Bellows . (Difficulty rating 3)
With the bellows there are three or four things to look for. Having done the assessment you should have an idea of what needs doing to them.
Gasket
This is the easiest job. Having removed the bellows. Scrape or pull the old leather or string gasket away and carefully scrape the surface clean with a blade. If you are using our self-adhesive bellows gasket lay it out and cut it a little long. Start sticking in the middle of a side rather than a corner and trim the end off at 45 degrees. Stick the gasket down along the wooden frame until you come back to the start. Trim the end a little long and if there is space overlap by a few mm. Do the other end….
Job done . put the bellows back on and see if this has helped. If you have done the pallets (and they have had a few days to bed in). Then there may be an issue with the leather corners. Usually if this is the case the bellows will accelerate during the drop test, so if this is the case…
Leather Corners
Bellows Leathers. Take the bellows back off and pull them right open. Against a bright light look from the inside and look for any light shining through the corners. If you can see pin holes or worse these holes will need patching with very thin leather. Hi tack PVA will do the job but proper leather glue is better. Cut a small piece of leather to cover the hole on the INSIDE of the corners. Glue in place and hold firm until it is stuck properly. This is ok if you have a couple of holes but if there are several you may need a new set of bellows. If you need to replace leathers, you have to pretty much disassemble the whole assembly which may not be cost or time effective.
Metal Corners
Metal Corners, sometimes a couple of the metal corners will have fallen off. You can crimp new ones in place by very careful use of pliers. First put Hi Tack PVA in the channel of the new corner and put it in place. Very gently crimp either end of the corner first and move along to the corner. It is quite tricky to get these exactly right so take your time . and maybe try one “dry” first.
Bellows Tape
Bellows tape. This is the maily decorative tape on the exterior folds of the bellows, it’s purpose is to protect the cardboard of the bellows from wearing away. If it is worn through it needs replacing, so first carefully remove the old tape by peeling scraping or gently sanding it off. once done, cut new bellows strips to length and glue them on using PVA or similar