rmack898
Well-known member
So last year at an auction, I bought a plate compactor with a blown Honda engine and a bunch of other stuff for $24.
I figured worse case, I would repower the compactor with a Predator motor from HF. As I figured the Honda was toast and I bought a Predator to replace it.
The compactor is driven with a Vee belt through a centrifugal clutch. When I took the clutch off the Honda motor I found that one of the springs in the clutch was broken. I figured no big deal just buy a new spring and move on with the repower.
I checked everywhere for a new spring, McMaster, Amazon, springs R us, you name it I tried it, no joy. A new clutch price put me in the neighborhood of a new compactors that was out.
The only way forward was to make a new spring. The first place to start making a new spring is Machinery's Handbook. For those of you that don't know, Machinery's Handbook is the Bible for all things mechanical. The book itself is fairly small but very thick with a few thousand pages. Machinist's tool boxes have a drawer in the center of the specifically sized for the book.
So after measuring the remaining clutch spring that I needed to duplicate, I needed to get some music wire to make the spring from. McMaster had the wire I needed and the brown truck brought it the next day. .071" diameter music wire.
Back to Machinery's Handbook. There are pages and pages on the design of springs. I don't need to design a spring only replicate a spring, so I go right to the table for spring arbors to get the size arbor I need to wind the spring I need to make.
Full disclosure here: The pages and print is very small in MH and I read the wrong line on the chart and made the wrong size arbor. I only discovered my mistake after I made the arbor and wound the spring and the diameter was way off. Back to MH and realized I read the wrong line and made the arbor the wrong size. Old eyes and small print, what can I say but time to make a new arbor.
Now that I have the right size arbor for the spring I need to make, there is one more tool needed. I need to make a tool to feed and tension the music wire in the lathe while I wind the spring. I don't plan on making springs for a living so I made a quick tool from what I had in the scrap bin. I used a piece of 1/2" thick aluminum flat bar to make the tool. I drilled a hole for the music wire to feed through and then drilled and tapped a hole perpendicular to it for a screw to keep tension on the wire. I milled a 1/2" shank on it to fit in a BXA tool holder.
This was my first time making a spring and I didn't think that I would get it right the first time and I was 100% correct. I didn't get it right on the second try and three was not the charm. I got a fairly good spring on the fifth try but the winner was # 6. This is and extension spring and the eyes have to be formed after the spring is wound, and that part kicks my ***. Vice grips, a punch, a hammer, and a cut off wheel in a dremel tool finally got me the spring I needed. I did not wind these springs under power since the spring was only 5 coils. I set the wire in the arbor and turned the lathe chuck by hand.
The music wire from McMaster was less than $10 and I managed to repair a clutch that I couldn't afford to replace.
I figured worse case, I would repower the compactor with a Predator motor from HF. As I figured the Honda was toast and I bought a Predator to replace it.
The compactor is driven with a Vee belt through a centrifugal clutch. When I took the clutch off the Honda motor I found that one of the springs in the clutch was broken. I figured no big deal just buy a new spring and move on with the repower.
I checked everywhere for a new spring, McMaster, Amazon, springs R us, you name it I tried it, no joy. A new clutch price put me in the neighborhood of a new compactors that was out.
The only way forward was to make a new spring. The first place to start making a new spring is Machinery's Handbook. For those of you that don't know, Machinery's Handbook is the Bible for all things mechanical. The book itself is fairly small but very thick with a few thousand pages. Machinist's tool boxes have a drawer in the center of the specifically sized for the book.
So after measuring the remaining clutch spring that I needed to duplicate, I needed to get some music wire to make the spring from. McMaster had the wire I needed and the brown truck brought it the next day. .071" diameter music wire.
Back to Machinery's Handbook. There are pages and pages on the design of springs. I don't need to design a spring only replicate a spring, so I go right to the table for spring arbors to get the size arbor I need to wind the spring I need to make.
Full disclosure here: The pages and print is very small in MH and I read the wrong line on the chart and made the wrong size arbor. I only discovered my mistake after I made the arbor and wound the spring and the diameter was way off. Back to MH and realized I read the wrong line and made the arbor the wrong size. Old eyes and small print, what can I say but time to make a new arbor.
Now that I have the right size arbor for the spring I need to make, there is one more tool needed. I need to make a tool to feed and tension the music wire in the lathe while I wind the spring. I don't plan on making springs for a living so I made a quick tool from what I had in the scrap bin. I used a piece of 1/2" thick aluminum flat bar to make the tool. I drilled a hole for the music wire to feed through and then drilled and tapped a hole perpendicular to it for a screw to keep tension on the wire. I milled a 1/2" shank on it to fit in a BXA tool holder.
This was my first time making a spring and I didn't think that I would get it right the first time and I was 100% correct. I didn't get it right on the second try and three was not the charm. I got a fairly good spring on the fifth try but the winner was # 6. This is and extension spring and the eyes have to be formed after the spring is wound, and that part kicks my ***. Vice grips, a punch, a hammer, and a cut off wheel in a dremel tool finally got me the spring I needed. I did not wind these springs under power since the spring was only 5 coils. I set the wire in the arbor and turned the lathe chuck by hand.
The music wire from McMaster was less than $10 and I managed to repair a clutch that I couldn't afford to replace.
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