Making a brass spring wire

[willofiam]

Hey everyone. I have recently made several of these brass spring wires. While I was making some new ones I remembered when I had first started out repairing clocks. The first one I made I wound by hand right on the actual arbor, what a deal 🙄 …..it didn’t turn out very nice and it was kind of frustrating. Had to find a different way!
I came across Steve Conovers book and used the technique he had described. Worked great!!!

So many times I have come across the proverbial “rats nest” of twisted brass wire, pieces that have broken and just rewound around something nearby, I have even seen them pulled over a wrapped around another arbor, sometimes just cut off and left. The spring wires are key to proper function of several different parts in many clocks.

So, I decided to make a video on how I wind these along with the “apparatus” I made for doing it. I hope this video gives you some ideas about how to make these spring wires. To be able to make a nice new spring wire in just a few minutes will cost pennies and make a overhaul on a clock movement “just right”

Though this is a rather simple task it is important and does not require any fancy tooling.

If you have a different “apparatus” please share.
Thank you and have fun, William

Another great place to visit for clock and watch repair is http://LearnTimeOnline.com
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[youtube:2nmi80zy]Vx42YH3xvQI[/youtube:2nmi80zy]

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[jim1228]

Great video William

Jim

[willofiam]

Thank you Jim, good to hear from yah. Hope all is well. William

[gerene]

Great video William.

Jan

[bernie weishapl]

Great video William. I use a shaft with a hole to hold the end of the spring like yours. I hold the shaft to make them with my foredom flex shaft. With my foot control it is easy to do. I hold the foredom head lightly in a vise then I have both hands free and can control it with the foot control for a very slow speed when winding.

[avittek]

Nifty tool you made, William. Does it matter in which direction you wind a spring?
Andrea

[willofiam]

Thank you Jan, always good to hear from you.
Bernie that is a great idea, thanks for sharing that.
Andrea, yes it does matter. Depending on the direction of force you want determines the way you would wind it (I usually have to think it through a few times 🙄 ). To confuse it a bit more when deciding which direction to wind, you have to determine where you would want the long end of the spring to be. So in the video if I wanted the long end to be on the inside I would have to wind it in the other direction.
Hope that make sense.
William

[avittek]

That’s one of those things that I will probably do wrong before I get it right!
Andrea

[willofiam]

Me too, over and over again….

[brianw]

Thanks for an interesting video William

[willofiam]

Hey Brian, good to hear from you.. Thank you and have a great day, WIlliam

[insomniacshotrods]

Thanks for posting this on youtube. I am newer to clock repair and was doing a rebuild of a 1908 Japanese Meiji movement and it needed springs made. I tried wrapping it around the lever a couple times and it looked like crap, and I wound it the wrong way too lol. Went to try to find a video how too and found yours. I didnt have time to make your set up, so just used a bit a little smaller than the arbor size to wind the wire on, put in backwards and wound it with my variable speed drill till i can make a set up like yours. Been thinking of using a dowel with a nail or screw in it to use with the drill and see how that works too. Thanks for the info and video, really helped me out. Eric.

[willofiam]

Hey Eric, thanks for letting me know about your project and that the video helped out. @insomniacshotrods wrote:

and I wound it the wrong way too lol

Hey…I do that all the time….I just tell myself I am making stock parts for later… if I save the wrong ones there is always the possibility of needing them on another project …. I would be very interested in what type of tool you come up with for making these spring wires / wire springs….Have fun, William

[dave booth]

Back in 1980/81, when I was learning clock repair from Bob Goodman, he had me winding springs by hand, using a piece of threaded rod as a winding form. Clamp the threaded rod in the bench vise, and pinch the spring wire under a nut threaded onto the rod. Then wind the spring in the thread grooves. That is also a convenient way of making coil compression springs, because the thread spaces the turns out a fixed distance.

[willofiam]

Dave, Great idea…..thanks for sharing. William

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