The lost art of Hand Crafted Leaf Springs
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มิ.ย. 2021
- Come watch me craft a new pair of leaf springs from scratch using only Drawings.We cut, drill, roll eyes and assemble it for use on a 1930s Dodge custom chassis vehicle.
Check out our store at simcoespring.com/
Follow me on Instagram / simcoe_spring - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
I worked at Canada Spring in Burnaby, BC for over 25 years and I was the one that made the special order springs from scratch. I have made springs for a double decker bus, Extra heavy duty springs for Hino trucks and just about any spring that wasn't available, our main supplier was in Calgary and back east. It was faster for the shop to have me make up a main leaf than order one.. One of the things I noticed was that you do not have a scarfing machine , a scarfing machine makes things go faster especially when dealing with larger (thicker) material (1/2 inch 9/16 and 5/8) Another thing I noticed, you are using a hydraulic spring bench, I used an air operated one which was much faster . You do good work, just a little different methodology from the way I did it for over 25 years . A word of advice, get out of the business, you are going to kill your body, I have had both shoulders done and my back will never be what it was.
I apprenticed at Standen's in Calgary as a machinist. Impressive plant. Crash and bang 300 ton presses. Made custom and OEM springs
25 years as a spring tech you must have a trick or two.
Yeah me too right shoulder arthroscopy
This video was filmed and edited intentionally slower and very detailed. I really wanted to show every step. I find most videos don't show the full and true process of what it takes to manufacture a product and I just wanted to show as much as I felt like I could. Hope you enjoy, and please jump around the video, there are some good moments.especially at 4:16 and 19:56
Intro with measuring and setup 0:00
Getting the main leaves ready for rolling 1:56
Rolling the first set of eyes 4:16
Calculations to roll the 2nd set of eyes 7:03
Cutting and prepping steel for rolling 2nd eyes 8:28
Rolling the 2nd set of eyes 12:37
The next day - last calculations & drilling the main leaves 14:41
Installing the bushings 17:33
Measuring up the rest of the leaves to finish out the spring 18:40
Time lapse - fabrication 19:56
Arching & Fitting up both springs 22:28
Final finish on the springs with plastic pads and clips 27:18
Final shot of springs finished 30:05
Sweet work, not too many shops make springs anymore.
And so good to see a drill going the correct speed
Not to mention a drill that cuts evenly with both flutes..
Most people turn too many rpms on their drills because they don't understand cutting speeds. I don't think it would hurt to actually turn a bit faster. It's fine for a one off piece, but in a production machine shop you would set that a bit faster. His chips are not changing color at all and it would be fine if they were turning a more golden color for hss or cobalt drills, even blue If they were using carbide drills.
Love them Eastwing engineers hammers!!
Nice, spring shops used to do this years ago. Love the trade as part of blacksmithing, which has been around for 1000's of years.
Many old spring shops had LOTS of smithing equipment. I have purchased much of it locally
This shop looks clean and orderly. Nice.
Springs look GOOD huskier then I tough can't wait to see them.
They where picked up yesterday, and are on the way. Best of luck on your 1930's Dodge project
How's the project?
That was awesome. You guys are truly artists. I would have thought the leaf would have lost it's springness with the application of that much heat. Much was learned.
hola,saludos desde chile!!!
mi hermano y yo fabricamos y reparamos resortes de ballesta ,tal como ustedes a la vieja escuela.nos sentimos identificados con su gran y buen trabajo. llevamos mas de 30 años dasarrollando este trabajo,tambien con un poco de tecnologia y un poco manual
Saludos desde Cuba estoy tratando de fábricas la dobladora de ojos de resorte pero no e podido si tuvieran un un vídeo fuera de mucha ayuda
Love your work from Aussie
Amazing Work. I'm no Mechanic, I work in HVAC, I just Love hard work and craftsmanship.
honestly, you did a good job there.
Just found your channel and subscribed. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this video. And appreciate you showing ALL the steps.
I will never look at springs the same way again. These are bespoke springs like a fine British suit. WOW.
nice to see guy take pride in his work'
What an amazing video, not to mention your incredible work. The video is so beautifully edited and the details are so clear I think that after a few hundred failed attempts I think I could make a hand-made spring. In any case, your video will serve to help someone who really is going to do this work become proficient at it. Thanks very much.
You are a craftsman for sure. Dying breed.
Good job, congratulations!!
Beautiful craftsmanship bro...that's what this country needs more of!!!
Every hammer has to be new once in it's life.
Nice work!
Congrats! Thank you for share.
My buddy’s friend raced an Arca car at London Ontario speedway, years ago. I have been on the 401 many times going east. Cheers!.
Beautiful work, brings back happy childhood memories when i lived next to a foundry, as a 3 year old i was allowed to stand by the door and watch whole processes so long an i didn't step over the threshold.
Great workmanship
Awesome seeing start to finish. In 50 years I have never got to see this.
Thats funny first time watching this channel....and guess what I see a poster of where I work. Standens
Fascinating job.
I can't believe I missed this video. I was at a friend's house for supper and someone handed me the remote, this is what I found. I keeped saying those look like my springs. So I made everyone watch. I am building a 1936 Dodge 1-1/2 ton Cummins powered truck. I am in the US, I called from Michigan to Colorado to some of the top spring builders and all I got was a lot of lip of why it couldn't be done, or prices that were so high that it would have been cheaper to buy the equipment and try to do it myself. I saw his video on making the perfect eyelets so I contacted him. We talked for a while and told him what I wanted. I also wanted to add an extra leaf I could remove if I have to because I don't know for a fact what the truck will weigh. He said he didn't see the problem send over the spics. The springs turned out Great, I got just what I wanted. I would recommend this guy in a minute!
good job filming, nice work , answered alot of questions ive had for years.
Hi, The video quality is Top Shelf! I take it that is spring steel, heating the ends does not affect the temper of the spring? Funny, you cut steel just like me. Nice shop, like the pit.
Yes it is spring steel. 5160 to be exact.
Wow cool vid like the plastic pads between the leafs.
Yes I like putting plastic pads between the leaves so they do not squeal and squeak
very very interesting, thanks for that post
I love your attention to detail
Thanks. Little known fact that goes along with that.
Your leaf spring length from the front mounting hanger to the center bolt is your alignment.
So if i mess up those measurements then the alignment will be off.
We have a huge spring shop here in my area and years ago I took my early model 1977 Ford F250 Highboy in to get the 4 corners re-arched. I wanted to go up another 4". without the use of blocks. They accomplished the task and I always wondered how it was done. Thanks for the video that allowed me to see the process. Oh. 38" tires fit without the re-arch but I wanted to go with 44" tires, they fit perfect afterwards.
Buenas desde panama.
Excelente trabajo.
Felicidades.
bienvenidos. muy bueno ver a personas de todo el mundo ver mis videos.
Gracias.
Muy bien.
Excelente trabajo.
Buenos dia.
Donde puedo comprar la maquina manual.
Eye forming machine .
US 1252123A.
ATENTO ASU REPUESTA.
MUCHAS GRACIAS.👍
A trained eye going on there!!
A very good video and a great learning video as well. I am a heat treater and heat treat inspector. When you heat the ends to a red heat you have removed the spring temper and made the metal dead soft, except where it has air hardened and which will leave brittle areas. I have heat treated springs after fabrication.
My question is this, have you or any other spring fabricators had trouble with the ends cracking ?
My question as well.
If this is aisi 5160 which is the most common form of spring steel for automotive then its usually oil or brine quenched and annealed when the flats are made, so one would think it needs to be heat treated again after this.
Beautiful work. We used to have a local spring shop, but it's been gone a long time, unfortunately. Could you perhaps hit the center bolt with a disk sander after cutting it off?
I hate sharp metal edges. Thanks
That's awesome
Nice!
