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Help with bonding a spring with a bolt?

3.6K views 28 replies 18 participants last post by  Jim Jakosh  
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hey guys! I'm Leo. I'm new to the forum.

I have been in desperate need of help to permanently attach this spring with this bolt.
It needs to be a permanent bond between these too. I know it's two kind of metals so soldering it might not work, right? And epoxy might not hold permanently, right?
The spring will be used with the bolt to go in and out of a piece of wood so it needs to resist the twist pressure.

If any of you guys could share your expertise I would greatly appreciate. Thanks!!!
 
#4 ·
I would weld them together or use silver solder. Silver solder will take a lot of heat unless you use a tig welder then you can localize the heat effected area. From the picture I'm seeing a steel spring and a stainless screw. If that is correct then a weld will be the best method, I would prefer tig welding it but a mig weld would be okay to. Either way you will need some 309 welding wire and some Trimix welding gas. That's is how I would go about attaching the two. Any way you choose don't quinch the work piece it will screw up the spring and the weld let it air cool.
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the reply. I just have to make sure the bond is easy to do fast and cheap since this will be needed to be repeated hundreds of times. Also I can't have any residue on the side since this will go inside a tight fitting whole. I'm considering welding it but I think gluing would be easier but I don't know if there is a glue fit for this. If there is i'd prefer gluing since that's a much easier and more of my level method. (I don't do much welding so if I can go about not doing it it would be better.)

Thanks
 
#12 ·
... I just have to make sure the bond is easy to do fast and cheap since this will be needed to be repeated hundreds of times. ...

- Leonardo
Have someone weld it. They probably won t even charge.

- TheFridge
Fridge, someone might do one or two free, but hundreds is gonna cost him…
 
#15 · (Edited by Moderator)
Instead of a bolt, could you use a piece of all thread that would screw into the spring?

- jbay
This is the first thought that came to my mind as well. The only thing I'd do different is to thread and glue a nut 1/4" from one end of the threaded rod. Then the spring could be glued or brazed to that 1/4" protrusion.
 
#16 ·
If you don't have a welder, find a friend with something like this:
Image


Use it to get the job at hand done, then keep an eye out on CL for a nice used model for cheap. It's like a hot melt glue gun, but for metal :)

For what you are looking at doing, you don't need as big of one as shown above - a little 90A model that runs on 120v would be more than enough (like this one at HF for under $100).

Cheers,
Brad
 

Attachments

#17 ·
Correct welding would no doubt be the strongest, but I'm not sure form your description how strong it needs to be. What type of torque will exist between the spring and bolt.

Also, if you could shape the end of the spring such that the spring wire bends sharp at the end and comes right across the center, like cutting a circle in half. Maybe that could fit into the slot of s slotted bolt. The idea is this would handlr the primary torque forces and the glue or weld is pretty much there to keep it from falling off.
 
#18 ·
Thanks everybody for all the replies!
I will try welding. There's no escape from it. It's clearly the best method. I'm lucky since my dad already has a tig welder. I will only need to buy a thinner welding wire since the application is small. And will need to build a nice jig to support it while welding. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks!!!
 
#23 · (Edited by Moderator)
I would first flatten the end of the spring so it is square with the body and then fixture them in line is a piece of wood and braze the joint with a torch. The wood may burn up a bit but if it does the job of alignment, who cares.
I mention alignment because if they are not aligned very well, you will get binding on the inside of where ever it is going.
It will be permanent!
If you lived close, I could do it for you!

Oh, I missed that you need hundreds. I would still braze them because welding might pull to one side and cause mis alignment, BUT, I would make a steel fixture.

Cheers, Jim
 
#24 ·
Thanks for the tip jim. I made a jig to support them so they're straight with each other while soldering.
So my dad works as a jeweler and in his job they have this heatless solder machine that costs 5000 and he was able to get a great bond out of it. He was planning on buying the machine for himself and after I told I needed to get hundred's done he bought an used one. He's gonna use for his own stuff and he will let me use it while he's not using it.