Re: Folding Bellows
By Larry Toto
Craig Brougher says:
> Mathew Caulfield asked whether or not I put a hard crease in my
> bellows when I fold them: I certainly do. The reason is simple: When
> you leave the crease wide, the wear and tear will be concentrated in
> that section of the cloth and the bellows will wear out more rapidly.
> If you put a sharp crease there, it's like a pair of pants-- when you
> bend your knee, you still have the crease, because it didn't move very
> much, so the rest of the pant leg had to do the moving so you could
> bend your knee. That means, you "strain-relieved" the area that the
> wear is normally concentrated in. You are forcing the cloth to
> distribute the wear and tear equally on both sides of that crease.
> Now if you leave a peak fold to "travel" back and forth, or you put
> in a flat fold (I never recommend that for anything) which causes the
> inside peak on the sides to strip the cloth as it moves, either way,
> you will wear out the cloth MORE RAPIDLY with a sharp crease than with
> no crease at all.
I'm still a little confused. Is it better to put a sharp crease or not. Craig, you seem to favor creasing, but the second paragraph above seems to indicate a potential danger when you do crease.
The I was told by Durrel Armstrong (Player Piano Company) and also read in the Reblitz book that putting sharp creases in the pneumatics and bellows material concentrates the bending motion, decreasing the life of the materials. That is why I put felt spacers inside the pneumatics when I rebuilt them. The process of clamping the pneumatics onto the stack can crease the material sharply without a felt spacer. I was also careful not to put sharp creases in the reservoir and pump material.
'Tsup wit dat? (Sorry Jody.) [ I can take it ;-) ]
Larry Toto
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(Message sent Mon 10 Jun 1996, 16:46:33 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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