Making click spring

[szbalogh]

I am not as lucky as AP1857 who has found its lost clickspring. I was thinking making a new one from ball pen spring.

Searched the whole house for ball pens yesterday and collected a dozen of springs in different shapes strength and finish. All of them were made from to thick wire so i just tried to shape for practice. Did someone shaped so small springs like this?

At room temperature i could not bend it to a sharp turn needed. Then mounted in a pin wise and heated to red with a torch but as grabbed with a tweezer it cooled down right away. What do You think, how could i bend the two hooks at the ends?

It is this type of spring,

And finally i could find one ball pen with four springs with a thinner wire,

[rodabod]

Fir right-angled bends I use a pair of non-serrated needle-nose pliers like Lindstrom. For curved bends I ususally bend around a screwdriver shaft. Probably easier to make the bends with a longer piece of wire and then cut down to size. 

[Geo]

Fine steel guitar strings are good for this job, at least you are staring with a straight piece of wire and not having to fight an go pre-existing curve.

[szbalogh]

Thank You guys! I have a tweezer like that somewhere, but will have to grind its tip. 

Ah yes guitar string, and somewhere i have read that piano wire might be good as well. To the latter i was running totally accidenttaly. On the wedding the bride offered her old piano to our kids. We only have to organize the transport and retuning and started looking for piano wire on google. And this was before i started looking for spring material

 

[vinn3]

you can  buy "rounding pliers".  they look like needle nose except the jaws are round tapered pins.  check our  "jewelery tools"  vinn

[szbalogh]

This spring from a thinner wire is really easy to bend. I could make the click spring from it. It seems its a bit stronger than the lost one. The ball pen spring is 0.22mm thick and the other common springs are made from 0.3mm spring. So a guitar or piano wire with 0.2mm would be perfect. 

 

This is the watch i had to repivot both end of the balance staff. Yes i know, the hairspring is not true. 

[david]

Here is some information on spring steel. It is also sometimes known as "music wire" or "piano wire" but would be too tough for a guitar string.

 

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Steels and other iron–carbon alloy phases
Ferrite Austenite Cementite Graphite Martensite
Microstructures
Spheroidite Pearlite Bainite Ledeburite Tempered martensite Widmanstatten structures
Classes
Crucible steel Carbon steel Spring steel Alloy steel Maraging steel Stainless steel Weathering steel Tool steel
Other iron-based materials
Cast iron Gray iron White iron Ductile iron Malleable iron Wrought iron
v t e

Spring steel is a name given to a wide range of steels^[1] used widely in the manufacture of springs, prominently in automotive and industrial suspension applications. These steels are generally low-alloy, medium-carbon steel orhigh-carbon steel with a very high yield strength. This allows objects made ofspring steel to return to their original shape despite significant deflection or twisting.

 

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Grades
• 2Applications
• 3See also
• 4References

 

Grades[edit]

Many grades of steel can be hardened and tempered to suit application as a spring, however some steels exhibit more desirable characteristics for spring applications.

Common spring steel grades

SAE grade (ASTM grade)	Composition	Yield strength	Hardness (HRC)		Comments
			Typical	Maximum
1074/1075[2]	0.70–0.80% C, 0.50–0.80% Mn, max. 0.030% P, max. 0.035% S[3]	62–78 ksi (430–530 MPa)[4]	44–50[5]	50	Scaleless blue steel
1080 (A228)	0.7–1.0% C, 0.2–0.6% Mn, 0.1–0.3% Si[6]				Piano wire, music wire
1095 (A684)[2]	0.90–1.03% C, 0.30–0.50% Mn, max. 0.030% P, max. 0.035% S[7]	60–75 ksi (413–517 MPa), annealed	48–51[5]	59	Blue spring steel
5160 (A689)[8]	0.55–0.65% C, 0.75–1.00% Mn, 0.70–0.90% Cr[9]	97 ksi (669 MPa)		63	Chrome-silicon spring steel; fatigue-resistant
50CrV4 (EN 10277)	0.47–0.55% C, max. 1.10% Mn, 0.90–1.20% Cr, 0.10–0.20% V, max. 0.40%Si	1200 MPa			Old British735 steel
9255	0.50–0.60% C, 0.70–0.95% Mn, 1.80–2.20% Si[9]
301 spring-tempered stainless steel (A666)[10]	0.08–0.15% C, max. 2.00% Mn, 16.00–18.00% Cr, 6.00–8.00% Ni[9]	147 ksi (1014 MPa)		4

david