Dang, haven't even fired the 51 yet and cycling it today the bolt spring collapsed. Pulled out my trusty flat spring coil from an old Luftkin tape and made a new one in about and hour. Never have had one of these home made stainless springs ever brake on me so now that I've said so we'll really give it a test for longevity. Murphy likes to make me look bad when he can !
.Was that stainless spring stock. That stuff is so tough I have to drill it with a carbide center drill, slot and shape it with Dremel cut off wheels and my bench grinder.Nice work. I've made a couple of those using broken band saw blades. Long time ago the night before a shoot my hand spring broke in my 58 target model. I fabricated one from the clip of a pocket screwdriver. Believe it or not, it's been going strong for ten plus years
Not sure what the band saw blades are actually made out of. They were easier to drill through than i thought with good bits. Used a cut off wheel on a dremel to make the split. Did a little shaping on a bench grinder heated with a bottle torch and bent to shape. The screwdriver clip might be stainless, not sure. Snapped it off did a little shaping on the grinder. Opened the slot on the hand with a small sharp chisel inserted "spring" closed slot with a hammer and punch.
Yeah, looks like one of many stainless alloys of spring stock. The stuff I use ( a flat drive coil out of a broken Luftkin tape measure) has made quite a few flat springs over probably 35 years and I've yet to ever have one fail. It has to be worried in half after heavily creasing it with the Dremel wheels if you don't grind all the way through. I use the Dremel cut off wheels doubled up to cut the slot between the fingers and have to drill the purchase hole with a carbide center drill as HS steel bits won't cut a hole. It's not particularly hard but tough as can be and very excellent for flat trigger springs.
