spring tempering

[Len Graves]

I am going to have to re temper a main spring,after altering it's arch. I have done this before, but It is mostly luck on my part. Anybody have a "fool proof" method? I can get them to critical heat and oil quench. give me advice from there. Pretty please.

 

[Stophel]

Fool proof???


To harden and temper springs, this is how I do it. Fill a coffee can up halfway or so with the lightest oil you can find (I use WD40...the only use I have for the stuff). Warm it on a coffee pot warming plate to about 110 degrees. It does help, though I don't recall just why. I believe the ideal temperature is supposed to be 114 degrees or something like that..

Heat the spring to bright orange (non magnetic) and quench edgewise. The spring will now be reasonably hard....or it should be. Some maker's springs harden more easily than others...I don't know why. They're all SUPPOSED to be made of the same stuff.

Polish the spring off and then, with a propane torch, heat it lightly all over, going through all the colors, brown, purple, blue, light blue, to deep blue gray. Make sure it's even all over and then set it on a brick or something that won't draw heat and let it cool. Now you have a spring. :wink:

 

[mazo kid]

I have not tried this method of tempering, just read about it, so you will be on your own..... Place the spring on edge on a thick piece of steel and heat slowly using a gas or electric heat source. Watch for the colors that Stophel mentioned and remove from the heat as the spring approaches the gray color and let cool slowly. Should be a spring now.

 

[Len Graves]

I have tempered springs by first hardening: bring to critical heat and quench, then drawing or tempering by floating in hot lead till color is reached. have had some work great, and some fractures while others just bent. I have heard that you cold temper by putting in an oven for a time, don't remember the temp. I have trouble getting even heat with a torch directly. so over a piece of iron may be what I need. Thank you.

 

[Bubba45]

Ive had good luck after hardening to take a small can and put something non flammable under one side so oil (30 wt.)will run to the edge and just cover the spring . Then with a propane torch heat the oil up evenly until it starts burning and continue playing flame on oil to keep it burning till it will burn on its own . Then I block off any wind from blowing on it that might put flame out . Let it burn till all oil is burned up and spring is cool . Clean all goo of and you gots a spring. I havent had one fail as yet .
I got this trick from Bookie aka Steve Bookout . :hatsoff:

 

[Onojutta]

Fool proof???


To harden and temper springs, this is how I do it. Fill a coffee can up halfway or so with the lightest oil you can find (I use WD40...the only use I have for the stuff). Warm it on a coffee pot warming plate to about 110 degrees. It does help, though I don't recall just why. I believe the ideal temperature is supposed to be 114 degrees or something like that..

Heat the spring to bright orange (non magnetic) and quench edgewise. The spring will now be reasonably hard....or it should be. Some maker's springs harden more easily than others...I don't know why. They're all SUPPOSED to be made of the same stuff.

Polish the spring off and then, with a propane torch, heat it lightly all over, going through all the colors, brown, purple, blue, light blue, to deep blue gray. Make sure it's even all over and then set it on a brick or something that won't draw heat and let it cool. Now you have a spring. :wink:

WD40 ain't oil. And its more flammable than oil. What keeps it from combusting when you drop the orange hot spring into it?

 

[MikeChapin]

Ive had good luck after hardening to take a small can and put something non flammable under one side so oil (30 wt.)will run to the edge and just cover the spring . Then with a propane torch heat the oil up evenly until it starts burning and continue playing flame on oil to keep it burning till it will burn on its own . Then I block off any wind from blowing on it that might put flame out . Let it burn till all oil is burned up and spring is cool . Clean all goo of and you gots a spring. I havent had one fail as yet .
I got this trick from Bookie aka Steve Bookout . :hatsoff:

I have used this method using 10 wgt. motor oil. I have never had a spring break using this tempering method.

 

[LRB]

Len, most of these springs are 1095. Quenching at critical heat, if you are refering to non-magnetic, is not enough heat for 1095, or any other acually. Non-magnetic is 1414°, and you need 50° to 75° more heat to harden steel properly, and you need a very thin oil for 1095. The oil should be warmed to around 125°or just a tad more. Those springs that bent did not get fully hard, or your temper heat was too much. I suspect the former. Those that broke did not get enough heat in the temper, or were not tempered long enough, or you worked the spring too cold while shapeing it. The latter is usually the case in broken springs. To bend a spring, even a little bit, it must be bright red hot or a bit more. 650°, to 675° is a good temper range for 1095 springs, but they need a little time at temp to allow the heat to soak in and do it's intended job. Jim Chambers uses a different steel than most others use, and requires even more quench heat than 1095. As far as the oil catching fire. It really does not. It is the vapor that burns. As soon as the steel is beneath the surface, most often these vapors self extinguish, but in those cases that it does not, you simply put a cover over the container, and it will go out.

 

[Len Graves]

Thanks again all of you. Gave me some good tricks to try and some information did not know.

 

[Stophel]

WD40 ain't oil. And its more flammable than oil. What keeps it from combusting when you drop the orange hot spring into it?

WD40 is a thin oil. Sometimes, you will get a flame on top of the oil when you quench (no matter what type of oil), but it's a very slow, weak flame, and you just blow it out. Especially since it's in a can, oxygen can't get to it easily so it doesn't burst into flames.

This is not spray can WD40. You can get it in a gallon can. Spray WD40 can be a flame thrower...but so can just about anything else that's in a spray can. The pressurized gas that's in the can is flammable, not so much the oil.