Friday, January 29, 2016

How to make springs






When I made my wood clip board I had to make my own spring. After getting a lot of nice comments thought I would show you how to make your springs.









Springs are nice to have in the shop for your projects but how many should you carry and what size or type should you have?
Buying springs can add up and sometimes it is difficult to find the exact one you need? 
Wouldn't it be nice to make your own.

Making springs may seem intimidating but with a few basic tools and simple instruction anyone can make them.
In this article I will show you how to make some, first the easy way then I will move on to some other tools but still keeping things easy.

Piano wire can be found at hobby shops.


Here are just some of the springs I will show you how to make.
From left to right,
  • Tension spring
  • Compression spring
  • Tapered spring
  • Torsion spring

Tools



An easy way to start is to use the tools shown below. With these few tools you will be able to safely make many different types of springs.
  1. 1/2" dowel
  2. piano wire
  3. pliers with wire cutters
  4. saw
  5. clamps
  6. cordless drill







Tension springs

cutting the dowel....


First cut a piece of 1/2 dowel about 5 inches long and cut a small slot in one end, this will be for inserting the wire. 1/2 inch dowel will work best, since this will also fit in the drill chuck. A smaller dowel will not work very well since it may not hold up to the wire.





A cordless drill works better than a drill press because you can control the speed. For Safety always use a pair of pliers. If the wire springs it may cut you.

With the drill mounted onto the workbench with the clamps, one hand is on the trigger and the other hand on the pliers turn as much as you need to make your spring. Keep the string taut as you feed it, the spring will turn out nicer.

Picture of Making a tension spring


After the spring was made I used some pliers and did some wire bending and made this tension spring. By experimenting you can make many different sizes.








Compression springs


Picture of Compression spring















Tapered springs


A tapered dowel can be made using a drill and a belt sander.
Using the same technique the wire was fed in the dowel slot. When the spring was fully turned I clipped the ends and the tapered spring was complete.

This one I had to do twice to get the hang of and the second one turned out nicer.
















Torsion springs

Torsion spring was made but this time I had to use a brass rod since a smaller wood dowel would not hold up. To make it just make a few coils and space apart as needed. With a little bit of wire bending at the ends you can make yourself a nice torsion spring.


     Here is a compression spring I made using a brass rod.








Conclusion

Working in your shop is fun and this is just another skill you can learn.

I hope that wasn't very hard and I hope it will help you with your projects. This can also help you save money if you have to make a lot of springs.

I know that there are many other ways to make springs but for my projects I will always try to make them using this process. I hope this guide and the video can help you make your own easily.

If you have others ways to make springs please let me know in the comments.




See Also:


Wood clipboard              Auto drill press lever                 Knife switch


                                                        




11 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I used piano wire. You can get it from a hobby shop.

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    Replies
    1. Jack, that was most instructive and will be a great help to me in my hobby of repairing old typewriters. I wonder how I would go if I wanted to make a heavy torsion spring.?

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