Spring Machine

Spring are nice, they can be very useful for your creations or simple fun to play with, but they are not particular easy to get in the dimensions you may need. They are also not that easy to make by hand. So I found a way to make them very easily

MATERIALS:

-3d printer (or access to printing services) for the 3d printed pieces 4 pieces.

THE FOLLOWING (holes) CAN BE EDITED IN TINKERCAD FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE:

- Thin rod, I use 6mm aluminum tube (Spring diameter will be a bit bigger than the rod diameter)

- Tube, I use 20mm PVC tube

The length of the tubes it's for your choice depending on the length of springs you wish

-Screws or hot glue gun may be handy for securing the parts

-Piano wire for the springs (I use .8mm thickness)

- A washer or nut

TOOLS:

- Drill or similar to make a hole in your thin rod

- Saw or similar to cut the rod and tube in your desired dimensions

- A hammer can be useful when assembling

-Pliers for cutting the wire

-GLOVES AND SAFETY GLASSES ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This are the parts you can edit depending on your material choices(rods diameters and nut/washer dimensions), and later, printed them!

(You may have noticed my orange part is different, don't worry, I may some test, the tinkercad one is perfect)

About the settings, are not very important,I printed mine in PLA, 20% infill, we only need some sturdy pieces, thats all.

For the crank just insert 2 pieces of the thin rod in the green piece, the horizontal tube will be your crank and the vertical the one that will define the spring diameter

There are 2 important details in the pieces:

Firstly, A washer or nut has to be added in the shown hole(orange piece) it's just for reinforcement as the wire is powerful and it's able to cut through the PLA, you may need to use a hammer to get the nut/washer to its place

Secondly a hole has to be made in the thin rod to attach the wire at the moment of making the springs. It has to be in the inner part of the machine (between the 2 red pieces) it will be the start of the springs

Images are self explaining, just introduce the tubes and rod in the printed parts holes, a screw or some hot glue can be added if the parts don hold the tubes properly. Make sure the orange part can run freely sliding in the tubes.

The idea is to introduce your wire FIRST through the nut(washer of the orange piece and after that through the hole in the tube, it has to get stuck in the tube.

now you can start to rotate the crank and moving the orange part making your first spring, in the beginning and end of the spring it's important to make 3 rotations of the crank without moving the slider(image)

When you have the length you need just cut the wire, take out the wire from the initial hole and take out the crank. Now you have your spring