Make your own springs in seconds

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I make lots of stuff that needs springs.  I have always hated trying to find the right spring for the job in a hardware store, then having to pay up to 10 dollars for it.  When I was learning to make chainmail I came up with this method for winding rings and realized it could be used for making springs as well.  It is insane how quick and easy this is.

Video makes this easier to follow and shows just how ridiculously fast it is, so I included a podcast with me doing this. The spring segment is at 5:19 but don't be shy about watching the rest of the video afterwards, not to mention other episodes. also, don't forget to check out my other instructables.

Step 1 Materials

A Drill, one with a little bit of torque.

Heavy duty gloves, not gardening gloves.  I use welding gloves.  If you try this with light duty gloves, call an ambulance before you start so it will arrive in time to stop the bleeding.

An arbor- just a fancy name for a rod to wind the spring on, round is common but not required.  Match the arbor to the diameter of the spring you want to make.

You may need a piece of square steel (I used 1/4" keystock) if you want to make a compression spring.  More on this in a minute.

I have 3/32" stainless steel tig rods for welding sitting around.  Each rod only costs a few cents and they seem very suited for doing this kind of hand bending. while still being stiff enough to be a spring.

Comments

[bof2b]

what about tempering the steel so that it remains springy?

[dave spencer]

There is no problem with my springs not remaining springy.  As I said above.  I have a spring in my backyard gate that has been used almost every day for 3 years with no discernible wear.

[Tweeks_tx]

The point here is Dave that you have not actually created real springs.. but just showed a cool way of bending steel in the first stage of making a spring.  To be able to have a real spring you must temper the steel.  This is especially true with springs that are going to have any reasonable about of force applied to them.

Anyone who knows how many pounds or newtons of force they need for their application should plug their numbers into Hooke's Law to calculate the parameters needed to create their spring (BEFORE bending some random piece of steel wire).  More info on this is here.
 
But for a pretty good article on tempering, see here.  It touches on both oil and sand bath tempering.

Tweeks

[dconnolley]

I'm glad someone brought up this point. all he's done is coiled a piece of wire.
in quite a dangerous way.

I've done similar to this when making chain maille links. but I use an arbor in like a spit roast design between two wooden blocks and hand crank slowly, carefully and deliberatly.
Juggling with power tools is all fun an games untill someone gets the nick name Ace.

[dave spencer]

If your mom won't let you use power tools, that is fine, use a hand crank. Even then you need proper safety gear because if you let go halfway the end of the wire could whip around because it would be a torsion spring at that point.

I wish people would stop telling me I have "only coiled a piece of wire". Prove me wrong by making one yourself. My stainless springs have functioned for years with no sign of wear. how do you think they make springs for use in the food industry?

[dconnolley]

to a small degree it would behave similar to a torsion spring.

I dont need to prove you wrong. I am merely trying to educate you.
when making chain maille links this is the quickest way to coil the wire for uniformed links I would then stretch it out before cutting links. It would appear similar to the way you've coiled your wire. Both in aluminum and steel.

the reason myself and tweeks brought this up was because from a metallurgical stand point its just not sprung. Therefore It would be wrong to call it a spring. If you compressed it from its original length to its minimal length you would notice it would have lost length in just 1 compression. possibly with some parts buckling more than others.

I know how they make springs for the food industry since I've worked on many projects outfitting factorys and belt systems. Same ways they make all springs as mentioned by tweeks heat the metal up to a calculated temperature and quench it in oil

PS: A word of advice when using rotating machinery such as a hand/pillar drill DO NOT Use Gloves. Same goes for using any abrasive wheels... thats shop safety 101
do you want to look like seamus from family guy?

[dave spencer]

Well if I ever need something more springy than what I get now, I will consider tempering.  I am quite adamant though that these work excellent as they are.  They take considerable force to change their shape and they return afterwards.  I call that a real spring.

Make one out of stainless and show me that it does not work.

[Gilius]

Have you tried to make any torsion springs too?

[static]

 Video viewing much better today, but still when a video is the instructable, readers shouldn't be required to go 5:19 into a video to see the subject content of an instructable.

The basic winding technique is as I expected, but using a jaw of the drill chuck to anchor the wire is a trick I hadn't seen. Many wind wide spaced inductors by winding another wire, rope, string or cable with the desired wire, discarding it after the inductor is wound. Perhaps the same technique could be used to wind a compression spring. All in all a good instructable, but please consider to the point video production in future instructables. Also keep in mind video doesn't work well for those poor souls still stuck with dial up internet connections Thanks...

[dave spencer]

I guess the problem here is the video was first.  I decided to do the instructable afterwards.  The instructable actually has more information in it than the video.  Sometimes it is nice to see it live though.  I told you to go to 5:19 so you could skip the other stuff if you were not interested and save time / bandwith.  I thought that was fair but to be honest, I would be bitter too if I was on dialup. :)

[static]

 Dave granted you did advise the relative content was 5:19 into the video, but  the video players can't fast forwarded to  a point that hadn't yet been downloaded to the user's computer yet. Internet bottle necks can make fast internet miserably slow. connections. I understand the video and then the instructable sequence, but do please consider editing videos complementary to  an instructable to the relative content.  While it's not broad band my 1.5 MB WISP provider is as good as it's ever going to get in my part of rural Kansas. Much better than dialup, though those internet bottle necks, remind me of dialup. Thanks for consideration you can give to the video editing.

