good source for springs?

T

triggerman42

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Where would be a good source for smaller sized coil compression springs ?
I see princess auto sells kits with 200 pieces, but I need one, and have no use for the other 199.
Do some hardware stores carry them? Looking for something approx. 5/16" inner dia. of coil x 1,1/4" long.
Nothing heavy duty , so thin wire.
It's actually for a snider enfield breech block .
Any ideas of who might carry such critters in their regular stock?
Thanks for any suggestions.
 
Wolff Gunsprings. Haven't failed me yet. Make sure that you tell them international shipping to Canada and NOT UPS. Or do what I do, explain that you want the cheapest possible shipping to Canada!
 
You need to get a LOT more specific on the sizes if the spring is at all critical to how it operates the other parts. For example, if it fits into a hole or other recess then the ID of that hole or recess is critical. If it fits over a pin then the size of the pin is critical. The amount of force you want it to have at the both the shorter and longer positions it has to have is also critical.

This will especially be the case for shopping online where the person you're asking for the spring from may not ever have seen a Snider Enfield.

For a recess check to see which size of drill bit fits with only a little play. For fitting over a pin simply measure the pin's diameter. For the rest of it figure out from measuring how long the spring mounting is at rest and how much motion there is when the spring is compressed in use. And finally indicate how much force should be used to compress the spring during this operation.

If you can do this I may be able to help out. I've had pretty good luck making springs that work well over the last few years.
 
I think I was TOO specific already ! I only wanted to know , " Where would be a good source for smaller sized coil compression springs ?" That's all I asked . I was reluctant to even mention the word snider. I will check the local hardware stores I guess.
 
Just buy the princess auto assortment.It is less than $10.00 and life is to short to go from place to place looking to find the right spring.
 
I bought the assortment bag from Princess Auto and the first one I picked out of the pile worked perfect. I am sure I will need another spring or two down the line.
 
We have a spring shop in town (Nanaimo). Most of their business appears to be automotive but they also carry a wide variety of small coil springs. When I have needed a very specific size, I have gone to them with a micrometer or good digital caliper and selected the wire thickness and overall diameter I needed. I usually buy several in a range around the desired size, just to be on the safe side. They are cheap like borsht and it reduces the nuisance of making a 50 cent sale

cheers mooncoon
 
I would also go with the princess auto spring assortment
I've actually used a cut down spring out of a pen for a trigger return spring on a spur trigger revolver and it worked great.
 
I have lucked out a time or two at our good old Co-op farm store. I think I now have an assortment box at the shop. Princess Auto saves the day for a lot of that kind of thing. :)
 
triggerman42 said:
I think I was TOO specific already ! I only wanted to know , " Where would be a good source for smaller sized coil compression springs ?" That's all I asked . I was reluctant to even mention the word snider. I will check the local hardware stores I guess.
Click to expand...

Been there, done that and found that the generic stuff in the hardware or automotive stores didn't fit diddly squat in guns or much of anything else I needed springs for. Or if the spring did fit that it wasn't anywhere near the right spring rate to do the job correctly.

As a result I tended to hoard springs found in stuff I've take apart over the years. Yet with so little over the counter options it shouldn't be a wonder that I seldom found a use for my canabalized springs. I'll never toss them "just in case".

But all this failure of my spring hoarding to solve servicing issues on guns or other items finally led me to working out a method for winding my own and pacifying them in a toaster oven. Now I can make any size and rate I want. I just can't tell yet how to make them perfect the first time. So each one ends up with two or six made from other sizes of wire around different mandrels until I figure out which works for what.

Bottom line of all this? If you can find the spring you need in a twin pack that's great. Otherwise that $20 assortment is actually a good deal. Just keep the others for some time in the future.
 
If you dig around for a copy of the Tubal Cain (Tom Walshaw) authored book on springs, there are actually nomographs that will allow you to plot out what size mandrel to use with what size wire to end up with a particular diameter coil once it relaxes back after winding. Trial and error works too! :)

http://www.amazon.ca/Spring-Design-Manufacture-Tubal-Cain/dp/0852429258

Pretty sure you can get the book from Busy Bee, if you happen to have one near enough to be able to flip through it first to see if it suits your needs. Some of thebooks in that series are kinda..well, if not toal duds, at least not quite up to the standards of some of the others, but this one has some pretty good info in it.

Cheers
Trev
 
I needed a very tiny spring for the extractor on a Savage O/U rifle shotgun combination which shot a rimless cartridge. Only source that I found was the spring which pushes the "flint" (ferro ceramium) up in a disposable lighter. They are only about 1/8" in diameter

cheers mooncoon
 
UPDATE : Well I went ahead and bought a spring kit from Princess Auto. It cost peanuts. I was very happy to find one of the springs was exactly the right size for what I needed. I installed it into the old snider and it functions perfectly.
There was about 6 of this size in the bag , so now I have spares. I doubt I will ever need one. The last one didn't break. I lost it when I took the gun apart for a good cleaning. Anyways . it worked out for me , and now I have a variety of spare springs on hand for future projects that may pop up , when the next spring goes zipping across the room. lmao
 
triggerman42 said:
UPDATE : Well I went ahead and bought a spring kit from Princess Auto. It cost peanuts. I was very happy to find one of the springs was exactly the right size for what I needed. I installed it into the old snider and it functions perfectly. ...
Click to expand...

You didn't mention your location. For folks near Vancouver who may go Bellingham from time to time, Hardware Sales in Bellingham has a pretty darned good selection of springs at the back of their Fasteners aisle.

Springs_zps893b7371.jpg


Actually, they are far and away the best hardware store I've ever been in, bar none. Basically an industrial supplier that caters to the public. Not open Sundays.

You can check them out here.

:) Stuart
 
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