Paces Races Restoration Progress March 29 continued
Time to rebuild the pump and horse actuator bellows.
Note the rubber cement used to patch the corners of the bellows. The corners move the most as the bellows open and close, causing more wear than the other parts or corners.
A single pump bellow has been removed. The flap valve consists of a patch of leather covered by a metal plate. The screws holding the plate are not completely tight, allowing the leather to lift off the holes, allowing air to pass. However air trying to return and enter the bellows when it expands is stopped as the leather slaps closed against the holes. The metal keeps the leather close to the holes, improving the reaction. Note the larger brass screws, compared to the black metal screws used to hold the bellows on to the air chamber.
Normally, items glued together with hide glue come apart, leaving the base wood intact. This is one of the benefits of hide glue when it comes to restoring old parts. In this case almost all of one layer of the plywood separated from the bellows board. Note the part that did not delaminate under the left hole. This board needs to be air tight. It is unlikely I will be able to fix this.
This part of the restoration was being done during the pandemic. I could just drop by the local lumbar yard and pick up a piece of 4' x 4' plywood to be used to fabricate a new board. I also needed a 5/8" drill to make the new holes. I was able to order all the pieces I might need on the internet, and paid only a slight premium to have them shipped.
These are the bellows that move each horse. They need to be disassembled and recovered.
Some of the hinges were dirty, perhaps because the vacuum was sucking air past the rubberized material in the area of the hinge. This is typically a difficult area to recover and keep air tight. Dirty hinges were replaced as there is a concern repeated flexing will cause the dirt to wear the material.
The material needs to be removed from the wood boards. Some can be carefully burned off as the hide glue melts and the rubber fabric hardens and bubbles. Then the resulting mess can be scraped off. Care must be taken not to damage or nick the wood.
The pump bellows as well as the horse actuator bellows are ready for covering. Many of the pairs of boards need hinges first.