Putting this here for others if they have the idea to do this. I made these out of 304 stainless. Got everything from OSHCut. These were not cheap to make. I could have bought the factory bellows a few times over. My 440 was purchased used and the way covers were torn up. It gave me an excuse to design some telescoping ones. I didn’t realize how much work would be involved in making these but it was a fun project and I learned allot in Fusion360, which was my main excuse to do this.
If interested there is a YouTube video series on the build if you are interested. Maybe it will help you with your own designs.
A few things I would change.
- Wrap the bottom around so that the covers slide into each other like a tube. This helps keep them aligned.
- The scissors mechanism needs to be really tight. The holes should be reamed to the proper diameter. Any slop and it doesn’t work right. It was my first cover build so I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
- Make sure to account for how to mount them. I didn’t and had to make a modification on the fly, it worked but I felt dumb for missing such a simple design element. I am an electrical guy so that is my excuse.
- Make the mounting blocks to the frame out of bent sheetmetal. The thick stainless is a pain to tap by hand and bent sheetmetal would have been cheaper. Could have been aluminum as well.
