Bellows for Igniting Fire

Spring has come and the whole summer is ahead - which means a lot of country trips, meeting with friends, relaxing in the wild or camping. And, of course, this is an indescribable aromatic cuisine on the grill or on the fire. And nowhere in all this diversity can you get away from the fire!

In the wild, this is an opportunity to cook food and warm up, in a camping it is a cozy atmosphere and songs with a guitar around the fire (in Russia, an integral point for summer evenings). And you can't live without food at all: coals for grilling, tandoor ovens, Finnish candles for cooking food in a frying pan - all this requires fire!

Therefore, I would like to tell you about a device that greatly facilitates the campfire life. We are talking about bellows for kindling a fire.

The bellows are used to obtain a continuous air stream and are used mainly in blacksmithing and glass-blowing, as well as in some musical instruments (bagpipes, accordion). They have been known since ancient times, they were used in ancient Egypt.

The technical meaning of the device is that air is drawn into the inner space, and then leaves it in a continuous flow, which allows you to kindle a fire easily and without any difficulties. Regardless of the weather. Even in conditions of insufficiently dried firewood or coal. Easily and naturally make any fire in no time!

Let's get started :)

1. Plywood 9mm

2. soft leather 1.5-2mm thickness

3. Sander

4. grinding machine

5. boron machine

6. furniture stapler

7. screwdriver and drills

8. wood glue

9. stain

10. varnish for wood

11. a pen

12. scissors

13. grinding knife

14. glue for leather

15. creaser

16. hammer and nails with a large head

17. double-sided thin tape

18. copper tube

19. Super glue

20. ruler and compasses

21. pattern building paper

Using a milling machine, we cut out all wooden parts from 9 mm plywood. You can use a material with a thickness of 10-12 mm, that will be great too. The structure will gain additional strength, but it is worth considering that the weight will increase slightly.

I do not recommend taking thinner plywood, in order to avoid additional difficulties in the assembly process. In addition, there is a great risk that thinner plywood will break during use, we tried 6 mm - it broke :(

It is very important to grind everything well. The better the material is processed, the more pleasant it is to work with it, and the smoother the paint and varnish fall on it.

For this I use a grinder and discs with a grid of 180, 320, 500 or 600 (here I do not pretend to be an expert, if you think that you need to grind with other discs, so feel free to do it, the main thing is a smooth result!)

It is not necessary to sand the edge strongly, since almost all edges will be covered with leather.

We make approximately the same bevel on the handle pads.

This bevel is not difficult to do, but it is very important for the aesthetic appearance.

I do this at an angle on a sander using 80 grit discs and belts. After shaping, I create smoothness using the higher number discs from the previous point.

We mark the trapezoid of a larger size. as shown in the photos.

In this step, we drill a hole with a drill bit much smaller than the nozzle, about 3-4 mm.

There are several reasons for this:

1. it is more convenient to drill with a thin drill, less chance of drilling through in the wrong place

2. can be drilled from both sides

3. the walls remain quite thick, the part does not become brittle

4. drilling a thin hole is easier than drilling a large diameter hole at once

Read the instructions for your glue carefully! The quality of the connection of parts depends on this.

We only glue the handle strip to the short base.

To the base with a hole, on one side, glue the overlay on the handle, on the other side, first a large trapezoid, then a small one. Thus, a place is formed for the nozzle and fastening the bases to each other. We use clamps for high-quality gluing.

It's time to finally shape the handles and grind all over again.
For bends and small corners on the sidewalls, I use a drill with a flexible shaft and grinding attachments.

By sharpening the handles, you can immediately adjust their shape to make it more comfortable for your hand, later this will not be possible.

I used a special wood finish for the beautiful color and durability: a brown water based stain. This stain needs a protective layer to avoid coloration of the hands during further use.

If you use a non-aqueous protective coating, it protects well from moisture and does not stain your hands, then it is not necessary to varnish further, and you can skip the desired item.

We expand the space for the nozzle, reaming it to the diameter of the existing copper tube so that it fits snugly. In my case, an 8 mm drill is used.

The pattern is built quite simply, do not be alarmed. I tried to show everything in the photographs in as much detail as possible.

In addition, I prepared a drawing for those who have the same dimensions and plywood thickness of 9 mm as mine :)

The main thing is not to forget to make an additional 1 cm margin on each side. This stock will bend.

Also, if you used plywood of a different thickness, do not forget to take this into account.

We apply a layer of varnish to protect the wooden parts from moisture and our hands from stain :)

While the varnish is drying, we will deal with the leather.

Cut out the prepared pattern along the outer (blue) contour. There is nothing difficult, the main thing is to do everything quite carefully.

Carefully transfer the pattern to the inside of the leather. First, we outline the outline (in our case, blue), then carefully bend the paper pattern along the inner (black) line around the entire perimeter and outline its outline too.

It is convenient to use the pen for leather. It is also convenient to put several weights on the pattern so that there is no displacement in the process.

After both lines from our pattern are transferred (photo 2), draw another line on the skin, now 1 cm inward (3 photos). This is an auxiliary line, to this line we will make a fold.

