In reply to the question regarding the removal of old rubber cloth
from a set of bellows, I can offer my usual solution to removing the
stuff. After measuring, take the bellows unit apart if possible and
work on each bellows individually.
Slit the open end of the bellow and begin to peel back the cloth all
the way around. Some cloth wants to tear and separate leaving the
base cloth and often the old rubber behind. I clean off the wood
surfaces as best I can with a scraper or chisel and then I usually
use a torch to carefully heat up the remainder of the cloth until
it can be scraped off easily.
This can be a smelly, nasty job but it works well and leaves a much
cleaner surface for sanding before applying the new cloth. I am
sure there are a dozen other ways that will be suggested but this is
a method I have used for many, many years and it works for me.
Jim Jelinek
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