The Iston Needs A Bellows

Well I've patched the 4X5 Iston bellows enough. I finally figured I'd have to try making a tapered bellows. First I consulted this site for some insight into the methods to use.

http://www.jbhphoto.com/articles/bellows/bbuild.htm

I then set about figuring how many folds, and their width I would need. I settled on 18 at .625" wide, with .500" end pieces to fold over for attaching to the camera frames.

I then had to draw out the pattern on a piece of white matte board I had laying around. This was to exact size, as it would be used to apply the cardboard stays to the cement coated cloth. This is done by using double sided photo matte tape. Two strips are put on the pattern board. The the stays are laid out in the proper order and lightly pressed on the tape. When the spray on glue is tacky on the cloth, the pattern is put in place, and lightly pressed down. When it is lifted the stays will come off and be stuck to the inner bellows cloth.

Then I built the form for the bellows. It was made 4" longer on each end to allow for clamping it to a bench. The finished bellows was to be 4.75" square at the small end, and 7.75" square at the large end. That done, I was ready to apply cloth and glue.