Here, too, everything is simple. We cut along the outermost line. We extend the left and right edges by about 3-5 cm and cut with a margin, so that later it would be possible to bend and fit everything in place.

The grinding knife must be very sharp, otherwise it will stretch the leather and thinning will be very difficult. I had to sharpen a knife several times in the process.

Please note that we are only thinning the space between the middle path and the edge. In addition, there are areas in the center (where the handle will be) that do not need to be thinned, this is important!

We fold and glue the edge.

We glue only those places that we thinned in the last step. The inner line will show you where the folded edge should go.

Mark a line at a distance of half the thickness of the plywood.

I have 9mm plywood, that is, at a distance of 4.5mm from the edge of the skin, I need a markup.

In order not to bother with a ruler for a long time, it is convenient to use an adjustable creaser. It allows you to draw lines at a specific distance from the edge.

We redraw the scan of our nose.

To do this, I first attached and circled the front end, where there is a hole for the nozzle.

Then I attached and circled the large trapezoid glued to the base, it is located between the base and the small trapezoid.

Top and bottom added 1cm for the hem. Then we draw a line 1 cm deep, to which we will bend.

Then we draw diagonal side folds at a distance of 1 cm and vertical side lines at 2.5 cm, but they will not stick to the skin itself, so there are no additional lines to where the fold is.

Cut along the outer lines.

We thin the edges with the same sharp knife for grinding.
But not everything, we do not touch the diagonal side lines, this is important!

We fold and glue only the top and bottom edges.

Using a punch, we punch a hole for the nozzle.

You can make a slightly smaller diameter because the leather is soft and can fit snugly around the nozzle.

We mark the lines for the nails, just as we marked them earlier at the same distance of 4.5 mm (in my case, with the help of a creaser).

We mark only above and below

Saw off the tube of the required length.

In my experience, 20-25 cm is sufficient.

For the valve we need a circle about 10-11cm in diameter.

Infinite accuracy is not required, but it is still better to follow something that looks like a circle. :)

This time, draw a line for the studs about 1 cm from the edge of the flap.
An adjustable creaser can again be of great help.

Using a ruler, I marked the locations for the 8 studs. Although this can be done approximately by eye.

We punch holes with a diameter of about 2 mm so that the valve then freely slides over the nails

When noting the valve attachment, it is very important to take into account some points:

1. make sure you make marks on the correct side of the workpiece
2. make sure the face of the skin is flat against the plywood
3. try to mark the valve approximately in the middle with a plywood base.

It is very convenient if, in addition to the holes themselves, you also note the correct position of the valve. For example, by making a common mark on the valve and on the plywood

Using a very thin drill (less than 1 mm) and a very shallow drill, mark the holes for the nails. This will facilitate the installation of the valve. But here it is worth considering what size your nail diameter is.

To install the valve, you need nails with wide heads of the required length up to 9 mm so as not to pierce the workpiece through!
I couldn’t find any suitable nails, so I took nails with a large head and cut them to the correct length.

Hammer in nails shallow; For good valve operation, a clearance of about 1 mm is required between the cap and the casing.

We glue the folded part of the leather to the plywood base (without a hole in the center) with double-sided tape.

It is important to glue it carefully so that the remaining non-glued part covers the trapezoid and the end of the second plywood base well.

Mark and drill shallow holes for nails with a 1 mm drill or less.

Since we never got short nails, we will have to trim the existing nails again. Then we carefully hammer them into the prepared holes.

This time, the nails must be driven in completely.

We glue the leather and one of the plywood bases onto double-sided tape. This will help determine where the leather should be attached to the base with the staples.

The folded side of the leather is attached to the short base!

With a furniture stapler, we attach the skin quite tightly in the area of the base of the handle. At this point, there should be no fold on the skin.

The leather is attached to the back of the grips!

We make sure that the copper tube is even, if necessary, carefully align it with our hands.

The aligned nozzle must be inserted into the hole so that it protrudes slightly from the inside for further adhesion.

We fix the nozzle with superglue from the inside, then pull it out a little. Thus, the copper tube and plywood should bond well.

It is convenient to use a compass to mark even holes on the nail line.

The next step is to carefully drill the thin holes for the nails with a 1mm drill or less, this will allow the nails to be hammered in and help prevent the plywood from splitting.

The tighter the nails sit, the better.

We collect everything approximately to the point of the flexible joint.

It is very convenient to coat the junction of the leather and plywood with leather glue during the assembly process. This increases the service life of the product.

Mark on the inside of the leather where the plywood base ends.

Trim the tip at an angle to form a neat fold.

We hammer nails into the joint and the end part.

We mark and drill holes for nails so that the flexible joint has as little opportunity as possible to move incorrectly.

We hammer in already uncut nails, the length should be up to 20-25mm.

Finally, we polish the leather with a mixture of carnauba wax.

This will add shine and prolong the life of the leather.

Done! You are gorgeous!

Now it will definitely not be difficult for you to make a fire in the fireplace or light a fire in nature and grill meat regardless of the weather. This thing greatly simplifies life and allows you to get more pleasure, instead of wasting time on the unpleasant but important procedure for making fire!

Enjoy!