Spring cleaning surprise

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gramophoneshane
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Spring cleaning surprise

Post by gramophoneshane »

In over 30 yrs & goodness knows how many motors, I've never come across this before.
After deciding to do some spring cleaning of some spare motors last night, I discovered this in the bottom of the barrel of an HMV 32 motor.
The grease had solidified so much that it had glued the spring together fully wound up!
The top spring had fully unwound, so it would appear the motor must have been operating on only one spring the last couple times it was used.
If I didn't didn't know better, I'd have sworn the motor was placed in a oven & the grease cooked to concrete.
Attachments
hmv spring 002.JPG

Lenoirstreetguy
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Re: Spring cleaning surprise

Post by Lenoirstreetguy »

Goodness knows what sort of probably experimental witches brew they used in the grease formula. I run across it in glues in piano work...every so often one finds a piano with some godawful and obviously experimental glue used on in the original construction. And what a pain that can be.

Jim

martinola
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Re: Spring cleaning surprise

Post by martinola »

Wow, Shane!
What did you end up doing with this greasy little jack-in-the-box? I'll bet it would be tons of fun when it lets go!
Martin

gramophoneshane
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Re: Spring cleaning surprise

Post by gramophoneshane »

lol, funny you should say jack-in-the-box!

After hammering the centre arbor out with a large bolt, I was thinking this thing is going to take some getting out. The vibrations didn't loosen it, so I'd half covinced myself that the spring must have been exposed to extreme heat & lost it's tension or something, so I decided to let it soak in the tray of petrol I'd been using for the previous 3 springs.
Being at the bottom of the barrel, I though if it did let go, it would be a slower process and it would stay in the bottom...but no.

I placed it in the petrol on the floor, stood up, took two steps backwards & BANG. About 5 seconds in the petrol, the spring let go & came flying out of the barrel. Of course, black graphite petrol went everywhere too.
It was all over the washing machine, the dryer, the washtubs. the cupboards, the curtains & me.
The whole laundry had a 4 to 5 foot high radius of black spots & I looked like a leopard :lol:

The spring came out with such force, the centre coil went from 1 cm to about 4cm wide, so after scrubbing everything down (including me) with WD40, I had to heat the spring centre & bend it back into shape.
It's not very often you get to see a spring leap out of the barrel from a safe(ish) distance & all untouched by human hand lol.
If I ever face the same problem again, I'll be putting the lid back on the barrel before throwing it in the petrol.
I thought it was funny....my mother not so much :D

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SonnyPhono
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Re: Spring cleaning surprise

Post by SonnyPhono »

Glad you are safe! I loved reading that story. I smiled the whole way through picturing it. It had to be pretty loud and startling. I would love to have seen it. Again, glad you made it out safe with a good story!

gramophoneshane
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Re: Spring cleaning surprise

Post by gramophoneshane »

Not too much noise, but it was totally unexpected. I am glad it didn't happen when I was squatting over it. It definately wouldn't have been a happy tale. The spring came up at least 2 feet from the floor.
I'd had them start to let go in the early days, but I'd always had my hands on it & was able to have some sort of control, but this thing was wild.
I wish I'd recorded it. I had the camera right there too from taking the picture above. It might have made a good funniest home videos entry.

txhog
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Re: Spring cleaning surprise

Post by txhog »

Haha :lol:

martinola
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Re: Spring cleaning surprise

Post by martinola »

Wow! That must have been something to see! I'm glad you weren't hurt. I'll take this as an object lesson, if I ever find something like that. Thanks for the story!

Martin

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Brad
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Re: Spring cleaning surprise

Post by Brad »

So Shane,

Did you jump out of your pants when it let go? I bet that would have been the video to see! :lol:

I have only had one spring get away from me while I was holding it. Luckily, it shot out away from me. You do learn to respect these things!

Brad
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