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Making springs

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Carpenter84:
Would I be a goof if I believed I could undertake the task of making a spring?

Specific case; I have a Benjamin classic .22 air rifle with the Canadian limited mainspring. Canadian law states the rifle has to be below 500 feet per second.
There are several mods you can do to get the gun back up to its marketed 1000 fps. Nitro gas cylinders, moded pistons, filling the vent hole they drill in the end of the piston, or in my case increasing the spring wire diameter from .99 to .128".
In the interim of asking for this machining section to coming to post this, after several days of internet/soul searching I fiiinally found the spring online for $37 to my door. However, there was a period where i considered the task of making a spring.
ThisOldTony on YouTube did a spring making video a while back but it covered light springs made with piano wire.
I'd be making a compression spring about 12" long, 5/8"ish in diameter with a wire thickness of .128 or close.

Since I no longer need to make the spring, I'm good, but I'd still like to learn about it. What's the metal needed? where could I find such metal? what's the heat treat process? What kind of longevity or strength could I hope for in a homeshop atmosphere with a home made forge (I'd have to make one)? You know, questions like that...

Yadda:
I look forward to seeing responses. Plierenches have spring making jaws.  I've always wanted to know what was needed to make good springs.

DeadNutz:
I think you are smart to buy the proper spring rather than try to make it Shawn.
I have never attempted to make a spring but I made thousands of parts that were heat treated to a spring temper. We used 1044M 1/4" flat bar for our parts which I ran through the punch presses to punch holes and chop to length and then formed to a complex curved shape. We sent them out to our heat treater who did a great job on the spring temper and would get maybe 1 part out of 5 thousand fail the spring test I did after they came back. I have never checked but there has to be plenty of info available out there on how to make a spring.

Spartan-C:
Shawn,

That's a tough spring to wind in the home shop.  Not saying it can't be done, just a tough one to do.

Going forward, if you have a True Value hardware store in your neighborhood, check them out. Mine carries music wire in sizes out to around .150" in diameter.  MW is a common wire used in making springs.  I don't have my spring design handbook handy, there are many different materials available for springs. If your pockets are deep enough, you can buy Inconel X750 at around $15 a pound to Elginloy at over $50 pound. ASTM A228 Music Wire is a high carbon steel with a touch of chrome added to give it some strength. Another good spring material is ASTM A229 Chrome Vanadium spring steel too.

As for making them, as you noted, there are many YouTube videos on making them.  Me, I have access to many different configurations almost at my fingertips almost free of charge.  Also, my True Value hardware store has a pretty good supply of springs to select from.  McMaster-Carr carries springs too.  Plus with all of the special springs I've designed in my past, I know several spring manufactures that will work with me on one of a kind springs when needed, but there are strings attached to it.

There are some spring manufactures up in Canada, I just don't know their names right now.

Ken

Carpenter84:
Obviously, attempting to make this one spring for less than the $15 it is for sale for, is foolish. This purchasable spring is purpose made for this application and is designed to do this one job.
I know the heat treat necessary is extremely precise and my oxy torch on a stack of fire bricks ain't gonna do it. Haha. But it's an interesting idea.
And we had to kick off our new found home with something!

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