Japanese bellows

According to Rob :

Hmm ... the only *Japanese* bellows which I have ever seen have been those for 35mm cameras -- in particular for the Miranda F and the Nikon F.

How do they differ from the bellows used in older European times? (e.g. those shown in _De Pirotechnia), in one of which the apprentice steps from one to the other with a rocking bar so his weight lifts one while it closes the other, and ones where a waterwheel turns a crank to operate two bellows in a similar manner. (Two bellows so there are no long periods of no airflow, I guess.)

And these look similar (except in scale( to the typical fireplace bellows -- a pair of which you could probably use for a smaller forge.

Good luck, DoN.

On 25 Dec 2006 04:58:00 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, snipped-for-privacy@d-and-d.com (DoN. Nichols) quickly quoth:

http://64.176.180.203/boxbellows.htm

-- Friends Don't Let Friends Eat Turkey and Drive --

So that's why I had to walk home from Christmas dinner?

They are double acting and unless you have a couple of Chinese slaves to power it you are better off finding an old vacuum cleaner motor.

According to Larry Jaques :

Hmm ... neat design. I like it.

Thanks -- I've learned something today. DoN.

You can often find used shop vacs cheap, and they're already set up as blowers. There are two easy was to control them. 1st is to use a lamp dimmer (I made up an extension cord with an outlet powered off of the dimmer in a "handy box" which the shop vac then simply plugs into). The other is to simply "waste" some of the excess airflow.

Search for "Tatara"

They're a sliding rectangular piston in a wooden box, with valves and an air plenum above it to make them double-acting. One notable feature is that they're self-contained and portable, because the furnace design used was often temporary. Quite an efficient pump design, but they are awkward to work. You have to kneel alongside them to get low enough to work them, and the back-and-forth pumping action is hard on the back muscles you probably aren't used to using unless you're a rower.

A neat design for single worker use kneeling alongside a floor-level forge, but terrible for a Western style raised smithing hearth. Easy to make though.

I've seen one that was built "upside down" (pump above plenum) to try and avoid the need to kneel. It was unstable and only worked when nailed down. I've also heard of one arranged vertically that could be worked standing.

One the whole I'd love one for re-enactment stuff, might use one for a floor-mounted casting furnace, but wouldn't consider it for smithing. I'd use a geared rotary fan, even if I had to make it myself rather than buying an old one (and they aren't hard to find).

Ah the memories. I have a Miranda Sensorex that I bought so many years ago, sitting next the the Canon F1 and EF that I never use in favor of my Sony V3.

Bellows would be much nicer than extension tubes for macro photography.

Wes S

I started with the Miranda F, and added a Sensormat later, but never the Sensorex. They were the closest thing (that I could afford at the time) to the Nikon F which is what I *really* wanted. Later, I got several Nikon F cameras used. (But the Mirandas were a lot lighter, and thus easier to carry around.)

What -- no Pellex? (Was that supposed to be one or two 'l's?)

At least my Nikon bellows can still be used on the Nikon D70 digital SLR -- though only in manual exposure mode.

But even more fun for serious close-up work is the Medical Nikkor which has a built-in ring flash, and shoots from something like

1/16" real size to 3x real size. The later version is the better choice, as it has a switch on the power supply to drop the flash intensity by a factor of 4, letting me use it at closest magnification with the D70. (The problem with the earlier version is that the flash is too bright for the minimum ISO (ASA) of 200 on the D70.)

The only problem with the later version is that the power supply uses eight D cells. (Still better than the earlier which used a 300V battery which is now apparently made of gold based on the price. :-)

Certainly more flexible than the extension tubes -- but the extension tubes are the better choice when you want a fixed reproduction ratio -- or something which adds the minimum weight to the gadget bag. I have both -- one of the benefits of buying obsolete cameras. :-)

And -- they *are* useful for photographing metalworking projects and setups, to bring this slightly back on topic. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.