Bellows Pt. 1

I've been working on the bellows, and thinking about how I might dress them up a little - in case anyone ever cares to take a peek up underneath the organ. I was thinking it would be nice to have some brass accents around in various places, and then I came up with the idea of using brass grommets as decorative inserts in the bellows board valve holes. I got a pack of 3/8" brass grommets (originally intended for making tie points in canvas or other fabric). The pack contained 24 two-piece grommets, a cutting tool and a flaring/setting tool set, all for about $6.

I drilled some slightly oversized holes - since I found that the 3/8" grommets wouldn't fit into a 3/8" hole. I also sanded down the valve area of the bellows board (which I had sealed with shellac), in order to ensure an absolutely smooth surface for the valve flap and permit glue adhesion for the ends of the flap.

Not having an anvil to work with, I set the grommet on top of the concrete on my patio since I didn't want it bouncing around when I hammered it. I did not use the washer half of the grommet, since I figured that once it was flared on both ends, it wouldn't come loose.

After flaring the straight end as much as I could, I noticed that the grommet would still swivel around a little. This didn't concern me in regard to air flow, but I didn't want the thing rattling like a tambourine. To solve this, I left the bottom half of the flaring/setting tool in place, and knocked down the top of the grommet with a claw hammer. A ball pien hammer would have been preferable, I think, but I had to use what was on hand.

Once the hammering was complete, the brass lay flush with the surface, pretty much.

Here are the bellows boards and center boards drilled, each with a set of six 3/8" holes

For the valve flaps, I went with regular blackout cloth inline valves as mentioned in John Smith's supplemental instructions. Since I had spaced out the grommeted holes 1 inch apart on centers, I found I needed to make the valve flap 7 1/2" by 1 1/2" to make sure I had adequate coverage. I also cut some hardwood holders for the valve flap ends and drilled them for use with #2  3/8" long brass slot head screws. I sanded these little holders down for thickness to make sure the screws would go about halfway into the 1/4" plywood board.

Here's what they look like with the cloth hinges in place, and ready for having the bellows cloth glued on tomorrow.