10 replies to this topic

[sniper25]

Where is the best place to by springs, on the internet. What is the best constant or compression strenght to use?

[pat 1st Lt]

What are you using the spring for? Cause if you're looking for a B'n'A replacement, that's pretty different from a trigger spring in a Crossfire.

What is the spring gonna be used for, specifically?

McMaster-Carr has a large spring inventory here.. Just search for 'compression springs' at the link I gave you.





Sincereley,
Pat

[Forsaken angel24]

Another question that I felt wouldnt seem right in a new thread. How do you measure a springs gauge and such?
I would like to start looking into this so I can order custom springs for guns but I know nothing on how to do this? Anyone have any advice?

Edited by Forsaken_angel24, 28 May 2006 - 07:45 PM.

[m15399]

Well, you could try looking at the post above yours. Springs are usually in pound pulls (e.g. 60 pound pull). You can order custom springs from the spring section on McMaster. Don't search for it, just click on the link from the main page and it will show you sommore links that will limit your results to what you're looking for.

[Forsaken angel24]

I want to start shying away from bungees surgical tubing etc.

Ok its time to break it down. I had no idea what I needed to know about springs and now I do. I just dont understand how to know about these things.

Which is the best type of spring for durability, strength, etc.
Stainless steel, spring temperered steel or zinc plated steel?

Load range: The pounds of force required to compress a spring to its compressed length.
How do you guys measure this?

Say I wanted to order a spring for a nightfinder, I would increase the gauge by a bit and as long as it came in the right size I should be ok? Or is it better to increase length? as long as the compressed new spring is the same size as the compressed old spring. Getting into springs is a whole new ball park for me any help would be appreciated.

[pat 1st Lt]

Forsaken_angel24, on May 28 2006, 10:16 PM, said:

Say I wanted to order a spring for a nightfinder, I would increase the gauge by a bit and as long as it came in the right size I should be ok? Or is it better to increase length? as long as the compressed new spring is the same size as the compressed old spring. Getting into springs is a whole new ball park for me any help would be appreciated.

I would not suggest increasing length, since the longer it is, the longer it will be compressed. If the spring is too long, even if it is compressed all the way, the catch won't be able to engage, because the spring is keeping the plunger rod from moving far enough back to engage the catch.

If you want a stronger spring, you can measure the gauge (I believe gauge is the diameter of the wire the spring is made from), and get a slightly larger gauge, but make sure the spring compresses to the same length, and that the outer diameter of the spring itself (Not the wire, the actual spring) is small enough to fit in the plunger tube, and that the ID of the spring is large enough to fit over the plunger rod.


Sincereley,
pat

[sam]

the #49 spring works well for NF. Also you could talk to Carrtoon about which spring he uses in his 100FT Nitefinders.

[CaMbLaM]

Firstly, this is a poorly done post.

Secondly, I heard from a friend that you can get spring from car dealerships. I guess you can buy springs for the breaks in your car. I'm told you can get some really good ones for nerf guns. Someone should look into this, since I’m not sure if it's the same south of our border. I'm also not to sure on the pricing on these. I'll look into it some more and if there’s anything to say I'll post it.

[CaptainSlug]

"gauge" refers to the thickness of the wire used to make the coil.

The best spring to use will really depend on what you need it for. What you want is a moderate load rating but a high amount of travel from compressed to unsprung. Boltsniper is using an AR15 action spring in his guns for the reasons listed above. They have a 80-90lb compression load and have around 9 inches of travel.

If anyone needs one I have some spares I could sell off. I ordered way too many...

Edited by CaptainSlug, 31 May 2006 - 04:46 PM.

[Meaker VI]

CaMblaM, while you could get ahold of car brake springs, I'm almost certain they won't work well for nerf. More cars are switching to disk brakes anyway, which don't use springs. And (if I remember right) drum brakes use tension springs, which don't often get used (though I do have a hand-cannon thing that has 2 exposed springs and a rod through the plunger for power).

I'm not sure what your friend was referring to, though it's possible he could have been jokingly referring to the shock springs. Or the valve springs. But I'm pretty sure that most of the springs on a car are either too short or too powerful to use. (If you didn't know, a shock spring has to be compressed by a machine/hydraulic pump/screw system; and if it escapes you all die).

An interesting venue to check out might be double springs; I remember a mod once where someone (Starbuck?) used a gun with two springs and got a surprising amount of power out of it.

[CaptainSlug]

Meaker VI, on May 31 2006, 09:10 PM, said:

An interesting venue to check out might be double springs; I remember a mod once where someone (Starbuck?) used a gun with two springs and got a surprising amount of power out of it.

The effectiveness would be due to the different power curve that a double-spring would provide over a single spring. Here's a visual of how a double-spring behaves.
http://www.myphysics...bl_spring1.html

Here's a comparison on the power curve of a plunger head with a single spring versus a double-spring made from the same spring cut in half.

Edited by CaptainSlug, 01 June 2006 - 09:14 AM.