springs for lure rack

[finlander]

Stopped by the closest hdwe store to see about springs. Small ones were $3.5o each while a long, 24" spring for a screen door, was $1.79. What gives. Home Depot did not have any that I saw the other day, though I did not ask anyone. Anybody ever see small springs there?? I did buy the long spring with hope of cutting it into smaller pieces. Thanks.

[dlaery]

I was looking for springs and had same experience. I found some at Wal-Mart. these were brackets with springs that hooked to plates to hang on wall. There were 2 springs per bracket and it was less than $2.

[Cartrpill]

As a spring maker that makes perfect sense to me. If we made 100 springs for ace hardware they'd be expensive compared to the 500,000 springs we made for a door company, even though the door spring is bigger. I would recommend doing what dlaery did, find a cheap off the shelf product that has some springs that look like they'll work, or strip any useful parts from your old printer, vacuum, or windshield wiper blades before you throw 'em out. Springs are everywhere if you look for them.

[hazmail]

I have bought small springs in small plastic boxes at Auto Parts stores. As Cartrpill says, find a car wreck and you will have more springs than you can carry. Pete

[finlander]

Thanks for the help guys. Hanging a downrigger weight from that spring all day long did not stretch it one iota. Where I work, we carry those plate hangers. I dont think the price is as low as WallyWorld, but the tension is probably perfect.

[Vodkaman]

Over the years, I have searched for the 'right' spring, but to no avail. My suggestion is use rubber. It doesn't get much cheaper, is available in diferent tensions, sizes and lengths. You can either buy rubber bands or buy it by the length from hobby shops.

No, the will not out live the steel spring, but replacing the elastic once a year is not such a hardship. Well, it will do the job until you find your springs.

[fatfingers]

I also use rubber bands from time to time.

As to cutting up the longer springs, I just tried that this week and it worked great. Watch your fingers though. You'll need to pull a coil off the end and bend it with a needlenose into a hook for each end of the piece you cut off.

Its pretty easy though and the smaller springs work great.

[finlander]

I think I will try to stretch that door spring a bit more by adding another 8 lb. weight to it before I snip it. FF- how did you pull yours apart??

[fatfingers]

I take a pair of sturdy sidecutters and cut the spring by biting the sidecutters down in the spring until is "separates" the coil and grabs one strand. I cut the spring to the desired lenght.

After cutting a piece of the spring off, I take a small vice grips and grab the end of the spring by the last strand.The vice grips works great because it won't slip and controls the wire, which is under tension. I pull the end strand of the spring out a bit and then bend it with a pair of needle nose pliers to form a loop so that I can hook the loop into the eyescrew of the bait. Of course I do that on both ends of the spring.

[hazmail]

Did I mention it's 'Spring' here-------------- FINALLY. pete