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Specialised spring - make or mend?

Tascam Porta one mixer and cassette deck. The heavy duty torsion spring that gives end stop latitude to the sliding part holding the cassette heads broken so no play function. Somehow one of the long arms has snapped, both are long. About 2Kg over 25mm of arm brings the arms parallel (using pliers and weigh scales). I have a glorious collection of salvaged springs from decks etc but not a near one except one perfect one but wrong handedness, one arm has to clear some metal work. 5mm outside diameter of the 2.5 turns of close packed coiled part Anyone successfully "spliced " similar back? One arm now about 8mm long , brass pin barrel or something and some straight spring steel? Would soldering iron temp affect the spring ? There is space in that area for the bulking. Or learn to make a spring from scratch?

Reply to
N_Cook
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No temp of soldering iron won't affect it, but spring steel is really, really hard to solder.

I'd make one from scratch, you can buy the material at a *good* hardware store (spring wire, AKA piano wire) in various dimensions. Wear safety glasses when working with the stuff, just in case it breaks while bending.

Reply to
PeterD

I would never 'rig' something like you suggest. I've done it before and almost always ended up with a rerun. You can make a spring if you can figure out how to temper it.

--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

Purchase the proper annealed spring steel from a place like this and make your own

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Reply to
tnom

Tascam is pretty good about parts on older models...

Mark Z.

Reply to
Mark Zacharias

You can buy spring wire at a hobby store. I don't know what they use it for, maybe to push airplane flaps back.

The small diameters were under a dollar for 18 inches. I don't remember how thick they get.

Reply to
mm

I'll have a look around hobby and hardware places - I've never come across it anywhere.

Reply to
N_Cook

Some valve retaining clip spring wire was the right 0.9mm diameter. Interesting seeing the formed torsion spring unwind a bit in the heating stress-relieving process. Hopefully my third attempt will work and not bind on the turns area, got all the angles now and right mandrel but the turns have to seat in a recessed and hidden hollow.

Reply to
N_Cook

Back in working order , how long will my spring last?. About 2mm of slack , for wear or spring give, before the actuating spigot bottoms out in the slot of the metal slide carrier

Reply to
N_Cook

Great. I'm glad you got it.

FTR, they undoubtedly had that diameter at a hobby store that sells this, for under a dollar a piece.

When I thought you might need something bigger than what you are using, I had in mind 3 mm. thick. I must have beeen thinking about a different part, or the same part from 40 years earlier. :)

I haven't done any heat treating yet. I was still trying to get it to go over the hinge pin on my 42-inch high picket fence gate, and also rest agaisnt the gate and the post which has the hinge, so it would close the gate. It got hard to fit, so I went back to using the very heavy duty spring that was on the fence when I bought the house, but I set it very loosely; it doesn't slam; and it won't make the gate fall apart like I think it did the last time. For years I didn't use a closer at all, but I'm hoping to go away for 2 or 3 months and I think it would be better if the gate were closed, even after the mailman comes. He'll shut it if I ask him too, but this is simpler or more reliable.

Reply to
mm

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