Compression Spring question

[PaulPb]

Hi all;

I'm putting together a "keybed - balance rail" Keyboard .........I've
discovered that springs can be expensive to have made.

I found at home depot a box of "assorted" springs - what I'm using is
about 5/8" long and 1/8" wide.

what comes in this package - the longer ones look as if it could be
cut to size - or the wider ones wound tighter.....etc.

any advice on this subject? -
any tools out there that I never heard of for making springs (or
materials to make them out of) - I'm trying to keep costs as low as
possible.

Regards; PaulPb

[Paul Vandervoort]

http://www.centuryspring.com/ has a large assortment of springs in stock.

I've never tried to roll my own, but you could get raw material here:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#spring-wire/=4pikqq

Paul V.

[Andrew Wagner]

Hi PaulPb-

In high school I made some torsion springs for a project. We had to
make a mechanism entirely contained in a soda can roll 20 ft, iirc.
They were made out of fairly small gauge piano wire. It had to have a
very, very, low spring constant and a lot of turns to work. I think
we wound it around a length of drill stock in a chuck in a metal
lathe.

If you try to wind our own, be very, very, careful and wear gloves and
goggles. Springs can store a lot of energy, and even our little ones
were hungry for blood.

I like the idea of tension springs; I think they would be a lot easier
to design around since they don't require any stabilization. Put
another way, I prefer parts to implode when they fail rather than
explode.

If you sick to compression springs, perhaps you can re-purpose the
springs they use for the shocks in RC cars.

Cheers,
Drew

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[PJP...@aol.com]

Hi Drew; (thanks PaulV for the info)

 

The board I'm working on now has a few possibilities

 

1. an extention spring connected to the back of the key and the back rail.

 

2. at the back of the key stick a stabilizing pin with a standard pen spring -

 

both ideas work - I think I can get the pen springs cheap - (I only need 61)

 

I was viewing lots of organ parts for Ideas - here are a few picsregards PaulPb

[Andrew Wagner]

Using the same pin as a guide for the key and for a compression spring is a neat idea.  The pin is "free" if it was already necessary.  The set screw collar adds a bit of cost, but also gives you an easy way to adjust the pre-load of the spring.  I wonder how they're holding the other end of the guide pin... hole with a taper pin?

Thanks for posting!

Cheers,

Drew

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