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Many years ago I visited Steve Dickenson's shop. While I have used the core or tube type bellows forms for odd sized or non hexagonal bellows, I much prefer these molds which are a close approximation of what he used from the old Wheatstone factory. They are not difficult to make out of wood, though I impregnated my one wooden version with wax to keep glue from sticking. They are meant to be used with the bellows frames mounted and an integral part of the bellows making process. The aluminum versions are great if you are making a lot of bellows. Steve's aluminum versions were cast metal, I just milled mine from bar stock 6063 aluminum, and precipitation hardened them in my baking oven. The bars swing to the empty center and are pulled out the ends when finished. I recently split them and added inserts to do 5, 6, 7 or 8 fold bellows. Steve's had small central wooden cores that had a channel down the center of each side that a bar on the mold sides fit into. I just put a short section of core on the end plates to keep everything alligned. The clamps for the finished bellows are two parts, one interior set (not visible) to compress the inner folds (Chris Ghent mentions this). And the end pieces to compress the peaks. . Dana