Most side besides shotguns use one or more leaf springs like this to operate the action. The top
lever spring, hammer springs, sear springs, are generally leaf springs. Now when these things
break, which they occasionally do you're likely are not going to be able to get a new one from
the manufacturer. But with a piece of spring steel bar stock like this all it takes is time
and skill and you can make a new one. Making a leaf spring for a top leaver or something like
that is something every gunsmith needs to know how to do and Jack I know you're going to make one for
us here so once you explain kind of the process and what you're doing. Certainly Larry. What I'm
going to do I'm going to make what a simple top lever spring a greener type for the job we've got
in progress. It's it's fairly simple, okay there are snags you can come across in making a spring,
but it's a fairly simple job. The latter part of the process is the difficult part,
the hardening and tempering. Now let's make a start on this one. I know you're starting with
spring steel stock so this is special stock that's made just for making springs.It's just
great spring sale and its 3/32 thick which is ample thickness for a top lever spring.
You need a good torch or flame to heat this
up in. You need more fire than what you might get in a just a basic propane torch.
Turn your torch down a little bit here so now you're going to squeeze it some more
squeeze it as much as I can, I can't go much more than this because I can't get much more leverage.
We'll put it in the
vice and allow it to cool off, now that's the first stage. Well Jack it's all cooled down and
we've cut this leg off here this extra material so doesn't look like a spring yet. No it soon will
be Larry, now this is where you've got to do some hacksawing and filing. Now don't mess around with
a little file, you're just dressing this your not trying to actually remove any metal except this to
get nice and flat. Yes right it's not good messing around with little tiny fall. Use enough file,
is that what you say? Yeah use a big file get the metal off, clean up the sides. We'll call that
the top we'll call that the bottom. The bottoms what you're gonna file a little leg on. I'm going
to leave the leg on. The next move is to to saw down. So your just removing the materials that's
excess to the spring. Now we've just about got to the bottom of that slot
there. There's two strips hanging by a thread you might say. I'll just cut in and
there we go those spots are out. Now I've got a little kind of piece right here on the end,
I mean there's an extension on the end. So this is what we're going to make the tab.
That's correct. Okay now we just got to clean that up a bit and sit it down where the peg
at the end is going to go. Again don't mess around with a little file there's
a mile of medal that needs to come off. You can always clean the spring up after you've made it.
Our next move is to then that thing down on the sides. you're actually
making the peg now that's going to fit yes I can part the peg.
One side done.
You file the flats and then you're going to dress it and make it round. You can make that
round later on when you finish making the spring you can finally round that off and make it look
nice. I mean no sense in doing a lot of fancy work right there because you've still got to harden and
temper the spring even might break and all your work you've done up to this stage is all wasted.
Now if I remember right it somewhere around 5/8 of an inch down on the old one so I've marked down
about there. If I leave enough metal I can always move it after we've made this spring. so you're
gonna shorten this one that's great on one arm of the spring this is coming shortly I'll cut it off.
There we go. I'm going to taper that leg downwards because it needs to be thinner at this end than it
does at the top end. Again get a nasty shop file, a big one, and start hacking away. The more you
take off, the weaker the spring. You're taking metal off too weaken the spring because it would
be too strong of a spring if you didn't take it off. If I made spring with that thickness
it would be too strong and it wouldn't close up nicely. What I want to try and achieve is to get
the thickness of the edge just below the same on both springs. I've got a fair way to go yet,
I'll got to taper this thing some more it's a longer leg so I've got a longer area to thin down.
So I think we've just about got that down to the thickness we need. So the next move is to light
the torch up again and off we go. There will be some more filing after. Hold it using some
old pliers that you don't value very highly. Hold the spring by the longer leg and heat it.
All right it's beginning to look like a spring, let me hold it. Now what I've done,
I've got some gap between the two legs now and some curve in the legs now. You don't want to
make them too wide open because the gape of the spring depends on the length of it. If you go
little short spring you can't have it way out here. The gape is commensurate with the length.
Now you're going to basically do the fine work on it and detail a little bit. Okay it's still
soft now you still soft you can still hold file it. The thing is now now with a with a knife file
you can you can clean it up. Just clean out any burrs and stuff that it's got inside now. I've
got some marks here and I can just clean up those and you can use just any ordinary swiss file to
do that. So what you're doing now is basically taking off all the nicks and scratches. Right
I've got some nicks and scratches in there. I could do it later after I've hardened it
but not on the site but that's about clean enough Larry, now we're just about finished.
Continue cleaning it up somewhat before we harden it, don't want to do too much and before you
know it you've got a good spring. Now the next thing we've got to harden it. So the welding rod
will do the trick if you've got nothing else. You want just a small piece of wire so you don't draw
away any of the heat? Well the you need to have enough wire to wrap around the spring to hold
it because we're going to dunk it into some of the oil. We can put the torch in the vice,
we're going to heat it until it's a nice bright red, then we're going to quench it,
and then we're going to temper it by burning up the oil. I've got to get this to an even
color all over. Now this is easy enough to do with the small spring like this.
Take the spring out of the oil, keep moving it about in that little flame. Just make sure there
are no places where there any unburnt oil. In the oil, out again, back in the flame,
just in and out. There we go just touching it to the flame. Now put it back in the oil. Even
though it's been in that oil it's still hot. There is a lot of gunge on it I've got to get all this
burnt oil off of it. You can just scrape some of it off, that's about right. Now we will file the
spring very easily. See how easy that is, you would think it was soft. I it's safe enough to
test it. So now hold the peg in the vice, get a big pair of pliers and we just squeeze up
the spring. It's very strong it needs thinning down before you fit it in the gun. Here we go,
fully compressed and it opens again, not quite where I had it before. It's found its own set
and it will stay like that. For this length of spring that's about the amount gape you need. And
if you'd like to squeeze it up you may have a try Larry and see if you can bust it. There you go,
both arms of that spring come together and open back out again. And it's strong as you
can witness. Here we are that top lever spring is ready for final fit in the gun and polishing.