Sear Spring Help

[Baby Huey]

I have an old caplock from a rifle sold many years ago by Cabellas and which, I am advised, is no longer available. The sear spring is destroyed. I have fabricated springs from wrapping metal and other material but, after about 10 shots they weaken and the rifle is useless. Does anyone have an idea?

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

Have you looked in a Dixie Gun Works catalog for your part? Or go to their website and see if they have it. :hmm:

 

[Crewdawg445]

What metal are you using? Are you tempering and hardening the finished springs?

 

[vfisher93]

This would be a good project on how to make a spring.look up past posts and see what they have you can get spring stock from muzzleloaders builders supply.and make you one.Those springs would be pretty easy to make.

 

[EC121]

The Dixie catalog lists their guns and the equivalent Cabela's gun. You may be able to cross reference your gun there. They also have a generic spring with a long tit that can be fitted to your plate. There are many parts lists with pictures for all types of locks that might have something you can work with.

 

[don hepler]

Coil spring or flat spring?

 

[Vaino]

You could make one out of 1/32" thick spring steel purchased at one of the suppliers. Easily bent into shape as rec'd and if it's a "V" shaped spring, the bottom of the "V" should have a 1/32" radius.

I heat the spring w/ a MappGas torch to red/slightly orange color and quench in motor oil. All surfaces are then polished and the spring is tempered by laying surfaces on a 1/4" thick steel plate heated from below until a blue/gray color is achieved. A quick dunk in the motor oil after each surface attains the blue/gray color ensures the proper hardness. The "V" is rolled on the plate to ensure it also has the blue/gray color...this is critical because it's a stress area. If the spring has a loop for a screw, this area is carefully hit w/ the torch and can be a little less hard that the rest of the spring....make sure the heat doesn't affect the rest of the spring by having a heat sink.

Have made many springs following the above procedure and w/ the purchased spring steel. If 1/32" is too thick, it can be filed down, but must be repolished to avoid breakage....file scratches cause breakage.

The easy way would be to buy the spring.....Fred

 

[ZUG]

Thin springs are a bit tricky to heat treat and may take a few tries to "get it right". Fred's method works but it might take a few tries like I said. Kit Ravenshear's small paperback book "Simplified V-Springs: A Guncraftsmanship Manual" is a handy little gem as is his other little books. He goes into his simple method of making Vee-springs - and it does work. If I were you I'd try to buy one first but if you want to learn then get some annealed spring steel from Dixie or who-ever and "give it a go" - don't use 1095 spring steel - use spring steel in the range of 1075 to 1085 - easier to heat treat for the average "Joe". Good luck :v .

 

[mooman76]

Good to know. I'll have to try it some time. I need a couple springs made on old guns(not BP) that take the old style V type springs and I haven't been able to find them.

 

[ohio ramrod]

By "wrapping metal" do you mean the strapping used on industrial pallets? While I haven't made any for several years I always had good luck making sear springs from the strapping we used at the shop where I worked. In fact I have two guns now with sear springs that I made over twenty years ago that are still holding up. :idunno:

 

[Crewdawg445]

You could make one out of 1/32" thick spring steel purchased at one of the suppliers. Easily bent into shape as rec'd and if it's a "V" shaped spring, the bottom of the "V" should have a 1/32" radius.

I heat the spring w/ a MappGas torch to red/slightly orange color and quench in motor oil. All surfaces are then polished and the spring is tempered by laying surfaces on a 1/4" thick steel plate heated from below until a blue/gray color is achieved. A quick dunk in the motor oil after each surface attains the blue/gray color ensures the proper hardness. The "V" is rolled on the plate to ensure it also has the blue/gray color...this is critical because it's a stress area. If the spring has a loop for a screw, this area is carefully hit w/ the torch and can be a little less hard that the rest of the spring....make sure the heat doesn't affect the rest of the spring by having a heat sink.

Have made many springs following the above procedure and w/ the purchased spring steel. If 1/32" is too thick, it can be filed down, but must be repolished to avoid breakage....file scratches cause breakage.

The easy way would be to buy the spring.....Fred

Beautifully said, this is what I basically do and it's a perfect method. Much easier than going through the fuss of trying to locate a factory replacement spring, and another skill to add into the growing collection! :thumbsup:

 

[wulf]

You have to be careful and test this stuff...some
works and some don't.....I have found out after
making the spring that it just wouldn't spring...
Test a piece first....

 

[M. De Land]

I make and harden them the same way but learned a black smith trick probably 20 years ago that has never failed to draw the temper perfectly in my V springs.
Mix a 50-50 solution of motor oil and kerosene together.
Pour into a shallow tin lid of some kind that will just accommodate the finished spring laying on it's side.
Position the spring so it does not touch any of the lid perimeter and fill the container to just submerge the spring on it's side in the oil/kerosene solution.
Take out side in a wind free place that will not cause a fire,place lid on a board or piece of ply wood and ignite the whole shebang (not the wood its just an insulator) with a propane torch, let it burn it self out and the spring will be perfectly tempered every time.
I used to draw the temper in and open fame until straw color and got so I could do it just about right every time but after trying this method I read of somewhere, I never went back to my old method.
The finished spring will have exactly the same temper every where on it and I've yet to see a spring so tempered fail.

 

[M. De Land]

One more thing that will be very helpful to some of you who own or have access to a lathe and that is making your own coil springs.
I get my spring wire at a Hobby shop and no longer have to fight finding and ordering a specific length, coil space-ment, lost or tired spring.
You can tailor and make them so easily yourself with the help of a lathe and a few home made tools that it defies logic !