[msw100]

The problem is not the video size but the stupid advert you must watch before hand

[usmarine24]

Would like to make a much larger spring 2in diameter but limited to what bit size I can use. Any suggestions?

[msw100]

try winding around a piece of two inch pipe

[Lotusfalls]

the only thing that comes to my mind is using larger bar stock in an engine lathe. you can drill an appropriately sized cross-hole to hold the beginning bit of wire and turn the lathe (either by hand in Neutral, or by a low speed gear). could still work with the keystock too.

[dave spencer]

You could find an arbor with a step in it that would chuck into a drill. you could also wind it by hand as long as you keep constant tension on it. maybe a friend could help.

[msw100]

They look the part,but should they no be tempered some way as surly when you stretch them they will not spring back unless you use spring steel to start with?

[hintss]

this reminds me of at our robotics team, when they were making a spiral, so they bent a rod around a tree, then ended up with a rod stuck around a tree.

[sniperHunted]

will this work with an aluminum or brass rod?

[dave spencer]

If you mean as an arbor, sure. The only problem you will have is it will wear and deform quicker. steel is nice and hard and will last longer.

If you mean using aluminum as a spring, you can coil it into shapes this way but it will not really become a spring. If you compressed or stretched it it would not return back to its original size. You need a "springy" material. spring steel works best and stainless is pretty good. aluminum and brass are just too soft.

[usmarine24]

Great instructable dude

[stan4]

Awesome guide...

[AzNmeowmeow]

This looks a very useful video and instructable, but I REALLY have trouble finding the materials for a stainless steel spring. Is there by any chance another stainless steel size that's commonly avaliable around Home Depot and ect?

[Light_Lab]

Many years ago I used to make springs this way on a lathe. We used commercially available untempered spring wire and after we finished we heated up the spring to red hot and dropped it into fish oil to temper it.
Some times we would make special custom springs by soft annealing standard off the shelf springs and straightening them to salvage the wire. Then we would rewind them to suit the job at hand and re-temper.

[JamesRPatrick]

This is incredibly useful!

[mir45z]

Dave used stainless steel wire to make the springs. Most stainless steel is already hard enuff to do the job. So heat treating is not necessary. If you heat treat the stainless it will be too brittle. Now something like mild steel would be a different story.

[rrp9]

Excellent!  I am continually looking for a specific ID spring to fit around something odd-sized like a pipe or shaft, and using this method would make a spring that is exactly the right ID!  Wonderful idea.  I have already started throwing together a lathe-like tool (actually a small drill press laid sideways with a 2nd chuck installed in the adjustable table where I can use wire larger than would be practical to bend by hand.  I can also use a tapered reaming bit or similar to grab the inside of 3/4 or 1" pipe and spin it as well.

Again, very clever instructable!

[kube60]

You don't do any heat treating afterward?

[Spokehedz]

 Usually just bending the wire 'works' the steel enough to make the spring stay in shape by itself.

[dave spencer]

With the stainless I use, I do not temper afterwards and the springs work fine.  The oldest and most worked spring I have made is for the gate to my backyard.  It is 3 years old and gets used almost every day.  I have not noticed any difference in the performance since day one.

[LakeLivin]

Simple and extremely practical!  This might be the first ible that compelled me to log in just to say thanks, great job! 

[charmrus]

In a jam once I didn't have gloves or a chuck that held very tightly so I had to improvise and hold on to the wire with my teeth.  It worked lik a charm so don't go overboard on glove thickness.
Then again I whistle when I talk now....

[wilderness]

Hi there

This is a great instructible - I've always thought it should be possible to make your own springs, but making them entirely by hand, it's difficult to get the right tension. A drill is the perfect tool!

The springs you've made avery neat and proffessional-looking. Have you tried different kinds of wire/rods? Can you make very fine springs this way?

The instructible would be easier to use if you put in more details, for example:

- what is the correct position for the arbor and the rod in the drill chuck

- is the drill on drive (clockwise) or reverse?

- what torque setting works best?

- how do you hold it safely in position as it spins?

I guess I can work all these things out when I give it a go, but it'd make me feel more confident if I knew exactly what I was trying to do!

Thanks for a great tip

Jethro

[Einarjon]

In stead of the gloves/skin on the ground part, you could try to run the wire though a narrow diameter metal pipe (like a thin copper tube) and hold that. Some people use that method to make chain mail and it seems to work (but at a lot lower speed)...

[ernestoaug]

excelente, muito legal!!!!

[AlexHRG]

Excellent project! I actually needed this a month ago, a spring in the sterndrive unit of a Volvo Penta..uhh, dissappeared, yeah...

I'm wondering for the compression springs, it must be possible indeed to make a sort of holder with the spacer inside. Should make it a lot safer and you can make bigger holders to use on bigger wires...in which perhaps you can make them on a lathe at very slow speed!

[legan]

What do you do if you wanna get a specific diameter of the spring? The diameter will expand when the tension is released.

[dave spencer]

you are absolutely right that the spring gets bigger after it is wound.  The change is pretty small though and there is still some friction on the arbor when you slide it off.  Some experimentation may be required if you need an exact size.

[dave spencer]

Just to add to my last post-  be aware that the springs will change diameter as force is applied to them and the expand and contract as well.

[Funk_D]

I needed a spring no less than a few hours ago but couldn't find one. I'm so glad I can manufacture them now! thank you!