I'm the consummate do it yourselfer, and will take a stab at making bellows soon, but I can say with complete confidence that I'll never try to make reeds. The video shows assembly, not the whole process. It doesn't show the state of the art (read expensive) piece of machinery that cuts out the plates and reed slots. A craftsman can make his craft look easy because he's good, doesn't mean it is. I watched a drywall crew work once, looked easy, so I tried it...once.
When I was young(>12) I learned for fitter and did that work(>15) for about 11 years in all kind of factories. At my first and latest job I made malls for machines wich were also suitable for making reedplates and slots and I'm with Doug that is would be possible to make them. But you really have to invest in expensive machines and all kind of other tools before you can do it.
And the biggest problem is to get the craftmanship to make reeds of superb quality.
The only thing I can do now is CHAPEAU for all those gentlemen/woman who build things that are not made like mass-products.
At link#2 the website from a czech reed manufactory.
@Bryan : succes with bellow making, because that's also a complicated job.
the sound I hear in european accordion music is not going to cut through the sounds of the other instruments in a band unless it is amped up. It has a soft silky sound more or less. The cajun accordions from Louisiana & nearby places seem to have a much more raw & coarse sound which cuts through the sounds of the other instruments & makes itself standout a lot clearer. So I figure the reeds would not require as many hours of work in their production as the reeds of the other accordions that have a far more silky soft sound.
I figure there ought to be a factory in Louisiana that makes reeds & another that makes bellows. It sure would speed up production of cajun accordions in that area because people would not have to wait weeks or months for reeds or bellows to be delivered from overseas.