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making springs, need a soft formable material

eqshop9689

Plastic
Joined
Aug 31, 2017
Hi,

Looking for soft material that i can make springs out of, then once the spring it formed, i can heat treat it.

I have alot of fairly complicated springs to make, that i cant use any wire that already has some sort of heat treatment, it would be to difficult to bend and form.

what material could i purchase to make these springs ,and then heat treat them to function.

one spring in particular is a double torsion spring that is connected.
 
Maybe your most readily available material is spring wire. It has the right composition so you know it can be a spring in the end. Anneal it, maybe the whole roll, then make your springs and heat treat again to spring temper.
 
Hi,

Looking for soft material that i can make springs out of, then once the spring it formed, i can heat treat it.

I have alot of fairly complicated springs to make, that i cant use any wire that already has some sort of heat treatment, it would be to difficult to bend and form.

what material could i purchase to make these springs ,and then heat treat them to function.

one spring in particular is a double torsion spring that is connected.

Just form them hot. Really hot. See Sangam period "urumi" whip-sword.
 
smaller springs are usually made from prehard music wire (spring steel). You can get it almost any size and shape imaginable.

The heat treatment of small springs is kind of a shitshow that's why you make them from pre-hard material.
 
All good info here

i got on the msc website and ordered both the High Carbon Steel Tempered Music Wire Coil and 316 Spring Wire Coil

i will give them a shot

thanks for the input
 
All good info here

i got on the msc website and ordered both the High Carbon Steel Tempered Music Wire Coil and 316 Spring Wire Coil

i will give them a shot

thanks for the input

I've kept a couple sizes of these in the drawer for the better part of fifty years as well:

Staff and Pivot Watch and Clock Wire Rod Assortment Blue Steel .55 to 1.93mm 12 pieces - Esslinger.com

One use is hairpin and similar springs. One time I even made an uber-mini boring bar!

The advantage is that for about five bucks and damned small storage space you can always have get a lOT of choices "right here, NOW" as to diameter.

2CW
 
"Staff and Pivot Watch and Clock Wire Rod Assortment Blue Steel .55 to 1.93mm 12 pieces - Esslinger.com "

Thats it "termite' you said you were in the jewelry trade when you first came here. But how does the 1959 Niles 50hp lathe story fit in with that BS? Hong Kong bank must have financed you in that endeavor!
 
Blued pivot steel is high carbon steel that has been hardened, ground and then tenpered. It will snap when bent. It's called pivot steel for a very good reason
 
Blued pivot steel is high carbon steel that has been hardened, ground and then tenpered. It will snap when bent. It's called pivot steel for a very good reason

Good grief! No f**king wonder...

Fortunately.. some of us with fewer mental limitations own.. wait for it...

heat sources!

Butane, Propane, and MAPP.

Pretty cheap differentiators between sucess and failure!

Try it. You might LIKE it!

:D
 
Wire like that you can anneal with a butane lighter. Then once it's shaped, heat it again with the lighter and quench it. Temper in the kitchen stove if you like or just watch for color.
 
Wire like that you can anneal with a butane lighter. Then once it's shaped, heat it again with the lighter and quench it. Temper in the kitchen stove if you like or just watch for color.

Lay it in a pan or on a slice of metal on the kitchen stove and draw it to more easily-seen colour, yes.

Time was, all this s**t was in with skills about as BASIC as ever was.

Started with being desperate enough there was NO SUCH WORD as "can't".

"Find a way" was what there was.

:(
 
I make springs from music wire as it comes, just allow for springback. Once you get it in the shape you want, stress relieve it. Typical stress relief is 400-500 F for an hour, but don't take my word for it. On the net you can find tables for any alloy.

I have made a great many springs from beryllium copper, which has better retention. Get it in half hard form and clamp it in a jig. Cook it at 600 F for one half hour and let it cool before releasing it. It will stay in exactly the form you baked it at. If you can tolerate a tough oxide layer, you are done. If I need to have it clean or plate it, I vacuum bake it.

Bill
 
Hi winklershop:
You can buy 17-4 PH annealed wire from Washington Alloys.
It's sold as welding wire in spools as thin as 0.020"
You can also buy 18" long sticks at Dytron as laser welding filler rod, down to 0.003" diameter
Gesswein sells it too.

17-4 and 15-5 are used for stainless steel springs.
They can be hardened at low temperature.

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining
 








 
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