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Detailed Instructions For Building Bellows


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Another really good photo essay, thanks for sharing some of the secrets of your trade.

 

With all the flak about concertina prices, seeing how a proffessional builds one re-affirms the value of skilled craftmanship.

Edited by Hooves
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Hello everyone,

 

In the spirit of open communication, may I offer my method of bellows construction?

 

Take a look.....it took me years to develop it and several hours to photograph and narrate it.

 

http://hmi.homewood.net/bellows

 

 

I am interested in your comments, I may completely disregard them as the maniacal ramblings of a demented mind... but please don't let that stop you. I am interested.

 

 

All the best, I hope you enjoy the show.

 

 

 

 

Bob, you have come up with some amazingly innovative and clever techniques. They make my slow and laborious method of bellowing look positively archaic!!

 

A question: I see that you have glued in hinges in the valleys of leather (brown colour). Am I correct in thinking that you eventually add a black leather overlay for these. And if you do, do these (presumably skived) overlays overlap the gussets, or do the gussets overlap the overlays? I presume the former is correct.

 

Chris vonderborch

 

Bob Tedrow

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Hello everyone,

 

In the spirit of open communication, may I offer my method of bellows construction?

 

Take a look.....it took me years to develop it and several hours to photograph and narrate it.

 

http://hmi.homewood.net/bellows

 

 

I am interested in your comments, I may completely disregard them as the maniacal ramblings of a demented mind... but please don't let that stop you. I am interested.

 

 

All the best, I hope you enjoy the show.

 

 

 

 

Bob, you have come up with some amazingly innovative and clever techniques. They make my slow and laborious method of bellowing look positively archaic!!

 

A question: I see that you have glued in hinges in the valleys of leather (brown colour). Am I correct in thinking that you eventually add a black leather overlay for these. And if you do, do these (presumably skived) overlays overlap the gussets, or do the gussets overlap the overlays? I presume the former is correct.

 

Chris vonderborch

 

Bob Tedrow

 

 

 

Hello Chris,

 

There is a picture missing of me applying a black dye to the sheepskin skiver. I dye it after the gussets are glued in, I don't want the dye to affect the glue joint there.

 

I use a Feibings Black leather dye, I have used the same black as I use for black lacquering as well.

 

Bob

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I have had a couple good questions about properties of various glues. I though I would answer them here instead of replying individually.

 

MY MOST HUMBLE OPINION, based only on my personal observations, I offer this.

 

Hide Glue VS PVA

 

I have found hide glue to be marvelously flexible, in spite of its spectacular hardness, when compared to a surface glued with a polymer adhesive.

 

Hide glue dries so hard that when it is flexed it breaks into hundreds of tiny glue fragments and provides excellent flexibility at that point while still providing excellent adhesive properties.

 

Contrast this to a polymer based adhesive, which dries to a gooey hard tough mass that is forever stiff and sluggish.....and unflexible.

 

 

The bias strips of cotton that I glue with hot hide glue to the external fold of the concertina bellows provide the strength and flexibility of the bellows. The thin layer of PVA I use on the leather is there to hold the leather in place and provide an airtight surface.

 

 

It does take some fancy footwork to use hot hide glue as their exisits only a modest window of workablilty before the glue "gels" and looses its stickness.

 

Bob

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Hello everyone,

 

In the spirit of open communication, may I offer my method of bellows construction?

 

Take a look.....it took me years to develop it and several hours to photograph and narrate it.

 

http://hmi.homewood.net/bellows

 

 

I am interested in your comments, I may completely disregard them as the maniacal ramblings of a demented mind... but please don't let that stop you. I am interested.

 

 

All the best, I hope you enjoy the show.

 

Bob Tedrow

 

 

 

 

Bob, many thanks for sharing that brilliant stuff...very time-saving!!

 

I have one minor question: How do you go about joining up the skeletal bellows when you finally fold them into a hexagon??

 

Chris vonderborch

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Yes I quite agree. I'd go so far as to say that your bellows making skills are, technically speaking, both "sick" and "phat". I think even Wheatstone and Jeffries themselves would concur that Tedrow's bellows are "the shizzle fo' rizzle"...

 

Way to keep it real T-Row!

I must say, concertina.net continues to surprise and impress by its educational possibilities. Here for instance we have an unparalleled opportunity for the educated Englishman to learn something of the argot or common speech that is seemingly so widely spoken spoken by our cousins across the Pond. If I understand it correctly your posting is, er, "phat", John, thank you.

