Crooked, ugly and inconsistent spacing, but you can pull it and it springs back. Unfortunately it's all wrong, because I need it to work in compression, not under tension. If it was a compression spring, I would have tried it by now.
Let me back up a minute. As you may have gathered by now, my little engine doesn't run. Won't turn over and run on its own. Some troubleshooting on the various fora I belong to said look at that spring (I mentioned it last week) as the source of trouble.
Springs are typically made of what's called music wire. I ordered a few 3' lengths of wire from an eBay seller last week. A couple of days later, Mrs. Graybeard says, "what's music wire?" and I launched into a web search. "Oh, it's a standard type of wire with an ASTM number for it; high carbon and manganese...". To which she replied, "and how is that different from musical wire used for guitar strings?" I'm dumbfounded. Like anyone with a few guitars, I also have a few sets of strings for replacements, and I can "harvest" a used string anytime I feel like it.
Cut to the chase, that's an .013" diameter guitar string. Bright due to being nickel steel, not black like the music wire will be. I followed the step by step instructions on Dean's Photographica, and it works, despite the ugly. I'm still on hold while I wait for the wire I ordered, which is apparently being carried by someone walking from a thousand miles away and won't be here for a while. And then I'll make it as a compression spring, like it should be.
Can't you stretch it past the yield point then use it as a compression spring?
ReplyDeleteraven beat me to it.
ReplyDelete*OR* you can wind it on a screw using the threads to give you some pitch between then.
Can't you stretch it past the yield point then use it as a compression spring?
ReplyDeleteBest answer I have is "not yet". I didn't spend a lot of time trying, either.
you can wind it on a screw using the threads to give you some pitch between then.
I was just telling my wife that. The alternative is to rig up the thread cutting gears with something in place of a cutter to spiral the wire down the blank.
I have made springs on a lathe just like that, set the threading to the pitch you want, chuck a piece a little smaller than the I.D. you want into the chuck. Make a piece of tooling with a hole, or just cut a notch on the side to hold the wire. I always turned the chuck by hand instead of using the motor on the lathe, thin wire being pulled by the lathes motor has the potential to cause ugly injuries.
Delete-Paul Joat
As always, McMaster is your friend:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.mcmaster.com/#music-wire/=1efqjkk
and I've never had anything I ordered from them take more than three business days to arrive.
If you must know, they didn't have what I wanted. I didn't want to buy 475' to use 2', and that was the smallest quantity I could order.
DeleteGo to www.centuryspring.com. They will have whatever spring you need. Order multiple sizes to get a range of springs and meet the minimum.
ReplyDeleteI've tried a few combinations of numbers based on the book description, and it never finds a compression spring like I'm looking for.
DeleteThis would be a long shot, but consider checking at your local hardware stores. Even the big box types seem to carry a selection of compression and extension springs. Might have to hunt around to find which dept has the stock.
ReplyDeleteCheck out "This Old Tony" on YouTube, he has a video on making your own springs on the lathe using something similar to a push style knurling tool.
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