Making bellows (or at least trying)
Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 4:20 pm
Hello. I have been attempting to make bellows to go with my currently mouth blown smallpipes, and I have encountered difficulty. Hoping some of you with some experience in similar matters can give advice.
For the fabric part (gusset?*) that is often done with leather, I am using bellows fabric of the variety that might be used in an organ or a player piano I suppose. It's fairly flexible and thin, but not as stretchy as similar thicknesses of leather would be.
I used contact cement to adhere it to the wood, and then I tacked over it with furniture tacks. Unfortunately there were some leaks, which I am attributing to the fact that the tacks' heads may have been hammered through the fabric itself, in close proximity to the edge of the wood, in some cases. I have one more attempt's worth of bellows fabric, but I also have vinyl (naugahyde, basically). I don't know that I would want to use the vinyl as the gusset*, but I think maybe either that or some strips of real leather could be put over the edge of the wood on top of the bellows fabric to keep the tack heads from penetrating through the fabric.
The other thing I am wondering about is whether there is a more forgiving adhesive than contact cement for adhering the bellows fabric to the wood. I found that it was difficult to align the cement on both sides (fabric to wood), and even harder to remove creases.
Any other advice that you can give me with regards to ensuring the bellows are sealed would be very helpful. The previous leaky gusset has already been removed.
Thank you all
For the fabric part (gusset?*) that is often done with leather, I am using bellows fabric of the variety that might be used in an organ or a player piano I suppose. It's fairly flexible and thin, but not as stretchy as similar thicknesses of leather would be.
I used contact cement to adhere it to the wood, and then I tacked over it with furniture tacks. Unfortunately there were some leaks, which I am attributing to the fact that the tacks' heads may have been hammered through the fabric itself, in close proximity to the edge of the wood, in some cases. I have one more attempt's worth of bellows fabric, but I also have vinyl (naugahyde, basically). I don't know that I would want to use the vinyl as the gusset*, but I think maybe either that or some strips of real leather could be put over the edge of the wood on top of the bellows fabric to keep the tack heads from penetrating through the fabric.
The other thing I am wondering about is whether there is a more forgiving adhesive than contact cement for adhering the bellows fabric to the wood. I found that it was difficult to align the cement on both sides (fabric to wood), and even harder to remove creases.
Any other advice that you can give me with regards to ensuring the bellows are sealed would be very helpful. The previous leaky gusset has already been removed.
Thank you all