Making Stitched Bellows Clappers
First lets start with the tools and jigs needed, take two pieces of 16 X 14 X 3/4 inch MDF or plywood sheets, these will make up the bellows stitching groove board.
These boards need to be cut to the final bellows shape and the stitching groove guide, the size and shape may vary to suit the looks you prefer, my sizes are as follows, 10" long by 5-1/2" wide.
The stitching groove guide hole in one board is, 9-1/4" long by 5-1/2" wide, see below.
The bellows insert side is, 10" long and 5-1/2" wide, see below, Once you have both sides cut out, you then fasten them one above the other and tidy up the insides, so you have a nice smooth and even line around,
It is very important that you make the stitching guide side very accurate because the router bearing will follow this surface, and any imperfections that occur along this edge will be transferred onto the stitching groove once it is cut into the clappers.
Take a given board of timber about 3/8" thick and mark out the two bellows clapper, using the side of the jig seen here, there is enough room to reach inside the jig without taking them apart, or if you prefer you can make a seperate pattern to draw around.
Place in your ready made clapper of 3/8" thick and on top of that a 3/8" spacer board to pack out the gap, then turn the whole jig over and place it on a nice flat surface.
Now the jig is ready for the router see below, picture on the right shows the shape of the cutter used together with its 1/2" bearing, the router is shown in place ready to cut the groove, practice on a seperate piece of wood before you cut into your prised bellows clapper, set the depth require to give a nice thin groove, about 1/6" wide will suffice.
The last process is drilling the stitching holes, for this you will need a set of dividers and a 1.20mm engineers drill bit.
Set your dividers to 1/4", start marking the thread holes from the centre at one end of the groove round to the centre at the other side, make sure you have the same amount of holes on each side, as this aids when stitching on the gusset afterwards.
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