I touched on this in the "What is your A5 count up to" thread. I like having as many A5 parts on hand as I can. (Ya' never know......) I am constantly replacing worn out recoil springs on most of the A5s I bring home, as I mainly buy Belgian ones, and they ain't getting any younger. It's an easy and often very effective means to keep an A5 running as Saint John intended. And it seems like most are worn out past their useful life. So, since springs are springs much like numerous other common parts, if I went to an industrial supply house (where they sell things like bolts, nuts, washers, SPRINGS, etc.) and gave them the overall length, wire diameter, internal or external dimensions, IF (the key word here) they could match it up, why couldn't I use them? A spring is a spring, and as long as I can get the proper size, I think I can reproduce what a "Browning" spring is rated at. In other words, if the wire diameter, inner diameter, and length are equal, the "resistance" is going to match. ( I am relatively certain one cannot get a springs made to different "resistance ratings" if they are the same size.) The bottom line would then be cost comparison. If I bought 100 I could still be money ahead. What are replacement springs going for now---$15 or so? Even if I could get them for $12, I would be money ahead. (I bought 15 springs about ten years ago, and haven't priced them lately. They have to be more than that now.) Oh yeah, they'll get used!! But alas, (in my best Forrest Gump voice) "I'm not a smart man.....". Thoughts?
Well Bill, you roused my curiosity on a very dark and wet early morning here in the UK. Good old Wiki immediately produced this on steel specs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_steel and made me wonder how sophisticated JMB’s understanding of steel and spring characteristics would have been in the late 1800s. From a practice perspective, if you were able to measure the resistance of a new spring e.g. how many lbs force it took to compress it, say 4”, and gave that along with the physical characteristics you’ve already identified to a competent supplier/manufacturer, I reckon you’d be in business. I’d try one! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I used to recommend replacing the Recoil and Action springs on old Auto-5’s. But I’ve found that for target loads it usually isn’t necessary. No amount of lube would make my ‘47 shoot 1 1/8oz loads reliably when I changed the springs. Now that gun stays on the heavy setting and runs like a sewing machine on a diet of buckshot, knocking down bowling pins. My main target gun is a ‘65 Light Twelve that admittedly needs a new Recoil Spring. But it runs well with target loads on the heavy setting with light recoil. If it ain’t broke...
I don’t have much knowledge of steel and steel spring. Is steel spring not result of some kind of heat treatment? If so, can old spring be retreated or tempered again?
In basic terms, spring steel is a high carbon metal, and is "hardened" to a specific temper initially. (Once it is drawn to whatever temper is determined, it becomes more and more difficult to re-harden it to its original state. A person can get by trying a second time, like re-arching an old leaf spring from a car suspension, but even then it doesn't always work.) In other words, a guy could take a car spring, heat it to bright red and straighten it out to make a knife blade, then temper it to get it hard enough to make a suitable blade---BUT---you can't take it back to being a "spring". I was a machinist for 20+ years, and that included a bunch of casting, hardening, etc. By no means am I an "expert"--far from it, but I have been around the block when it comes to working with metals of all sorts. A coil type spring, such as what I am talking about regarding this thread, is quite limited in any variance when it comes to trying to achieve different compression ratings, as long as we are referencing a determinate wire thickness and coil dimension. I have been busier than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest, but maybe next week I can head over to the industrial supply house.
A few years ago I successfully petitioned Wolff Gun Springs to make a run of old-style Carrier Springs. That was before I knew that it was possible to use the new spring in the old guns. By the time I got my Wolff spring, I had already modified a Model 11 spring and never tried theirs. But, Wolff would be the first place I’d go if I needed someone to manufacture Recoil Springs.
Now I am curious if they would make a run of A5 recoil springs! I would be good for at least 30 or so. I will contact them and investigate. Thanquez!!
Guys, I just checked and all of the recoil springs are still in stock at Midwest Gun Works. Don’t expect Wolff springs to be better, or cheaper than the OEM springs. https://www.midwestgunworks.com/browning-auto-5/recoil-spring.html
I had 2 hammer springs made for one of my old o/u that there are no more parts for. It was 200 for 2 springs. That’s a lot, now if I would have ordered 10,000 it would have been cheaper, however, no need for that many. I spoke to one of the engineers that designed it and there is a whole bunch that goes into making any spring. Unless you will order several thousand and hope you can sell them, then buy some extra ones when you find them and don’t look back
I should have mentioned that the Carrier Spring was a catalogued item at Wolff, they just hadn’t made any in a long time.
Thought about this myself. I'm not an engineer or metallurgist but my current thought is different metal composition should affect spring tension. I did not stay at a Holiday Inn last night so just a rambling thought I have.
