Air Gun Home :: View topic - Heat treat a spring for keeping its temper?

davee1 · Member

How does one heat treat a small spring to keep its temper...like the Marauder hammer spring?
Is it something that can be done with less than or equal to 500~550 degrees F?

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

The steel rod for springs is tempered during manufacturing and then rolled into a spring, this makes the temper and stress relief even thought-out. Trying to temper a finished spring would not get the right stress relief and it would more than likely crack under pressure.

Al

davee1 · Member

There is a machinist, named Greg Davis, who has a huge following and is constantly gaining popularity for tuning the Benjamin Marauder. One of the things that he does, is listed below:
"Main striker spring is inspected and reset to factory length, then heat treated to preserve temper."

I was wondering if I could do that in my toaster oven...which goes up to 550 degrees F. I just dont know what the temperature is thats needed, the time for heating, and the time/method of cooling.

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

Personally I'd buy a new spring but you can try the method below, somehow I think you will end up buying a new one. Smile

http://chestofbooks.com/reference/Henley-s-20th-Century-Formulas-Recipes-Processes-Vol3/To-Temper-Small-Coil-Springs-and-Tools.html

Al

davee1 · Member

Thanx Al...I plan on buying a new spring but I wanted to see if there's anything that I can do at home, to help the new spring last longer.

sniper · Silver Status Member

what performance are you looking to gain?

davee1 · Member

Sniper...a stiffer hammer spring will give me a little more velocity on the .22 Baracuda and Eujin pellets that my MRod loves. And I plan on putting a little more weight on the hammer too.
I've already maxed out on all the other user adjustable settings.
Know anything about heat treating springs?

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

sniper · Silver Status Member

rsterne · Moderator

From another forum, I read that tempering a music wire spring can be done by heating to 500*F for 1/2 hour and then air cooling it (ie NOT quenching)....

I have no idea if this is accurate information or not.... Rolling Eyes

Bob

davee1 · Member

Thanx Bob, I was hopin it would be somthin simple like that. I'll check that out.

Amigo · Veteran Member

Alstone has pretty well summed it up in his post at the start of this thread.

Further attempts at tempering would only result in a softer/weaker spring while not necessarily stress relieving it.

I suspect that when a person claims to increase the life of a spring by further tempering, he probably is, because a weakened (softer) spring is subject to less stress. Now, if he is actually intending to stress relieve a wound spring of previously hardened and tempered wire, and does not know the difference between temper & stress relieve, I seriously doubt he truly knows what he is doing.

BTW, "music wire" is within a range or class of steel. The actual alloy formula or recipe will have as many subtle differences as there are producers. Each recipe will require slightly different hardening temps, tempering soak temps for each varied degree of desired hardness, and different quench methods and variations for a particular desired result. Thus, a one temperature fits all approach, does not produce the most desirably results.

Metallurgy is an exacting science practiced as an art.

Amigo