 

(Back on subject. I really appreciate your photos, Bob. Another craftsman I know, Pete Hyde the melodeon maker, sends photos to his customers week by week as building proceeds. It raises one's anticipation amazingly. As for me - I treasure the thought that one day I might play a bass anglo powered by bellows like these.)

 

Chris

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Hide Glue VS PVA

 

Can I also add that some varieties of PVA let out a vapour that stains Nickel silver yellow. The vapour is present for a long time after the glue has hardened, like months. I did a patch test on polished metal and some varieties were a problem and others were not. They have different names everywhere but for those in Australia the Selleys Craftglue is OK, Aquadhere is not OK

 

Chris

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Bob, many thanks for sharing that brilliant stuff...very time-saving!!

 

I have one minor question: How do you go about joining up the skeletal bellows when you finally fold them into a hexagon??

 

Chris vonderborch

 

After the bellows are cut, the ends are brought around and the assembly is dropped into the 1/8" rabbet cut into the bellows frame. The assembly is secured by glueing its attached lined to the bellows frames. Then rubber bands are stretched around and dropped into the valleys. The rubber bands help the bellows behave for the next step. Next the hide glued bias cut linen is put on the outside folds.

 

I hope that is the answer you are looking for

 

Bob

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Yes I quite agree. I'd go so far as to say that your bellows making skills are, technically speaking, both "sick" and "phat". I think even Wheatstone and Jeffries themselves would concur that Tedrow's bellows are "the shizzle fo' rizzle"...

 

Way to keep it real T-Row!

I must say, concertina.net continues to surprise and impress by its educational possibilities. Here for instance we have an unparalleled opportunity for the educated Englishman to learn something of the argot or common speech that is seemingly so widely spoken spoken by our cousins across the Pond. If I understand it correctly your posting is, er, "phat", John, thank you.

 

 

Not spoken by everyone on this side of the pond. I have no idea what these words are about, except from context. Probably this is because I do not own a television (lots of time saved!), and am not around children much (unless you count college students in that number).

 

Ken

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Yes I quite agree. I'd go so far as to say that your bellows making skills are, technically speaking, both "sick" and "phat". I think even Wheatstone and Jeffries themselves would concur that Tedrow's bellows are "the shizzle fo' rizzle"...

 

Way to keep it real T-Row!

I must say, concertina.net continues to surprise and impress by its educational possibilities. Here for instance we have an unparalleled opportunity for the educated Englishman to learn something of the argot or common speech that is seemingly so widely spoken spoken by our cousins across the Pond. If I understand it correctly your posting is, er, "phat", John, thank you.

 

 

Not spoken by everyone on this side of the pond. I have no idea what these words are about, except from context. Probably this is because I do not own a television (lots of time saved!), and am not around children much (unless you count college students in that number).

 

Ken

 

Well, I was having a little fun trying to use updated slang, but I don't talk that way myself. If I do, it's usually followed by chuckling. However, there are plenty of young folks on this side of the pond that speak this way regularly, but I doubt that they're concertina players.

 

Bob's bellows making techniques are very clever, very logical and yes, quite awesome! I just wish Jeffries and Wheatstone could comment. I'm sure they would sing praises of some sort, though maybe not in a hip-hop idiom.

Edited by John Sylte
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  • 1 year later...

Well that one was a great one to repost, I'll say! All the edges are skived on the traditional bellows, except the edge that goes up to the finished outer wood on the frame of reed pan. Also what is different from Bob's bellows is the skiving of the the paper board edges on the outside edge of the "mountain" peak, verses the "valley" edge. good luck. w.

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Here is an interesting article regarding hot hide glue and how to use it, albeit, for player pianos.

 

Hot Hide Glue usage

 

at the bottom of the page is "More Questions" and the page link for Using Hot Glue

 

Guess those new bellows are getting closer to reality....

Edited by RustyH
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Oh man, glad I'm not the only one..... :lol:

 

Just came out here to cruise the site, I've been tearing apart my shop looking for a suitable piece of wood from which to make new ends for my Rochelle, just for fun. I have a nice piece of yellow cedar burl (but think doing the fancy fretwork would likely split the small bits if pushed on), one of quilted maple, and an Australian Blackwood block which is really intriguing me. I'm going to do a mock up first, probably in birch, but I do have some nice quarter sawn western maple platter blanks that might do...

 

The problem might be the thickness of the plate having to be the same as the Rochelle plywood (and I don't imagine I'll come close to it's lightness), I'll have to see if there is room to make it a bit thicker. Well, I'm off to sketch out a fretwork design, I wonder how much new ends would change the sound.....

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