Stainless Steel Dog Springs

[Bill B]

Taking a cue from Daron (Shark Hunter) I set out to make some stainless steel (ss) dog leaf springs....I had saved a set of old windshield wiper blades and scavenged the ss inserts found inside.  Then mounted a belt sander in a bench vise and begun the process of sanding them down to the proper thickness.  Today i am making a spring for a Penn Senator 112H double dog.  Your reel may need a different thickness, I recommend you measure your existing spring and match that thickness.  This will result in a spring much stronger that the original brass.

Start with your belt sander properly mounted and make a bend in the ss insert for a handle (Be careful this generates a lot of heat, a bucket of water nearby will be helpful to quench the spring in)


Using a block of wood to apply pressure, pull the insert against the running belt sander, continue until you reach the desired thickness.  Then I trimmed the insert down to a more manageable length, due to excessive whipping from the thinner insert.  Using a pair of vise grips, began to sand the edge down to the desired width


My final measurements are


and


A lot of heat is generated as seen by the burn marks on the block of wood....be careful and quench more often than I did.....Bill

[Shark Hunter]

That is pretty much how I do it Bill.
The only difference is I leave the insert flat and hold it with vice grips.
My Belt Sander is a little different.

[PacRat]

I found a great source for stainless steel flat springs in an old Levolor vertical blind. These are found in the track at the top end of the blind and are what connects each blind hanger to the next. These flat springs are thin and easily cut to size with tin snips.  They have a fairly soft spring rate but also have great memory and are very snappy in the dogs. I like the action on these much better than the Penn factory springs.
Mike

[STRIPER LOU]

17-7PH stainless steel shim stock is available from McMaster in thicknesses from .003 and up. Rockwell is on the C scale about 40. They also carry 17-4 which Rockwells around 30. Its a bit pricey but if you plan to share with someone it works out pretty well.

....................Lou

[Alto Mare]

Yes Lou it is pretty pricey.
Great effort guys, I would think all that heat buildup would break down the ss .
I have used titanium with great results, I believe Gary sent me some to try a couple of years back, but I only use those on larger reels.
On another note, the flat spring didn't work so well for me on the 112h, the bridge on that particular reel just doesn't cover it.
Too bad photobucket took our pics, there were some nice shots here on the thread I will post about some installing a shield to cover that spring.
I went another direction with mine, I used a coil spring, similar to the Jigmaster and a pin.
Here it is, I only replaced a couple of pics:
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=12441.msg122036#msg122036

Sal

[redsetta]

...there were some nice shots here on the thread I will post about some installing a shield to cover that spring.

Something like this Sal?





Hope you're well mate.
Cheers, Justin

[Alto Mare]

Yes sir, that's the one . Thanks Justin!