CAS TOPICS > Gunsmithing
Increasing the life of Italian revolver hand springs
GeezerD:
Most shooters of Italian made cowboy revolvers have experienced spring failure. Usually it is the hand spring or the trigger/bolt spring.
The reason that most springs break is they are too brittle. A spring must be hardened and then drawn back or tempered. In order for a spring to be properly tempered it must be held at the proper temperature for a long enough time to attain spring temper.
An old blacksmith told me an easy way to do this is to - put the spring in a metal bowl and then add just enough motor oil to cover the spring and set the oil on fire then allow it to burn itself out. The oil burns at a temperature { 650F -700F as I remember } for long enough to properly temper a spring.
I have been doing this for years with any Italian replacement spring I buy and have not had a problem since.
GeezerD
Black River Smith:
That deserves a big DIY Thank you. Good knowledge to pass on.
Will give that a try on the next new spring, I have to replace.
Professor Marvel:
This is a simple method used by quite a few folks, but the problem arises that the tempering temperature and length of time held there, will vary depending on type of oil used and amount of oil used.
A LOT of muzzleloader Smith's use this method with good results!
However,
If one uses "too little" oil, the temperature is too low for the steel when the oil starts to burn.
"Too much" and the part might heat too hot.
"wrong oil" and we'll, your temperature is off.... It depends on the flashpoint temp of that oil....
If you wait until the oil burn off, that changes things
And of course "it depends" ™ on the steel used.
When making springs , consistency is important!
One of the more constant ways for tempering is to use the lead pot. And since we all cast lead bullets (don't we?) Everyone "should" have a lead pot and a lead thermometer....
Soaking the the springs in the molten lead is very consistent, if one knows the melting point of their alloy, and uses the thermometer to keep the temp there....
Of course, this is from the guy who keeps breaking springs, so, take it that into account....
Yhs
Prof spring breaker
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Kent Shootwell:
I heartily agree with the Professor! Heat treatment of steel is a science and to get predictable results one must know what steel is being used. Although I’ve made a fair number of springs to include flat, V and coil types I haven’t broken very many. Being both lazy and poorly educated I generally use steel meant for springs and try to hit the numbers of time and temperature. What the old timers did with limited equipment was threw pasted on knowledge and trial and error. Impressive but not an easy learning curve.
Niederlander:
The best method I've found is to replace them with Colt springs whenever possible.
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