[CW] Changing Sprngs

[Richard Knoppow]

     I was catching up with unread messages and found an old one about 
replacing a spring in a key.  I have made springs for keys many times 
where the original spring was missing. The first time was when I was in 
my teens and managed to loose the spring from my brand new J-38. Well, I 
made one from the spring in a ball point pen. I discovered my makeshift 
spring (its still in the key) changed the feel entirely. The original 
felt "spongy" and much more recently obtained J-38s have the same feel. 
The home made spring felt crisp. I am not sure what causes this 
difference, its not the strength of the springs since the compression of 
both for the same pressure was about the same. I have since made springs 
using spring stock from the hardware store for a number of straight keys 
and a TAC bug where the dot return spring was missing. All these keys 
have the same sort of crisp, positive feel. One difference I notice is 
the thickness of the wire. The J-38 keys have rather thick wire which I 
read somewhere was either beryllium copper or phosphor bronze, can't 
remember which. The springs I made are all from spring steel. The first 
two have the advantage that they do not corrode. Whether its the 
material or the thickness something makes a difference.
     Something else I wonder about. Photos of some very old keys show a 
different spring design than the familiar conical helical springs, these 
are sort of like the spring part of a safety pin with an extension going 
to the pressure adjusting screw and the other end going to a hole in the 
frame of the key. I have at least one of these keys, an E.S.Greeley key, 
that from its catalog pictures had this kind of spring originally. The 
original spring was gone when it was given to me so a made a 
conventional spring for it. This key, BTW, from the address on Dey 
street on the stamped in label is c.130 years old, probably the oldest 
object of any sort I own. I am curious if some of the real key 
collectors on this list have keys with this sort of safety pin spring on 
them and can they comment on how it affects the feel of the key.
-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL