Tiposx Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 So I made a set of bellows for a Treble Aeola at the request of a friend, and I decided to share this build on here. I found the process very labour intensive and exacting, but no more difficult than making hex bellows. I had to dig into basic maths to plan the jig, and I did loads of research on construction methods by searching this forum. The well known constructors on here have given a huge amount of information to us all freely. The end product is now installed and working very well indeed. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Wooff Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Congratulations! How's about a blow by blow account of the work ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiposx Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 Hi Geoff Woof I will post some more photos. The main feature is that my bellows design process was inspired by the Bob Tedrow method. However I didn't follow his construction techniques apart from the aspect of the crucial measurements. I have tried the bandsaw method of cutting bellows cards before but it doesn't work for me. This means that all I needed to start making the jig was the inside frame corner to corner distance, the depth of the fold (1") and the number of folds (6). The rest is just maths. I made the template for the cards from brass and used it to cut 112 individual cards using a scalpel. This was similar to the method used by Michael Pierceall. I made single pieces of leather to cover the valleys. This gave a very neat appearance similar to the Wheatstone original bellows. The need for spacing of the valley bottoms to accommodate the linen, card and leather when folded was mentioned once in a post by Dana Johnson. Most of my other ideas came via Alex Holden's work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiposx Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Wooff Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Many thanks Tiposx, really informative photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Colpitts Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Looks splendid! All I can do is shake my head in admiration....just cutting "112 pieces with a scalpel" is reason enough for me to either hire a pro or play with leaky bellows....and that looks like the simple part! Are we awaiting the first "Tiposx 'Tina" release? Regards, David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiposx Posted February 1, 2021 Author Share Posted February 1, 2021 Hi David I might just have a rest from making bellows for a little while and play music again. All that cutting is hard work on the finger joints! Interesting that the old bellows, also 6 fold, had a few patches but seemed to play well. The problem was that they smelled a bit and gave off fumes of some description that interfered with breathing. Sounds a bit dramatic but they were banned from my friend’s house, And I could only use them in his draughty old barn (when that was legal). I am a bit on the wheezy/allergic side though... These new ones seem to hold a huge amount of air, don’t really understand how but it is a good thing. I did design the fold angle at over 90 deg which must help. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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