Good job
I was a little kid around 1943 or 1944 when my dad's '35 Dodge broke a leaf spring in Wyoming (? how can a little kid remember) and a blacksmith made a new one. We drove the rest of the way to Arcata, CA . . . no further problems.
Impressive.
Craftsmanship for sure
Am I right in thinking that back in the fifties springs were interleaved with rubber strips or similar material. I can remember my father stopping squeaking springs on the old vehicles by "painting" /lubricating the leaves with brake fluid. Nice video.
I so needed to find you guys, I'm building a half scale freightliner cabover and when it comes time I really wanted to copy that tandem look in the rear.
Have you seen the scaled down Freightliner cabovers at the truck museum in Brooks Oregon? I think they have a website with them on there. If I remember right, the yellow one is a true tandem drive and the blue one has an idler for it's third axle
No sir,I'll have to check em out though.
Looks great! Just subscribed. Curious though, when you're making the second bushing eye. Why cut and bevel with grinders and cut off wheels when you're just going to use a torch and forge anyway? Just seems like extra steps thats all...
Need to se how they do it here in Lima Peru, Full hammer no hidraulic tools :)
Suprising to see no shops setting the curve with a 14lb straight pein anymore. It's very quick if you're good at it.
my dad did that back in the early 70s, glad I don't have to do that anymore
@Simcoe Spring Service its how we do it where I work. I use the 8lb where I can. It's alot less effort next to a furnace.
@Simcoe Spring Service I just rewatched and realised your assembly bench is identical to ours.
you are a awsome craftsman! youre kind have nearly vanished. i hope that some of the young men who help you will pick up the torch and carry it into the future.
Goodd😍👍👍
nice video. what kind of steel did you use. and i didnt see a heat treat did i miss it?
A very good work. A german craftsman.
Sorry for dumb question as I am not a machinist, but don't you want to use oil while drilling steel? 👍
Definitely a lost art
Another job well done. I have to ask, has anyone ever fallen into the pit? Thank you.
maybe.
Any chance of seeing you do a pressed in Ford rear wheel bearing? :D
Same technique and almost as good as Pakistani truck springs from cut up ship parts.
I feel this is easy to do at home only issue would be not having a hydraulic press and that Manual eye ratchet thing lol
What drill bits do you like for that 5160?
So I guess you don't have to heat treat and temper your spring material when it is a finished spring? Nice.
What kind of steel are you using?
What is the hardness?
Good video, keep up the good work!
JIM
I want to see the old hamer and see what years of use does to it
I kind of melted the handle on the old hammer. I want to turn it into an axe. Maybe I can do it this winter. That would be awesome.
I see you've got yourself an Alec Steele Anvil
Absolutely
Can leaf springs heated and bent without ruining them? I have ones from old trailer and want a flat torsion type for a sled (not snowmobile) suspension. Couldn't find anything like this to buy
Where do the steel arches come from that you make the springs out of? Do you bend them yourself out of mild steel?
I'd love a video on how you sharpen drill bits! That first hole only created one chip.
we get spring steel blanks from my leaf spring supplier.
You can't make it out of mild steel it is a different alloy.
I CAN do a video on how we sharpen drill bits, it is difficult to explain, but I could try.
@@simcoespring I've seen guys holding the drill bits against the edge of a grinding stone. I personally use a drill doctor. Curious if you have a better method.
So glad I found your channel. I have a question. I have an 85 freightliner cabover. The passenger side leaf springs are kinda fanned out just a little. No clamps, I guess they broke off. The center pin isn't broken, and the driver's side is in line. What would cause that? Thanks so much.
If the leaves are fanned out it is usually caused by rust buildup between the leaves. Take them apart and knock the rust off them with a hammer. If the rust is sticky and not coming off use a grinding stone in a die grinder and clean the rest off and reassemble with new ubolts and centering pin. At least that will eliminate all reasons why it looks funny. Unless something is broken then you should find that too.
@@simcoespring thank you so much for the advice. After watching the video on the trailer springs, where you said you always replace a set. I'm wondering if that's what the previous owner did. Because the one on the drivers side looks new. Thanks again, I'll tear it down and inspect it.
