Srping steel flat stock for flare gun mainspring?

T

The_Shmoo

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I'm guessing the flat stock you buy at CT or princess isn't spring stock, and I'm not necessarily looking to get massive lengths from a metal supplier, and it's not something we keep stocked on the shelves at work so I can't borrow from there.

It's for a W&S MkIII* flare pistol, beautiful brass beast I bought from a coworker. Speaking of, my readings tell me this thing is chambered for 1 inch very flares, which i've not found a single source of online. Will regular 26.5mm flares work in this pistol, or do i have get/make an adaptor for 12ga flares to be able to fire this thing?
 
That steel you find at CT or Princess is unfortunately for your needs just mild steel. Hopefully some creative minds can come up with a source for a small quantity. What dimensions does it need to be?
 
Grizzlypeg said:
That steel you find at CT or Princess is unfortunately for your needs just mild steel. Hopefully some creative minds can come up with a source for a small quantity. What dimensions does it need to be?
Click to expand...

26.5 mm is 1 inch last time I checked. :redface: 12 gauge adapters are cheap and easy to come by but the flares are still pricey, so I took it one step further. I made an adapter for 15 mm flares on the lathe. Dixie Gunworks used to carry spring steel for making springs.

https://www.dixiegunworks.com/

Grizz
 
Pm me. Ill have what you need from 0.010" to 0.120"
Its 1070 and 1075 annealed spring steel. maybe some 1080
Ill sell you any amount you need for the cost of shipping
 
I use 3/8 drill rod which you can buy at places like Budget Steel, in 3 foot lengths. I heat it red hot with a cutting torch and hammer it to a little over the target thickness then grind and file to final dimension and shape followed by heating red hot and quenching in water then draw that to spring temper in molten lead at 720 to 740 F. For molten lead, I use my Lee electric lead pot. In the absence of a high temperature thermometer, you can float a thin piece of steel (mild steel is fine) on top of the lead and when the colour of the metal changes from dark blue / black to grey, pull the plug on the lead pot. You want to soak the spring in the lead while it is melting because putting a cool spring in molten lead will drop the temperature considerably.
The little hook at the end of the spring, I sometimes bend and sometime leave a thicker end to the future spring and file that to shape.

cheers mooncoon
 
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