Make Your Own Springs in Seconds : 3 Steps (with Pictures)

If you find this instructable useful, please help by Digging itI make lots of stuff that needs springs. I have always hated trying to find the right spring for the job in a hardware store, then having to pay up to 10 dollars for it. When I was learning to make chainmail I came up with this method for winding rings and realized it could be used for making springs as well. It is insane how quick and easy this is.Video makes this easier to follow and shows just how ridiculously fast it is, so I included a podcast with me doing this. The spring segment is at 5:19 but don't be shy about watching the rest of the video afterwards, not to mention other episodes . also, don't forget to check out my other instructables

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A Drill, one with a little bit of torque. Heavy duty gloves, not gardening gloves. I use welding gloves. If you try this with light duty gloves, call an ambulance before you start so it will arrive in time to stop the bleeding. An arbor- just a fancy name for a rod to wind the spring on, round is common but not required. Match the arbor to the diameter of the spring you want to make. You may need a piece of square steel (I used 1/4" keystock) if you want to make a compression spring. More on this in a minute. I have 3/32" stainless steel tig rods for welding sitting around. Each rod only costs a few cents and they seem very suited for doing this kind of hand bending. while still being stiff enough to be a spring.

Step 2: Expansion Springs

For more information, please visit heavy duty tension springs.

Expansion springs are ones that stretch, like a spring in a screen door or a gate.

Bend the rod at a 90 degree angle leaving an end as long as you need to create a hook after.  Slip the end into the chuck of the drill between the teeth.

Hold the arbor in your hand grabbing the wire at the same time.  Slowly start the drill and squeeze the arbor tight to control the wire.  It may take a try or two to get the knack of how to hold it.

Stop the drill before the wire gets to the end because the tip will whip around the arbor in your hand.  If your hand is not well protected when this happens, this will be the part where you will be picking up chunks of skin off of the ground.

Slide the spring off the arbor and bend the ends into hooks with pliers.

Yes! it is that easy.

edit:
A friend emailed me and told me about a limited travel extension spring.  It took me about 2 minutes and a set of needle nose pliers to make these clips to add to my compression spring. (see pictures) The idea is that under heavy loading,  an extension spring can deform and straighten right out.  This spring can handle much higher loads stopping at a fixed point.  Pretty cool concept and super easy to make.

Board Dilly has it right about filing flat springs. If you look at original forges springs, including those made by Herschel House, and his brother, they start with a stright piece of spring steel stock, then heat it to bend it into a " V " shape, adjusting the length of the arms of the " V ", and putting the hook or claw, or whatever is needed to mount the spring to the lock plate, and moving parts.

When you look at modern springs, they are cast, and they have HUGE amounts of material at the base of the " V ". Grind and file that material down first. I found that doing so helps to release the amount of tension in the moving arm faster, than filing the arm itself. You also can file the SIDES of the leaves or arms, concentrating on the arm that moves, rather than the arm that is fixed. On the frizzen spring, the working arm is on the upside: On the mainspring, the moving arm in on the bottom side of the < .

How much ? This is always a matter of trial and error as each spring is going to be different.

With the Frizzen Spring, I find that I FIRST should file and smooth down the ares of the spring where contact is made between the heel of the frizzen, and the spring. Polish the heck out of the spring, and file or remove any casting burrs that exist on the heel. ( If you remove the frizzen from the bridle, and put it on a shelf to look at it sideways, It looks like a funny shaped boot with a high " heel ".) DO NOT FILE DOWN THAT HEEL! Polish it. Some need to have the curve on the heel re-shaped, so that the heel does not compress the arm when the frizzen open, but this is due to the lock maker having the spring arm continue to climb up above the point where the heel contacts the arm when the frizzen is closed. The frizzen spring should not be used to keep the frizzen from opening after contact is made by the edge of the flint with the frizzen. This kind of spring design was used to " fudge " some bad lock geometry, so that the lock would spark, even if the cock is located too far back, or too far forward from the frizzen. The result of combining bad geometry, and poor spring design is flints being eaten, and frizzens looking like washboards with only a few hundred firings.

Some locksmiths will heat up the frizzen spring, and turn that end down to it is parallel to the bottom edge of the lockplate from the point where the heel contacts the spring, to the end, and some just grind off the end, as it performs no real function . I like to leave the end on, and file the hell out of the part of the spring arm, to allow the frizzen to open without the heel compressing the spring further. The heel should look like a " Cuban Heel " boot in reverse, that is, the rounded edge of the heel should be towards the toe of the frizzen, and not to the back. The back edge is where you want full contact, with the spring, to keep the frizzen closed. You can leave a small flat on it, like 1/64" wide, to help it stand up on the spring arm when the frizzen is closed. Use a trigger pull gauge, hooked over the top fo the frizzen, and pulled forward until the frizzen snaps open, to determine the spring tension. 3 lbs is more than enough to keep the frizzen closed, regardless of what attitude the gun is carried. ( That means you should be able to carry the gun upside down, and even shake it without the frizzen popping open., or bang the muzzle of the gun on something ((soft!)) without the frizzen popping open. ) The total weight of most frizzens is less than 1 lbs, so having a spring with more than 3 times the tension should give enough insurance that the frizzen will not pop open.

The mainspring tension can vary from gun to gun. On a good lock with good geometry, a 10 lbs mainspring is more than enough to spark the lock. I now tell people to use 15 lbs as their objective, and only after shooting the gun for awhile, at the higher tension rate, and checking it to see that the spring is not " weakening "( It shouldn't) then slowly take it down to 10 lbs. Since I can't control how you do this work, I think its better that you have a good margin for error. I have done this more than once, so I don't need that margin as badly as I once did.

If I can, I leave filing down the thickness of the spring arms to the last resort. I have found casting flaws and voids appear doing this that has required me to get a replacement spring on more than one occasion. I stick to filing the side of the moving arm to reduce the tension after thinning the bottom of the " V ". The one caution I make to others is to draw a line from the tip of the spring arm to a point about 1/2 ahead of the bottom of the "V" and then file a long bevel to the side of the arm. You want the entire arm to move and work as a unit, and not just the tip of the arm. When you get back near the bottom of the "V", you will find almost no movement, mostly because the spring is made so wide, and those arms are very thick from the casting process back there.

If you do choose to file the flat of the spring arm, start at the bottom of the "V" and try to thin that material of the arm first. Again, remember Boar Dilly's advice, and file lengthwise, and not across the arm.

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