You could try here **LINK**

Dave

Dave Attwood's link takes you to GLR, who have a useful range of springs, but they don't tell you enough information. As well as diameter, free length and wire diameter you need number of coils, or rate. I've brought this to their attention some time ago, but no response. Next time I need springs I'm going to try Roderick's method.

I found Springmaster's web site a while back when I was looking at a project with springs. I've not used this supplier but they say "no order is too small". I'm not linked to them in any way.

I also watched a Youtube video recently which appears to be the same or similar process to Rod's technique. He has a number of other workshop videos, quite entertaining too.

Ed.

You don't even need a lathe – I have made springs using a hand drill mounted in a bench vice. But I admit that the examples shown by Rod Jenkins are much less wobbly, in fact, not wobbly at all.

Remember too that if you vary the pitch of a compression spring you get a progressive-rate spring, as the effective length is reduced (so the rate increases) as the coils close up.

And for an extension spring, it can be useful to pre-load the coils by winding the coils 'tight – ie apply a side load to close up the coils tighter as you wind. This will give a spring that requires an initial load before it starts to extend – useful for a strong spring in a short space.

And if your springs are out in the weather, stainless spring steel is much better than plating etc.

Regards, Tim

For reference, this is what the business end of an automated spring winder looks like. The wire is fed in by the (3 pairs of) rollers at the left By moving and rotating the 2 fingers as the wire is fed in, you can vary the pitch and diameter of the coil, resulting in variable pitch, variable diameter, closed ends etc. There is also a cutting tool for releasing the finished part. Apparently, setting up these machines is a bit of a black art (ie takes a lot of "experience&quot, so making one-offs wouldn't be quick.

This example is pretty ancient but modern CNC machines seem to use the same basic principle.Grinding the ends is is done on the sides of large diameter abrasive wheels (perhaps 2 feet in diameter).

Murray

These machines might give some inspiration for a home build CNC bender. Could be a lot of clever stuff going on behind that main bend plate…

Hope it doesn't keep you up all night thinking about it now. JD

First requirement is find someone who has made one and willing to write about it.

Any takers?

Neil