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Bellows Making


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Dear Budding Bellows Makers,

I have mentioned in the not too distant past that I am willing to run any interested parties through making a bellows. I am currently putting one together and am making a photographic record of the process. I do not use a former or jig and have made many, many bellows this way. It enables you to make a bellows to suit without the problem of having to make a new jig for every size. Just to dispell any poo, poos as to making a bellows this way I can provide photos of complete bellows and afadavits of many happy customers. I have taught a number of people here in Australia how to make bellows with good results. I don't feel that dispensing this information will put any makers or repairers out of business. It is still not easy to do and it takes a long time with lots of patience. However if the concertina is going to continue making a comeback we need more people willing to have a go. The fact that making concertinas is a high input low profit enterprise means that we need more mad people like me to try to provide the world with good instruments and the ability to repair the old classic ones!

Unfortunately I haven't had the time to come to grips with this new forum and posting photos is not something that I can do at the moment. I do have clever friends that can tell me how to do it, but I have to wait for advice as I live far from the madding crowd and visits from experts are not common. I will get around to it though. Any expressions of interest from budding builders will be welcome.

Yours Concerternally,

Richard Evans

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Richard,

 

As (an admittedly rather slower...insert far-behind editor face here :wacko: ) alternative, you could send me and/or Paul the images and we can put them up on a dedicated page. Or post them here and then we'll repost them on another page - best of both worlds?

 

My impression is that there is a lot of interest in this topic. Bob Snope did a bellows-making demo at the Northeast (U.S.) Squeeze-In last month, and there were many interested observers (including me). I am just foolish enough, like many others, that I (tell myself I) would love to try it someday. Bellows making is yet another thing I admire about the old-timers. I have several Lachenals up to 130 years old with very good original bellows. That amazes me.

 

Ken

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Richard,

 

I have reconstructed and resurected many a set of bellows, but making a jig has always put me off constructing a set from scratch. I urge you to take up Ken's offer, I would love to learn your technique. I have been playing around with an idea for a 'one shot' disposable former. This may render the idea obsolete!

 

Dave

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Please add my name to the list of parties interested in learning about your method. I've patched a few bellows (and done a reasonably good job, I think), but I haven't built from scratch yet. Frankly, I have spent nearly a year tracking down the materials and tools!

 

I've done a bit of layout/typesetting in my day, so should you decide that this project should become a booklet, I'll be happy to contribute my labor towards it as well.

 

Thanks for your generous offer! It does support my previous experience with the concertina-crowd: helpful, insane, generous, dedicated, and quirky all at once.

 

Vern

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Dear Bellows enthusiasts,

Just a quick reply to say that the photo project is going ahead. It seems it will take quite a few photos to do the complete process. I will have to include skiving (or paring,thanks Geoff Crabb) to the process. At present the new bellows is up to the joined skeleton of cards so that it is looking as though it really is a bellows. Next step is to attach the end frames then do the outside linen strips to make is a bare leather free bellows. Then comes the tricky leather work. Should I send the photos I have taken so far? There will be a fair few more and it might take me a while to get to the end of this job. I am currently building a new workshop to streamline Anglo production and it takes up a lot of time! I am taking the photos at low resolution to keep the file size down. Perhaps this is not the best way. Advice is appreciated. My internet connection is pretty slow as I live in the bush so if I try to send quality photos they take forever. Perhaps I could send a CD? I bow to the knowlege of the computer literate.

Yours Concerternally,

Richard Evans

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I'd be very interested in learning the bellows making process. I have plans to make a MIDI Hayden built around Jordan Petkov's "MBE" (Midi Bandoneon E...) unit. It can be configured for Anglo, English, or the Duet flavor of your choosing.

 

I'd like to build my own bellows, because I suspect that when I've added the few extra buttons to slightly expand the compass of the Hayden as I would like, that I'll need a custom sized bellows!

 

Thanks for putting together the info for us!

 

Grant Levy

 

(See the MIDI concertina thread under the "Instrument Construction & Repair" forum)

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Richard,

 

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that most folks here won't try building their own until they see your photos of the entire process, so you could certainly wait until you have it documented all the way through. Mailing me or Paul a CD might be a good way to go (allowing for transit time in the post) as you could send big images and we can easily edit them down. One caveat: write us before posting, as my life right now means my address could be changing on short notice (per new employment). We should also talk about formats etc. before you make the CD.

 

Ken

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  • 3 weeks later...

Dear Budding Bellows Builders,

The project is continuing. I have a lot of photos so far and am nearly to the stage of putting the papers on. A picture may be worth 10 to 3rd against a written description but I think that further down the track I need to do some video clips as well! Once the bellows is completed all I have to do is get the photos to you all. The most difficult thing to get across is probably the skiving and the method of keeping the knife sharp enough. Perhaps you could all pop over for a holiday and visit the Kookaburra hatchery. I am including all the info that I can and I guess once I do get the photos published I will have to answer the odd question!

Luckily we now have daylight saving for the summer so there will be 25 hours in every day to get it all done.

Yours Concerternally,

Richard Evans

post-7-1068035249.jpg

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I'm glad I managed to get just one photo on the Concer net. It was a random one to see if it worked. I am very proud of myself for working it out! I now need to send all the rest of them with instructions. It may be a big project!!!!!

Yours Concerbellowsly,

Richard Evans

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Dear Bellowphiles,

Today saw the completion of the "Kookaburra internet bellows". I can now see about getting all those photos on line for people to see. I has occured to me though that to do a proper job I really need to make a movie of some kind to show the skiving process and the gusset application and many more things that are hard to get across in a still photo. Perhaps a movie would be worth 10 to the 4th power! I will seek help for all this and have some experts who are capable, but like me pretty busy! Hang in there it might arrive in bits and bobs.

Yours Bellowsley,

Richard Evans

post-7-1068107374.jpg

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  • 8 months later...

The most recent plan was I would pick up the photos from Richard, tidy them up and put them in an html form, and then he would make them available. Although we have talked about it a lot, every time I have been to his place lately we have forgotten to do it. We have been having too much fun doing other stuff. If you agitate for it then it might well happen sooner..!

 

regs

 

Chris

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I think Richard, the best thing you could do with this is to make a video of you making a bellows, and include (of course) all the necessary dialogue to explain everything you are doing and why. To do it right you might want to hire a pro-video team, and that would cost some money, but I think a number of people out there might be interested in contributing some money to help the process along. Watching you work would be a whole lot more helpfull than observing still photos. I for one would make a donation, I'm sure there are others. Then when all is said and done, the donors receive a free copy of the instructional video, and you hold the rights for marketing, of which I'm sure there is a market for you to sell them. What do you think, concertina folks? Are you willing to throw in a hundred bucks each (or whatever) to fund a video project? Think about it........

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