Vest%20Autographic

[Terry]

I've always used liquid electrical tape.  It's commonly available in hardware stores and it usually comes in black and red, so if you have red bellows you can make something that approximates the right color.

[Francois]

I know many use liquid electric "tape" with some success.

But for bigger gashes, I've used the regular black tape. Makes the camera quite ugly but it works...

[moominsean]

the problem I've had with liquid electrical tape is that it eventually dries up and falls off. I use regular electic tape...the cheaper and stickier, the better.

[Glen]

Some great ideas here; thank-you one and all! Looks like I've got my work cut out for me!

Glen

[sethasaurus]

Hey Glen, nice camera! I've got a 1A looking down at me from the shelf.

I've done bellows repairs before and the 'liquid tape' sounds similar to what I was using to seal the little holes at the corners of the bellows. These parts seem to get the most wear. The stuff I used was a kind of liquid rubber for sealing roofing.

For big splits or holes, I've taken pieces of old silk (try the local charity store), spread the same sealer into the fabric, then glued it inside the bellows with contact adhesive. This works really well as the silk is very thin and flexible. It's also looks a bit better than a bit of tape slapped on the outside.

You just have to make sure everything's good and dry before collapsing the bellows, otherwise they'll stick together and you'll have to start again.

[Magnus]

...and don't put to much of the stuff you are going to use on the bellow. I once tried to repair 10000000 pinhole-light leaks on an old folder. Yes, all the light leaks disappeared and yes, it looked wonderful. But there were so much more material on the bellow that it wouldn't fold into the camera body any more...

I used "Plasti dip", it worked very well, but I should probably stopped after the first layer.