[LazyMan]

Anyone have ideas on what would be a good method or material to make simple bellows like these? I plan to just fold them andto have the bellows slide through 2 channels.

[awerby]

Often bellows are made by laminating cloth and cardboard. For a bellows like that, you'd cut uniform strips of cardboard and glue them down on the cloth (oilcloth or rubberized cloth would provide more protection from fluids) with a little space between them to allow the folds room to form.

[LazyMan]

that doesn't sound too bad at all. I think ill try that but with plastic instead of cardboard. Thanks

[DonKes]

Do you want one like this one?

Bellows, Chip Guard 1431 - LittleMachineShop.com

Don

[handlewanker]

Hi, a guy at our model club built the Quorn tool and cutter grinder and then went on to make some concertina bellows for the round steel rails either side of the work head.

He first turned an aluminium bar about 40mm diam and cut some grooves on it but with rounded tops and bottoms.

He sprayed the bar with furniture polish as a mould release......Silicon rubber sticks like sh!t to a blanket otherwise......... and then applied a coating of Silicon rubber sealer all round the bar......silicon sealer, the type you use to seal cracks from water entry.

When this cured, approx. 24 hrs later, he peeled it off the bar and had a silicon rubber concertina bellows.

He used the clear sealer and added some black clothing dye.

This could also be used to make the flat concertina type bellows if you first make a flat mold to coat it on.

The Silicon rubber can stand a fair amount of heat so hot chips might not do too much damage.
Ian. .

[grg12]

Here: Bellows you can find instructions how to build DIY bellows - suggested materials and a program that generates
folding template. These bellows cover 3 sides - no need for side channels.
I build mine (light duty, very small machine) from polypropylene foil - scored lines with a scriber, folded, compressed in vice and used hot air gun to "fix" the form.