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Installing Gussets Video


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Why Mike, this is really slick. Every bellows making video I've ever seen applies the gussets in pieces; doing it in a single run seems so much more natural and logical. I just wonder why noone else seems to be doing it that way. One of the comments in your video reads "clip and skive the corners;" how do you manage to skive the top run ends of the gussets with the rest of the gusset already glued in place? Is the skiving result compatible with what you get when you skive the sides of the run off the instrument?

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Why Mike, this is really slick. Every bellows making video I've ever seen applies the gussets in pieces; doing it in a single run seems so much more natural and logical. I just wonder why noone else seems to be doing it that way. One of the comments in your video reads "clip and skive the corners;" how do you manage to skive the top run ends of the gussets with the rest of the gusset already glued in place? Is the skiving result compatible with what you get when you skive the sides of the run off the instrument?

I've used both methods, but the way I did it in the video is similar to builders like A.P. James. After the glue has dried, I use scissors to clip the "ears" from the corners and then feather, or skive, the leather with a razor blade to produce a smooth corner. I do not skive the edges of the gussets. I use thin, soft leather; fish glue, which remains pliable for a time; and I use a nipping press to compress the bellows to "iron out" the transitions. I use a textured bellows paper, which also helps to produce a pretty-looking set of bellows.

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Why had I not thought of this, it would have saved me cutting thousands of gussets! My gussets are made from the left over material from the leather bandings so no piece of the roo hide is lost (the hide I use is .3mm. Can't do the same with my snake skin though: you have got me thinking.)

 

I actually purchased some fish skin glue for the same purpose as you, but then read that in high humidity and heat it will become sticky, mobile, and then delaminate, or worse still re-adhere and stick everything together: this can happen to violin finger boards for instance with animal glues if the humidity is not controlled, in fact it happened to my wife's violin when she was playing a concert in a Hokkaido summer a few years ago, the finger board slid down the neck, but this was not fish skin glue. (There are a few stories on the net of guitars delaminating in tropical areas when fish glue is used.)

 

My glue of preference is Fiebirgs Leathercraft cement which fastens like a pit bull and yet remains flexible.

 

Loved the video

 

David

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Why had I not thought of this, it would have saved me cutting thousands of gussets! My gussets are made from the left over material from the leather bandings so no piece of the roo hide is lost (the hide I use is .3mm. Can't do the same with my snake skin though: you have got me thinking.)

 

I actually purchased some fish skin glue for the same purpose as you, but then read that in high humidity and heat it will become sticky, mobile, and then delaminate, or worse still re-adhere and stick everything together: this can happen to violin finger boards for instance with animal glues if the humidity is not controlled, in fact it happened to my wife's violin when she was playing a concert in a Hokkaido summer a few years ago, the finger board slid down the neck, but this was not fish skin glue. (There are a few stories on the net of guitars delaminating in tropical areas when fish glue is used.)

 

My glue of preference is Fiebirgs Leathercraft cement which fastens like a pit bull and yet remains flexible.

 

Loved the video

 

David

Hi, David. Fish glue has a shear strength of 3200 psi. I only use it for glue-on applications like gluing leather or fabric to card stock or wood, but never for wood-on-wood applications. It is used in the pipe organ trade for building pneumatic components. I've tried removing it by wetting the materials, but it would need to be soaking wet for a period of time. I tend to think that if someone's concertina is soaking wet, there is a bigger problem than the glue :o Mike

Edited by Mike Pierceall
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Yes, wet concertinas are not a good idea. I was going to use it for the frame until I read the net entries, cost a bit too, gave it away to a guitar maker, a shame now I have seen what can be done with it. Come to think of it, my rabbit skin bellows don't delaminate, so the fish should have been OK, live and learn. Fiebirgs' does a decent job thankfully, and it does not have to be kept in the fridge, Deanna (wife) is a much happier person.

 

David

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Yes, wet concertinas are not a good idea. I was going to use it for the frame until I read the net entries, cost a bit too, gave it away to a guitar maker, a shame now I have seen what can be done with it. Come to think of it, my rabbit skin bellows don't delaminate, so the fish should have been OK, live and learn. Fiebirgs' does a decent job thankfully, and it does not have to be kept in the fridge, Deanna (wife) is a much happier person.

 

David

I say that if what you are using is working, then stick with it ;) One of the reasons that builders and restorers use hide glues is they can be reactivated with heat and/or moisture, which makes repair or replacement far easier.

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