I would set the chop saw on the angle that way you get the length and bevel in one go
Love you videos, where did you learn this from?
A lot of it I learned from my Father who opened this shop in 1986. I worked with him from 2002-2007 and after that I just became fussy and just became better and better over the years. You have to be fussy and learn from your mistakes.
Beautiful work. Did I hear you right that those plastic discs only last 50 to 100,000 km? Does that mean you have to rebuild the leaf spring assembly. Doesn't seem like much time
if they wear out you can always slip a little bit of gas tank strap insulation rubber in-between the leaves to stop the squeaking.
Why don't you use the cut-off saw for the end angle?
Love the process and detailed editing. Musoc could be absent, more mellow, or more... traditional let us say.
Hello from Hagersville
nice and local =)
do you make your own leaves out of plain spring steel bar or are you buying them in pre curved in various stock lengths it probably more cost effective to buy pre curved and cut lengths than make them from flat spring bar. ive worked with spring steel bar and help make new leaves. it doesnt work easily. you can understand why most springs are done with machine formed eyes.
We have a whole rack of different leaves of steel that we use. I stock all the common sizes and a few less common sizes. There are still some strange stuff out there that we can't even buy anymore (or never could)
So we take that basic material that is already heat treated and we just make leaves from them.
we can usually just get away with drilling a hole and arching the material to shape, but when we have to roll eyes we do it. Our machine can only handle 3" wide material that is .447 thou thick. So it still has its limitations. 4" wide leaf springs where not even invented yet when this eye rolling machine was made....made in the 1940s-1950s
Do you use chalk or soap stone for your markings?
hello from brantford were do you get those plastic pads ???
I always have a hundred or so in stock
I just made the plastic pad available for purchase just click simcoespring.com/products/d-100-plastic-pad on my website
Thanks for posting. It's interesting seeing how you do it, but that first hammer----oh man, it's hurting my eyes. It's🙂 so shiny!
Ok, Scott, you need to educate all the truck camper and trailer people on how to fix sag and sway in their trucks with crapy suspension setups. I think the HD springs and a extra leaf would go possible fix most problems. The airbags are not great for truck camper sway since its too stiff and no give. HELP!!
Timbren SES kit or HD coils/extra leaves. Most truck/campers are just overloaded
Yup, it's funny not too many people talk about the HD springs and extra leafs. Also taking off the crappy factory shocks.
is it possible to take a stock spring from a 1989 suzuki samurai and re bend it to a 2 inch lift, the ride on the zuk is like a covered wagon from factory, i have been tossing around a jeep cj spring conversion on the little buggy. i dont want to do all the welding and exchange of parts though, so i was thinking as you made these springs if it would be possible to add 2 inch of length and re bend the springs to get the lift were i can just run a 235/75/r15 with stock rim from factory in hopes of the 2 in lift to prevent the front tires rubbing the wheel well . right now the back springs dont rub the front do on articulation
well, without seeing the vehicle or knowing the history, or even seeing a 1989 Suzuki samurai before.....this is some starting advice I would give ANYONE with an older vehicle they wish to lift.
1. Check your leaf springs for rust. if there is rust between the leaves, they will not flex anymore and give you that dump truck ride.
2. Check the plastic pads on the ends of the leaves if they are worn out, missing or packed full of rust they won't "slip" around when the springs flex also adding to a dump truck ride.
3. don't make two new main leaves for a simple 2" of ride height, the whole spring can be re-arched to achieve that. then go back to step 1 and 2 and clean up the leaves and replace the plastic pads if the whole spring is apart and you are re-arching it.
4. don't just randomly make your main leaves 2" longer for a lift, it doesn't work that way, you will start moving your axle either forwards or backwards and you won't be able to get your driveshaft to hook up properly (too long or too short)
5. HOWEVER if all of your leaf springs are fine and look good and are not packed full of rust and you don't want to re-arch them, sometimes on the old style jeeps/Suzuki samurai you used to be able to just buy some lift shackles. but that is dependent on how the leaf springs are designed and how the shackles are laid out. Check with a lift kit company sometimes the shackle lift kits are under $300 for the whole vehicle.
