My First Home Made Spring%^!!??^GE%!

I watched "This Old Tony's Video", on making your own home made springs.
I need 2 springs for my sheet metal brake. I knew my set up was a gamble.
I had my auto feed to 8 TPI, I had my 13" South Bend in Back Gear.
I stood back and turned on my lathe.
Not what I was expecting. Lessons learned though.
I need a better wire tension device. Heck, I need a new set-up entirely.
The 3/4" ID by 3" compression spring will be made to order once I fine tune my arrangement (smile).
Hey, it takes inner strength to post this.
This is better than TV right?
Jeff

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I took a block of Delrin and fastened it on my QCTP some way, then c-clamped the spring wire to that using another small block of Delrin. The c-clamp controls the tension. Works great...be prepared for some spring back when you stop the lathe and release the clamp.
 
I watched "This Old Tony's Video", on making your own home made springs.
I need 2 springs for my sheet metal brake. I knew my set up was a gamble.
I had my auto feed to 8 TPI, I had my 13" South Bend in Back Gear.
I stood back and turned on my lathe.
Not what I was expecting. Lessons learned though.
I need a better wire tension device. Heck, I need a new set-up entirely.
The 3/4" ID by 3" compression spring will be made to order once I fine tune my arrangement (smile).
Hey, it takes inner strength to post this.
This is better than TV right?
Jeff

I have had springs come out like that. You are using some fairly heavy wire for your first attempt at spring winding. I would suggest winding some springs with finer gauge wire to get the feel of it and then move to heavier gauge wire.

Rather than depend on tension to keep the wire tight to the mandrel while winding, you can use a feed guide which terminates very close to the mandrel. The guide consists of a bar with a hole to pass the wire through and with the end to fit close to the mandrel. With this setup essentially no tension is required on the wire as it winds. This frees you to control the coils as it winds. The first turn is likely to be squirrelly so allow an extra turn or two, Close wind the first few and then switch to your pitch until the last couple of turns, then close wind. Another approach is to close wind the entire spring and pull apart the central coils to the desired pitch. You will see some springback so your mandrel diameter should be smaller than the final diameter.
 
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In shop at trade school I made a hand operated spring winder you could use in a vise. When working in shops, we mostly used a tool in the lathe withe brass washers to put tension on the music wire while we wound the spring around a piece of stock in the chuck.
 
I make a lot of springs... I have used the lathe... To dangerous...
The best way i found is to take a battery drill and mount it in a vise.
Slide a shaft around 1/3 size smaller than the size OD of the spring what
you want the spring to be. Slide the end of the wire in the chuck with the
shaft. Hook Vise grips to the other end of the wire. NEVER USE YOUR HAND.
Pull the trigger and guide the wire and keep it tight with the Vise grips.
 
Seems to me that I would turn the lathe by hand until the set up is proven and the operator is confident.
 
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