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I got a new 17 foot mainspring to put into my VV-VIII. I have the old can apart and the old springs out. One of the two springs is good and the other will be replaced with the new one because it is broken.

The new spring came tightly wound and is held by a thick metal band. I am wondering if anybody has some tips on how to safely release the spring from the band. There is a lot of energy stored in the spring right now. I've got some good full grain leather work gloves that I will wear when I do it, but I would like some tips on how to go about it.

I would like to completely relieve the tension of the spring and then get some grease on it before packing it into the can.

When I release a new spring, I "unwind" it from the band just as if it were coming out of it's barrel while rotating it inside a five gallon bucket so if it gets away from you, it can't go far or fly away and hurt you. Good luck, Mike

mikejk wrote:When I release a new spring, I "unwind" it from the band just as if it were coming out of it's barrel while rotating it inside a five gallon bucket so if it gets away from you, it can't go far or fly away and hurt you. Good luck, Mike

That makes a lot of sense! I was imagining knocking the band off and having the spring explode. Duh!

Still.. it is more dangerous than when I got the old springs out, because they had minimal tension whereas the new one has a lot of tension in it. Anyhoo.. thanks for getting me on the right track!

I have had good luck with just slowly pulling out about 18" of the spring from the outer end. Then I hook the end of the spring in the barrel and roll the whole spring over the open barrel and push it all in. The springs from Ron Sitko usually come wound in the metal ring to a smaller diameter than the spring barrel they go into.

Phono-Phan wrote:I have had good luck with just slowly pulling out about 18" of the spring from the outer end. Then I hook the end of the spring in the barrel and roll the whole spring over the open barrel and push it all in. The springs from Ron Sitko usually come wound in the metal ring to a smaller diameter than the spring barrel they go into.

It seems like you would end up with some of the coils pressing so tight against each other that they wouldn't get any grease to them. Do you figure that when the whole thing is put back together and wound up that the grease will spread it self around? BTW, mine did come from Ron.

Here is a link to the Edison Motor Manual. It has a section about installing a new main spring from a wire container. I use modern lithium moly grease instead of vaselin and graphite powder, but otherwise I have followed these instructions many times and never had a problem. http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... ?f=2&t=476

Good luck!
Andreas

It seems like you would end up with some of the coils pressing so tight against each other that they wouldn't get any grease to them. Do you figure that when the whole thing is put back together and wound up that the grease will spread it self around? BTW, mine did come from Ron.


I pack the barrel with Vaseline and after a few windings the Vaseline coats all of the spring.

Phono-Phan wrote:I have had good luck with just slowly pulling out about 18" of the spring from the outer end. Then I hook the end of the spring in the barrel and roll the whole spring over the open barrel and push it all in. The springs from Ron Sitko usually come wound in the metal ring to a smaller diameter than the spring barrel they go into.

That's how I do it too. Then I add the grease. It spreads around fine after a few windings.

The old school way is to set the wound spring on the floor of your workroom, on something slightly smaller than the diameter, like a small can. Put your foot firmly on top of the wound spring and then with a screwdriver push the band down off of the spring- the can under it gives it a place to drop. The spring will unwind with a rush & it is possible it may strike your other foot.