Attaching Leatherette Trim An Alternative To Pilobond

[AnthonyJC]

Hi,

I have had reason lately to have to peel off and re attach various sizes & shapes of leatherette trim, including an awkward shape on the grip of a Nikon MD-3 winder.

Traditional wisdom states that the weapon of choice for re attaching leatherette trim is to use Pilobond or similar contact style adhesives. If anyone has encountered this stuff or Evostick type alternatives they can be a royal pain in the preverbal to use.

What I wanted to share here is a much neater, and less messy method that I have used, that has so far been 100% fool proof and is undetectable.

Instead of gluing down the trim, I have been using an ultra-thin 3M double sided clear tape (type 300LSE). This is primary used for mobile phone repairs etc, but as its only just over 0.1 of a mm thick, it is no thicker that a layer of contact adhesive in use.

The 3M tape comes on flat sheets (10cmx10cm), so it’s been a doddle to make a pattern first then peel of one side, attach to the leatherette trim, un peel the other side of the tape & attach in place.

Just make sure all previous traces of the old adhesive have been removed from both surfaces first.


Best Regards

Anthony

 

[RaglanSurf]

Thats really useful to know, thanks Anthony. I've always shied away from cutting my own replacement leatherette as I couldn't find an alternative to the glue so I always used the ready cut kits fromcameraleather.com. Although their kits are always excellent sometimes I don't need the whole kit and it seems a waste.

 

[AnthonyJC]

Thats really useful to know, thanks Anthony. I've always shied away from cutting my own replacement leatherette as I couldn't find an alternative to the glue so I always used the ready cut kits fromcameraleather.com. Although their kits are always excellent sometimes I don't need the whole kit and it seems a waste.

Your welcome.

It was a bit of a Eureka moment when I had to take some leatherette off the prism on one of my cameras, and scratched around for any alternative to contact adhesive.

Regards

Anthony

 

[Steve Smith]

We use acres of that adhesive at work. We buy it in sheets 610mm x 915mm and in rolls. Car manufacturers also use it to attach trim to bodywork. It's very strong, just make sure you put it in the right place as you don't get a second chance!


Steve.