The New Hotness

What with all the milling going on lately, I decided to replace the crusty bellows on the Sherline mill. The previous design worked reasonably well, but I’ve had a few tweaks in mind for a while.

Herewith, a PDF file with some Sherline Bellows – Improved:

• Color coded lines so you know which way to fold them!
• Unlined side up for a neat look
• Fits on Letter and A4 sheets
• Taping cuts and hints

The PDF page size is about 8×10 inches; call it 204×280 mm. Print it without scaling and it should just barely squeak onto the sheet. If you don’t have a full-bleed printer, the tips of the sides may get cropped off, but you can extrapolate easily enough.

Some assembly required:

• Cut it out
• Fold the central valleys (red) first, flatten it out again
• Fold the central ridges (blue) next
• Pleat the whole thing into a half-inch tall stack
• Squash it into a neat package to harden the folds
• Fold the tips along one side
• Fold the tips along the other side
• Squash the folds again
• Make the saddle cuts & fold the tabs
• Apply double-stick tape as noted (some on back)
• Install on your cleaned-up mill
• Admire!

The tip folding is the trickiest part. Basically, flip the first tip from a ridge to a valley, then chase the little transition folds into place. Repeat for each tip along that side, then do the other side.

It gets easier after you fumble around for a while.

My nimble-fingered daughter has offered to fold ’em for you. Stick a few bucks in an envelope and mail it to me; we’ll mail back two folded sets (two each, front and rear bellows) for your amusement. Kid’s gotta earn her college money somehow…

Address? Go to the QRZ.com database and search for my amateur radio callsign: KE4ZNU. Cut, paste, that was easy.

For the do-it-yourselfers, start with the PDF file in the link above. That’s the easiest way to get the correct scaling. The tabs on the ends should be 4.0 inches across on the printed page.

Here are some 300 dpi PNG files, but you’re on your own for scaling.

If you want the original Inkscape SVG files, drop me a note.