Making springs?

Don't overthink it, it's surprisingly easy. I do it pretty much the way it's shown in your link. I usually anneal at 450* in a toaster oven, but I've put plenty of them in use 'as - is'. Just don't waste your time with those 3' sticks of music wire sold in hobby stores - that's enough to make about a half a spring...

GsT
 
Don't worry Gene, I have a roll of the .025 I bought for the needle foamboard cutter.
 
j ferguson said:
I have to make some small torsion springs for a project which will need four - same diameter, but left hand and right hand, different number of turns depending on how much torque is needed, two must deflect 180 degrees, other two about 30 degrees. And NO, none of the suppliers offer what I need, some close, but no cigar.

This is a sketch of what I plan to make.

Mandrel is 3mm drill rod, the dark blue is a hardened M2 flathead screw in a threaded hole. I adjust the screw extension to turn the .025 music wire and then hold it in place with a grub screw tightened from the top of the handle.

I know the scheme shown here will only work in one direction. When I've used it a bit, I may open the depression on the body to let me turn in eiother direction. Or just make another body.

Anyone see anything goofy here?
Click to expand...
Is that a standalone setup? Your drawings aren't all that clear in that regard, at least to me.
 
Hi homebrewed. The third sketch shows the whole thing. There is a block with the 3mm mandrel and the ledge to restrain the wire. The block willbe clamped in a vise. Then the lever with the flathead screw is lowered down the mandrel and catches the wire under the flathead so that it can be turned around the mandrel by rotating the lever. Obviously at the end of the first turn, some english has to be applied to the lever to lift the wire over the feed wire.

I'll post a photo when I've made it.
 
To control tension, I just put a couple of small delrin pieces in a tool holder and squeeze the wire between them. A slight groove in one piece keeps everything tracking. Set the lathe for the pitch you want, but there will be some relaxation when taking the spring off the mandrel. The second spring you make will be perfect.
 
Made a guide/tensioner for the lathe when I needed some springs. Might take some experimenting to get the tails to end at exactly the right place but the process seems VERY repeatable so like like Winegrower said. 2nd (or 4th) spring should be perfect.
 
The problem with using my lathe for spring truning is that it's a Sherline which only has a driven lead screw when it is set up for cutting threads which involves a lot of messing around. It's true that it is easy to do, but not as easy as it would be with the kind of lathe most of you have. This isn't to knock the Sherline and I've done some marvelous and very accurate threading with it, but I'm expecting to need the lathe and make springs al,most simultaneously.
I apologize because I cannot seem to make tnis very clear.
 
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