Notemaker Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 After reading Bob Tedrow's excellent webpage about it, http://hmi.homewood.net/ I began pricing the materials needed to make a bellows. Too, it is not clear which width of tape one should select. Judging from the size of his billets, after trimming, 1 1/8", I am guessing the tape size at 1 inch. But when I saw the price of the Bookbinders' tape Bob recoes, had to look further because I am not rotten rich with money, and, sure enough, on Amazon came up with an alternative. Bob's reco; from Talas https://www.talasonline.com/Gummed-Cambric-Tape?quantity=1&size=43 $28.00 What I found on Amazon; https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W2DLEX0/ref=twister_B00W2DLETE?_encoding=UTF8&th=1 $12.95 Too, considering most folks having a go at bellows making will be doing just one to start, 150 feet is way too much while 15 yards, 45 feet, is about right. I am curious, how do other makers deal with this issue? Do we go for the more expensive solution, or elect to follow a popular Bookbinder path? Thank you for your expert suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Chambers Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 I use 1" binding tape from a sewing shop. It seems to be very similar to what Jeffries used. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_holden Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 I use about 20mm wide strips for the peak and valley hinges. The strips that connect the bellows frames to the end cards are the depth of the frame + about 10mm. I use a thin but very strong linen cloth sold in the UK under the "Fraynot" brand; presumably you can find something similar locally. I cut the strips on the bias (i.e. at 45º to the warp). I attach them using rabbit skin glue brushed onto the cards, trying not to get any on the hinge part of the cloth. On one set of bellows I tried something that looked similar to your second link. It had a rubbery glue already applied to the tape. It was a pain to use because it stuck instantly to the card and couldn't be repositioned, and the resulting hinges were quite bulky and stiff compared to what I normally use. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Pearce Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 Notemaker I have just started on my first set of bellows and have gone through a similar process to keep the costs down as far as possible. I've had to compromise quite a bit, but have got all the bits now. The cambric tape I bought came from a retailer of preservation equipment here in the UK, priced at £8.95 for 9 metres. https://www.preservationequipment.com/Catalogue/Conservation-Materials/Labels-Tapes/Gummed-Linen-Hinging-Tape It gets much cheaper if you scale up. We don't have the same options on UK Amazon as you do in the US, and would have to pay import/shipping cost to import. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Ghent Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 Buy thin linen from a fabric shop, cut it on the bias. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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