Making a Clock Mainspring
by Mervyn Passmore
As the range of suitable, ready-made clock
mainsprings available to repairers diminishes, the need to make or modify a
spring is becoming more common. It is vital that a spring is made correctly, using appropriate material.
Wrongly softened or badly shaped holes can cause a premature fracture,
which can be very damaging to a clock train, and a spring that is too weak or strong, can be equally problematic.
Tools required to make a clock mainspring
are:
Selecting
suitable material
The original clockmaker will have designed
the size of the barrel and the gear train based on many criteria including the
hardness (strength) of the mainspring material. To maintain authenticity and to
avoid damage to the train, only traditional carbon steel spring material should
be used as a replacement.
The motor industry is currently under
enormous pressure to reduce carbon emissions. If they can find steels that are
more powerful than traditional materials, a spring’s thickness can be reduced.
This in turn reduces the overall weight of the vehicle, which can put it into a
different CO2 group. This has meant that steel rolling mills now concentrate on
making very high powered springs for items such as car seat belt re-coilers and
other parts that use traditional coiled steels.
The use of high power spring steel in
clocks is causing damage to clocks and should be avoided. Whilst it is possible
to replace a traditional spring with a thinner gauge of high power material,
this is undesirable from a professional point of view. It destroys
authenticity, the required percentage reduction in thickness is extremely
difficult to calculate and the substitution will cause problems for the next
repairer.
Research has shown that the best
specification for a suitable material for clocks made before 1970 is in the now
obsolete British Standards BS5770: Pt. 3: 1981.
Although this uses a somewhat outdated hardness test system, steel that
fails this test can generally be considered to be too weak or too strong for
old clocks. Always ensure that any springs and material you buy complies with
BS5770.
Spring weakness can also be a problem,
although unlikely to damage the train. This is much easier
to test if you do not have access to a hardness tester, but cannot be done
until a spring has been made and wound. It is a destructive test.
A few exceptions apply. For example Konrad
Mauch made a large number of 400 day clocks in their Miniature and Midget
ranges with a mainspring that had insufficient power. The movement was
re-issued with a 15% wider barrel, which would have increased the force by 15%.
This is an excellent example of where a higher powered spring could be useful
to a repairer.
Calculating
the length
Material dealers supply springs by
specifying the barrel diameter. This is because the length of an existing
spring cannot always be trusted. An antique clock will have survived two world
wars and several recessions. If the spring has broken during a period when
replacements were difficult to obtain, and the break is near one end, it is
likely that a repairer will have discarded the broken part and made a new end.
This practice is acceptable if the fracture is very close to or involves the hole.
However, larger pieces are sometimes discarded and clocks that were designed to
run for 8 days will have a reduced period of operation.
Similarly a spring may have been replaced
with one that is too short if the correct replacement item was unavailable at
the time.
You should either rely on your material
dealer’s expertise or do the calculations yourself. Our mainspring calculation tool may be of assitance here. Visit the website at www.mp.
co.uk and select 'technical help' along the left hand side, and scroll down to Online
Calculators and select 'Calculate the Correct Mainspring Length'.
Softening
the ends
The two ends of a spring need to be
softened in order to make the holes and also to ensure that the material
engages correctly in the hooks. Softening is a simple process but requires very
careful attention. The process involves heating the final few centimetres to
red heat and cooling it slowly.
Ideally, you should heat the end in an enclosed, heat reflective area such as in a group of
fire bricks. It is important that the steel can cool off slowly. If it cools suddenly due to a
blast of cool air or being placed on a cool surface it can harden and become brittle.
Using a gas torch, heat the end until it is dull red but not yellow. Reduce the heat and wait
until the colour has completely disappeared. Allow to cool slowly. Remove any
discoloration with a flap wheel or an abrasive block such as a Garryflex block.
The
shape of the hole
A repairer will have seen almost every
permutation of hole shape during his or her working life. Round, square and
pear shaped, large and small.
Research carried out with the help of the
British Horological Institute identified the following criteria:
A hole in a spring must have no sharp
corners, because these will encourage a tear to start.
It must not have a curve on the leading
edge that forces the spring to self-centre in the barrel. The barrel hook is
not always in the centre.
The hole needs to be as small as possible.
The obvious conclusion is the traditional pear-shaped
hole that has a flat surface on the leading edge and has the narrow end facing
the main part of the spring. This shape complies with all the required
criteria, and is the professional’s choice. Any other shape should be
considered as undesirable
Hole Making and Scribing
To
make a hole select a suitable hole template - the old spring is ideal for this purpose. Place it on the end of the
material and scribe around the hole and the outer curve. Using snips, carefully
cut around the arc that defines the end of the spring. File away any burrs.
Using a punch tool if you have one, punch
out as much as possible of the material inside the scribed line.
We now sell an easy-to-use multiple sized, circular hole punch which can be used to begin the end making process:
If you do not have a punch tool, drill a
hole. To get started you may need a centre drill; without one the drill bit tip
may wander around the surface.
Once you have a starting hole,
you can file away the interior of the scribed hole so that it exactly matches the template. Finally, it is important to add a short, soft curve to the outer end of the spring to match the
curvature of the intended barrel. Also, add a slightly sharper curve to the inner end to
match the curvature of the intended arbor.
The curve is essential, particularly if the spring is to be inserted by hand.
