A little advice please

[Bob Salter]

Hi all,
I realise i may be in the wrong place entirely here but I am trying to make bellows. They are wooden cheeks and the leather is to be handsewn on using saddle stitch. I bought some long waxtwins and made a start but the results are appalling. I couldnt sew for more than three inches without the thread breaking and they twisted up making an awful mess no matter how careful I was. I would happily sew with two needles but if the eye of the needle is big enough to take the thread Im using, it is also too big to pass through the hole in the wood. I dont want to make the holes any bigger as leaks become a problem.
I was considering trying an automatic awl but can anyone suggest anything I could try in future that might work?

Bob

 

[Angst]

hi...just a guess here but the man you need may well be dave budd....scroll down on the forum home page...hes in the traders section...good luck,

a

 

[redandshane]

http://www.manaraefan.co.uk/index_files/Page408.htm

Is this of any use?
Nice project hope you get something that works for you

 

[Dave Budd]

you called?

That link is pretty good, the bellows are a bit posher than mine though!

Bob, why are you sewing the leather to the wood? Aside from being a pain to do, the thread will rub and break against the wood in use anyway. Best off using tacks. I've found the easiest way to join the leather and wood is to run double sided tape around the edge of the wood, stick the leather in place and then go round with 3/8" tacks every inch (or you could use a thicker strip like in the link, but I'm lazy so never have!). If you ae making a different style then maybe some pictures would help us to find a solution to you problem

 

[Dogoak]

I've never made bellows but I have restored antique ones. As Dave said the normal way is to tack the actual bellows leather to the wood, the spacing is very, very close together as you want it to be fairly air tight. Then a strip of leather, the thickness of the wood, goes over the horrible little tacks, and is fastened with nice upholstery studs at about 2-3 inch spacing. To get a nice balance with the spacing it will depend on the size of the bellows and the studs you're using.