"Cydrome Leader" wrote in message
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I lost the spring in a pair of xcelite needle nose pliers. You can
actually order them as spare parts for under a buck, but I gave it a try
in making a proper spring.

The Enco 12" tube of assorted music wire had some 0.020" wire which seemed
about right, from looking at other small pliers.

I tossed a 3/32" punch in the lathe and tried to wind a dozen or so turns
of wire on that, but it sprung out way too far after stopping to even fit
into the drilled holes of the handles of the pliers. A 1/16" drill bit
made a spring that was too small. A 5/64" drill bit worked perfect.

Using the first two springs I was able to figure out the approximate
number of turns of wire and stretched out length so the spring would not
be lost again. It's really just a guess and feel sort of thing.

I stretech out the new spring and then tossed into to the toaster oven at
400F in convection mode for 30 minutes. If you skip this tempering step
the spring will just break or not have real good spring properties. If you
stretch the spring, then compress it without tempering it will just stay
compressed for example.

I then trimmed it to about the right length with found on the street wire
cutters I don't care about and then put the spring into 3/32" drill bit to
grind the ends flat with a belt sander.

After a bit of fussing by adding a bit of twist before putting the spring
into place and adding a drop of oil, the crunchy feel went away and all is
good again.

Tips for anybody else making a small spring from my trial and error-

use a cordless drill and backwards drill bit for winding. They have great
low speed control and drill bits come in a nice assortment of sizes. Put a
90 degree bend in your wire and tuck one end in between your chuck jaws.
Music wire is hard, so I'd not clamp down on the wire itself.

Use a pair of pliers to hold the other end of the wire to make tension as
you wind. Stretch as needed plus some, temper, then fully compress and
trim to length as needed since there will be a bit of give.

Total time wasted was about an hour, but worth it. I'd post pics, but
there's really nothing to see.


Very nice write up. I just happened to watch a video on YouTube recently
and the heat up and cool down of the music wire was the videographers
biggest problem with his first attempt. Sounds like you got it righ tthe
first time. Great Job.