what makes a spring stronger?

[brokenbiker]

I have 2 springs, both near identical apart from maybe a mm or 2 in length. I want to replace them with springs with a bit more force. I cant change the outer diameter as they fit in a hole, and I cant change the internal diameter as the top requires a locating pin to slide inside.

so, will using a longer spring made with the same csa spring steel give me more clout? or could I just pack the bottom of the hole out with something to give more compression?

 

[Welderpaul]

Easiest way is to drop some washers in the end of the hole so the spring is more compressed.

 

[sparkysy]

If both will fit that would be very powerfull I take it we are talking air rifle springs? As Paul says put something in to pre compress it.

 

[wyn]

A shorter coil spring is stronger..............They are just a torsion bar coiled up..if the bar is shorter it will be stiffer.

 

[brokenbiker]

Easiest way is to drop some washers in the end of the hole so the spring is more compressed.

hole is only 4mm so will put some SS rod in there as a loose fit so I could remove if needed

I take it we are talking air rifle springs?

close but no cigar, ejector springs for one of my Baikal shotguns. I say one as I bought another one today that has a leftie stock for my father, the bottom barrel barely gets the shell out of the chamber after being fired, and the top wont clear my shoulder so want to beef them up a bit so they do their job

 

[AndyStobbs]

Thicker diameter stock.

 

[Welderpaul]

If it only a piddly one, just stretch it out a little bit.

 

[brokenbiker]

If it only a piddly one, just stretch it out a little bit.

its quite a thick spring, quite long too as it has about 12mm travel, but based on the length of the spring and length of travel I should be able to get away with 10mm of rod in the hole to compress it a bit better

 

[mcostello]

Viagra!

 

[Migmac]

They are maybe just tired and need replacing with new ones

 

[brokenbiker]

They are maybe just tired and need replacing with new ones

Finding new ones is difficult, I have tried looking for various parts for these guns previously and all the gunsmiths I have spoken too all say getting spare parts in Britain is a nightmare. I have a box of springs in work but nothing this long although I may be able to double up

 

[optima21]

many years ago there was a company called terry stock springs who stocked springs off the shelf (but wern't cheap), think they possibly could have evolved into this company

http://www.centralsprings.com/index.html

 

[daleyd]

Are you sure it's the springs that are the issue?

We used to have a couple of old baikals on board in the late 90's and they had ejection issues, from what I remember I ended up removing a load of burrs and generally cleaning up the ejectors and they worked fine after. (Not sure what models we had, they could have been different to yours)

 

[brokenbiker]

This is an old gun, its seen a lot of use as a rough gun and was sold as having weak ejectors. At the moment they are turned off but would like them turned on again. Have stripped them all down and the actual ejectors are in good condition, a bit of wear on the lip that catches the rim of the shell but apart from that they look good. The springs are noticeably weaker than the ones in my newer gun that fires them out with quite a force

 

[brokenbiker]

I had to do a fair bit of filing and sanding on the newer one I bought, nothing was smooth on it

 

[daleyd]

Ah ok, just thought I'd mention it, though it was 16 years ago since I last saw those guns!

To be fair they worked great once we got the ejectors sorted, did many a flight deck shoot with them! In 1999 the RNAD that came and took all our small arms away before the refit condemned them because we had no paperwork for them

 

[Migmac]

What model is the gun? I can ask about and see if any are available

 

[Paul99]

Are you 100% sure its a weak spring? My money is on the ejector timing for the bottom barrel at least - I had exactly the same problem on my Baikal (think I've read it's the same model as yours - 27E) took a while to figure out with a few snap caps that the ejector was triggering too early and the case would catch the breech block on the way out - happens so quick you couldn't see it happening (but marks of the Aluminum snap caps gave it away) and looked like a weak ejector.

 

[Kent]

This is an old gun, its seen a lot of use as a rough gun and was sold as having weak ejectors. At the moment they are turned off but would like them turned on again. Have stripped them all down and the actual ejectors are in good condition, a bit of wear on the lip that catches the rim of the shell but apart from that they look good. The springs are noticeably weaker than the ones in my newer gun that fires them out with quite a force

Get some Rocol blue on them I bet one is slightly bent. They must run perfect, over-springing them will not help.
Spares are easy obtainable, both salvaged ones from gunsmiths to new ones at a cost of very little. Most proper gunsmiths carry a massive amount of std stock springs in various sizes that could be used in all sorts of uses,

Never stretch a spring it ruins it taking it past the point of elasticity. Packing or removing packing is the only way to achieve this goal (it aint no good for ejector springs though)

Altering a legal sub 12ft lb airgun to produce more power is illegal and can lead to a term inside for little tangible gain in the real world were we are talking about puny power levels in relation to even a humble .22 LR. Over 15 ft lb by spring air guns makes them very hard to shoot well with. The best spring guns are more efficient they do not carry silly springs look inside a Lazerglide HW or an air arms TX / prosport the swept volume is tiny and the springs are not much different to a std low power plinker. Shoot a Welbley Patriot FAC (the most powerful spring gun made) that runs at 30 ft lb for confirmation - it is totally terrible (about the worst gun I have ever had the misfortune to fire) and you might struggle to hit a beach ball at 50 yards, literally it hit the shoulder like you just fired a 150 grain 308 down it but in a far less sweet cycle

 

[Kent]

Are you 100% sure its a weak spring? My money is on the ejector timing for the bottom barrel at least - I had exactly the same problem on my Baikal (think I've read it's the same model as yours - 27E) took a while to figure out with a few snap caps that the ejector was triggering too early and the case would catch the breech block on the way out - happens so quick you couldn't see it happening (but marks of the Aluminum snap caps gave it away) and looked like a weak ejector.

You could well be right, problem is most look for increase of force before looking for other things