[SEL] Making a spring

Mon Aug 1 21:59:25 PDT 2005

Will have to await another evening for the pics, got tied up with a family
member in hospital with heart / blood clot problems.  Young woman in her
late 20's, sure hope they don’t send her home without dealing with this.
Seems to me like she's pretty vulnerable.

I did find the tool where I thought it was, it comes from Brookstone.  I
think of that company as high on quality and higher on price.  A check of
their website now seems to indicate it's not the same company any more,
they're more into the consumer stuff now and not much into tools.

I will try to describe how to make a device modeled after the fence making
tool I used to carry.  Don't know if I have such a tool now, you buy the
wires pre-formed now to attach the fence to the steel posts and you don't
need this tool any longer.  Anyway, it's REAL SIMPLE:

Take a piece of 1/8 inch strap, 1 inch wide, 8 inches long.  That's all the
materials you'll need.

Identify the size of form you want to use; let's say a 3/8 inch bolt or rod
will give you the approximate inside diameter of the resulting spring.

Heat the strap at one end, maybe the last inch or so, and bend it around the
rod to form a U with the long end being the cold end of the strap, the short
end just long enough to complete the U shape, a little extra won't hurt.
Don't close the U past the ends being parallel, you need to be able to slip
the strap on and off the bolt with comfortable clearance.

Now mount it in the vise, sticking the long end into the vise and the U thus
inverted, you're looking at the flat side...either flat side, doesn't
matter.

Take a hack saw and cut maybe 3/16 of an inch off either side of the strap.
On the short leg of the U, cut on through the end of that leg of the U.  On
the other side cut far enough so that if you were to stick your spring wire
perpendicularly into the kerf it would just touch the form if it were in the
U. 

Then cut in to meet your vertical kerf from the side, cutting down at a
slight angle so that you have a bit of a notch in the (big) part that's left
after you cut through.

That's all there is to it.  Probably dress it down a bit with a wheel or
file.  You'll eventually want to cut and notch the other side as well so you
can turn right and left hand springs, you'll figure that out in a bit.

Now mount the bolt / form into the vise, horizontally if you have room, or
vertically if you don't (having room will make sense shortly).  Anchor the
end of your spring wire. (I usually do this as part of tightening the
bolt/form into the vise.  Making a flat spot on the bolt where you clamp it
would be helpful here.)  

Now slide the tool onto the form, notch toward the vise, and engage the wire
in the notch.  Start turning and you'll wind up your new spring.  Getting
the coil spacing even will take a little practice, for starters just wind it
tight to the previous coil.

Let me know how you make out.  I confess to not having made one of these, I
do kind of the same process with the Brookstone tool.  It has the advantage
of a spacing deal to help wind an evenly spaced spring.  If I had time this
evening I would have made one like I described and taken a picture.  But the
resulting tool should be a slightly larger version of what I used making
fence a generation or 2 ago.  That was a little smaller, the wire was mild
and the radius was small and the tool was made to slip into your overalls
pocket comfortably.

Happy winding!

B²

Bill Brueck (brick)
Chatfield, MN, USA

Confusion is a higher state of knowledge than ignorance.

-----Original Message-----
From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
[mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of Bill Brueck
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 10:56 AM
To: 'The SEL email discussion list'
Subject: RE: [SEL] Making a spring

This is close to what I have, likely better than what I have.

I will try to send directions tonight to build-your-own for a specific sized
form, built on the concept of the fencing tool I used to use.  But I expect
something like Rob references would do an easier job of maintaining a
consistent pitch.  

B²

Bill Brueck (brick)
Chatfield, MN, USA

Confusion is a higher state of knowledge than ignorance.

-----Original Message-----
From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
[mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of Rob Skinner
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 9:14 AM
To: 'The SEL email discussion list'
Subject: RE: [SEL] Making a spring

> Where did you get the spring making kit with that small of holding jig 
> like one we use for fence making?  Attempting doing one using a pair 
> of pliers and was not successful.

Hi Curt,
I think what you're looking for is a Spring Winding Tool.  Take a look at
this item offered from MSC:

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXNO=1759558&PMT4NO=471498

It works fairly well, holding the wire, maintaining tension and maintaining
pitch.  On the same page and the previous page of the catalog, MSC has two
different spring wire assortments.  You might as well get one of each so
you'll have the material on hand.

Rob

=-=-=-=-=-=
Rob Skinner
La Habra, California
mailto:rskinner at rustyiron.com
http://www.rustyiron.com 

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