-40%
Flat spring steel for repairing antique door locksets - 2 each of 7" length
$ 3.1
- Description
- Size Guide
Description
I've been trying to get old Victorian-vintage exterior and interior locksets working again. The biggest problem has been that the springs inside the lockset were broken or missing. No one seems to have these, nor the original flat spring steel to make them from. After considerable searching I found a source for flat spring steel, and am offering lengths of it here. It is thinner than the old springs usually are, but stronger and of better steel so they won't break.Note that the 1/4" width is perfect for some springs, but not for others. Typically if the spring is not above or below another part it will fit; if it is you'll need to get a narrower spring or grind down the width of these ones in the areas where there is interference. Pick 1/8" wide if you need a narrower size.
There are two thicknesses available for 1/8" wide springs, thicknesses are 0.020" (quite flexible) and 0.028" (quite stiff).
This item consists of two 7" lengths of this flat spring steel, which is enough to fix several locksets. You need to cut it to length and bend it to fit. Bending is easy with a couple of pairs of pliers. Cutting not so much, as normal diagonal cutters won't work on hard spring steel. I found that "compound diagonal cutters" cut this stuff easily, and I highly recommend buying a pair -- they're about on Amazon, good Irwin ones (which I have and recommend) are about .
The last picture shows a spring installed in a lockset (you don't get the lockset). The left spring is an original; the right spring was made from the 1/4" x 0.024" flat spring steel offered here.
When bending the stuff remember that you want a spring. Bend it to a shape that will fit where the old spring went, but will require considerable pressure to install. Getting all the bends exactly right usually doesn't matter.
I'm also selling spring steel wire for this purpose. It works well in most cases to replace flat springs, and is cheaper. Look for it in another listing of mine.
In yet another listing I'm selling brass bushings to tighten up doorknob shafts that rattle. The cams that the square shafts go into get worn, and you can't get replacements. It takes a little work to fit new bushings, but the results are spectacular. You can find a detailed article about both of these fixes by searching the internet for "exeye" (my eBay username) and "lockset repair".
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