I also don't know if it has leaf springs on the front AND rear, or just rear, not really sure, my lookup program doesn't even list the vehicle.
I used to do this all the time, until the company I worked for closed dew to me being injured on the job. Only thing we couldn’t do was berlined eyes. We had an old Cincinnati belt driven metal worker that cut the tapper and curled the cut end after heating it in our open forge. Your bolt up bench, ubolt head, and arching ram look extremely similar to the one that we had.
Wait a min…. Why did they close due to YOU being injured
@@tjlovesrachel I separated 3 ribs from my sternum and spine while working on a modular boat trailer.
I was told, I had kept the business open 3 years with the work I was doing. This all happened about 15yrs ago. Back when the economy was taking a roller coaster ride.
@@johnyhawgleg ahhhh … damm … I hope your okay now
I had done that for 3 of the 11.5 years I worked there.
Berlin eyes can be fun. I use a Vice to get the Berlin after rolling the main leafs.sometime you bend a little too much and have to move fast to get it correctly lined up to the center of the spring
Impressive work. But why don't you paint leafs before assembly with anti corrosion paint?
We where leaveing it up to the customer.
What is the goal of the grinding then heating and hammering on the very ends of the spring.
we grind to get a roll, hammer it to start the curl and then the shape is started so when we roll it isn't blunt...great question. I have a new set of main leaves to make. I could address this in my next video.
The job is paying and got a new hammer.
Makes a change - half the internet blacksmiths are busy turning leaf springs into knives, axes, cold chisels...
The rear springs on my 1974 Ford Bronco cost 488.00 American. Now I know why they cost that much. All labor and hopefully domestic steel for the win.
Another disappearing art.... :( Are all 3/8" leaves like the ones you were using the same "rate"? Or, are there, let say, soft, medium and stiff? Can the rate be adjusted by a larger or smaller arc on the arch? Or, is the arch strictly for ride height? PS There was a shop similar to yours, (Temme Standard Spring), where I grew up in Chicago. I remember standing there, in awe, watching the leaves being stacked or the wire being coiled. It was pretty amazing to a 10 y/o... Geez! Over 50 years ago! :)
The more arch you put into a spring the higher and stiffer they get. All leaf springs are made from the same material 5160 spring steel. However if you want a leaf that is softer or stiffer you change the thickness. They range from 262 thousandth all the way to 1" thick
@@simcoespring Gotcha! TYVM! Now I know.
I was wondering the same thing. So thickness plus the radius of the arch = spring rate?
Wehave one in New Bedford Ma.still open
Out of the 6 spring shops in our area we are the only ones that still make main leaves.
Why don’t you paint them prior to final assembly? If I had ordered a set I would want them painted for rust prevention
Ever thought of selling the drops for knife making ?
I have a whole rack full of good sized drops ready for knife making.
U could sell the steel drops to knife makers on ebay or marketplace.......
I do have many pieces of drops and cuttings.
Why is one eye above and the other below the springs curve?
Just part of the design. There are many ways to roll a spring eye.
never seen those plastic pads last over 30k honestly
I'm guessing that you buy pre arched, hardened tempered stock. I didn't know that was available, who is your supplier?
We have a few suppliers. Mostly buy it from dayton parts. They dont sell to anyone tho you have to buy it from a spring shop.
@@simcoespring Thanks, I am in industrial repair & like to know about these things.
Bolt that chop saw to a sturdy bench so your not working on the ground.
Всем привет!!!Отличная работа.Я тоже работаю с рессорами.Как с вами связатся?
24:40 when you cut that bolt wouldn’t it be better to tac weld that hex nut ?
It’s really not critical as it’s basically just a locating pin, the real job is done but the U-bolts once installed. Also you don’t want to be welding near springs. Arc strikes/hot spatter can really mess with them.
this kind of art is still observed in pakistan