clocksprings

Leonard & Peggy Brown wrote: So how do you bend a hook shape on the end of a clockspring? ^^^^^^^^^^^^ I suspect that the steel, being so thin, is cooling so fast that you are actually air-hardening it. Maybe if you heated it just enough to make it bendable, and complete the bend before it cools, you might wind up with something you can use.

Leonard are you bending them when hot? if so maybe a little less heat? if you are going to red hot for annealing, thats what is making them brittle, try blue to straw? might work

tt

Can you drill a tiny hole in it and use some fishing leader to hook to something?

Cass

Greetings,

You are probably having the material cool too quickly. Clamp the end to a small piece of steel and heat the block to a red heat and allow to cool slowly.

Bend around a small bit or music wire, you bent a bend not a fold.

Also consider rivitting a small piece on the end to form the hook rather than bending. If all else fails, many new springs with different end configurations are available from clock material suppliers such as Merritts, TimeSavers, and SALarose.

Cheers, Stan

Le> I am working with clocksprings, they are a spiral like you find in a clock,

It is already hardened and tempered, you just want a different temper on the end than on the rest of the spring. Try using less heat and for a shorter period of time.

I have used a propane cigarette lighter, heated the end of a thin flat spring for 15-20 seconds, and then let it cool slowly to room temp to remove enough temper to get a bend on the end of flat springs used in guns. You don't want to plunge chill it.

You have heated the metal too hot. An alcohol flame is usually used to take the temper out of the metal and gradually remove the end from the heat. A regular patch to the springs is to make an arrow shape to one piece with a rectangular hole in the other half of the joint to accept the arrow shaped end. Doing this, you have to anneal the metal in order to do the work. If you want the temper back, you need to temper the whole spring again otherwise there will be an untempered part to the spring. I'll note that working with such materials, you may want to find a book on watch or clock repair - an older one will more teach such techniques for the watches as they strarted getting smaller by the first WW.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works evevery time it is tried!

Use some pliers as a heatsink, so that you only soften the end portion of the spring. Heat the end, by passing it through the flame of a torch, or alcohol lamp. When the end is a dull red, slowly withdraw it from the flame. Let it cool to room temperature. You can now form the end, as it is fully annealed. If the end must have a full temper, the whole spring can now be annealed, and re-tempered. Heat the whole spring to a dull red heat, and quench. It can now be tempered, by suspending it in olive oil. Bring the oil to a boil, and cool. An alternate way is to bury the spring in brass filings, in suitable metal pan shaped tool. Place a clean, shiny piece if the same spring stock on top of the filings. Heat slowly over a flame until the piece of steel turns a good clockspring blue. tip the pan into a container of water. I have had good luck using stainless steel measuring spoons, and cups for small parts. The old time clock makers used a copper pan. You can easily make a form, and beat some copper over it to make a pan of the desired size. For brass filings, I used to use the swarf from wheel cutting.

Steve Rayner.

Thanks all for your help. The springs I am using are much to small for any rivets so I will try all you said and bend it back. This is for the inside of "drum valves" on an old french horn.

again thanks leonard