Would love some help on this. I want to make AICS style center fire magazines and CZ style Rimfire mags. Is there a good source for flat spring steel for accordion springs in canada? Nothing local has anything worthwhile.
I'd also be ok with square helical springs from "music wire" but no one can recommend me a gauge to start with. 0.02"? 0.3mm?
Hoping there's a few mcgyvers on here with wisdom to share. I will probably end up 3D printing the guides to bending the wire.
Flat spring stock can be got through the clock and watch repair suppliers, in little coils (
). Check your local Sally-Ann for old wind up alarm clocks to scrounge out of.
Most machine shop supply houses can sell you small or larger qty's of round section spring wire. Finding a supplier that has square or flattened wire is harder, but they are out there.
Making springs is as much art as science, typically you start with the amount of force you want, the distance over which you want that force applied, and work through the equations from there. There are books on spring winding and making, out there, if you go looking.
Like:
https://www.amazon.ca/Spring-Design...ries+tubal+cain&qid=1658419129&s=books&sr=1-8
Busy Bee or KMS Tools likely has that one in stock too, or it can be ordered through any book store, if you are not an Amazon person.
Most of the spring benders or winders I have seen or used were essentially mini bending brakes for flat stock, or a rod with a crank on it, for coil springs.
Take a good look at larger clock springs as a source for your large mags, copy what has been proven to work, and you won't be far off. Ie: measure thickness and width of what works.
For something like a .22 mag you could do worse than to explore the constant force style springs. Ram-Line used them in a lot of their mags.
