This is Why They Don't Make These Anymore...

Alec Steele forges a rare 119-year-old steam engine spring from round to square stock, tackling unique challenges in traditional blacksmithing.

Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.

Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.

Key Takeaways

Forging a large spring from square stock is a rare and complex task due to material availability and dimensional accuracy requirements.
Traditional blacksmithing skills are essential to replicate historical parts that modern manufacturing cannot easily produce.
Careful measurement, material selection, and forging techniques are critical to ensure the spring functions properly under heavy load.
Innovative problem-solving, such as making a custom mandrel and welding steel pieces, is necessary for custom fabrication.
Sponsorship and community engagement help support niche craft content like this.

What the video covers

Alec Steele takes on the challenge of forging a replacement spring for a 119-year-old Wallace and Stevens steam engine suspension.
The original spring was made from square stock, which is rare and difficult to source or manufacture today.
Alec sources EN47 spring steel in round stock and forges it into the required square cross-section.
He carefully measures and calculates the dimensions needed to replicate the spring accurately.
The forging process involves heating, shaping, and ensuring the spring will function under heavy load (10 tons engine).
Alec fabricates a mandrel from steel to bend the spring to the correct inside diameter.
The video includes a sponsored segment promoting the WhatNot live stream shopping app.
Alec demonstrates problem-solving and traditional blacksmithing techniques throughout the project.
The project highlights the difficulty of replicating old manufacturing methods with modern materials and tools.
The video is educational, showing detailed steps and challenges in custom spring forging.

Chapters

Why is it difficult to find a replacement spring for this steam engine?

The original spring was forged from large square stock, which is rare today. Modern springs are usually made from round stock, and no manufacturer in the UK could produce a spring of this size and shape.

What material is used to forge the new spring?

Alec uses EN47 spring steel, an alloy designed specifically for making springs, sourced in round stock and forged into the required square cross-section.

How does Alec ensure the spring will fit and function correctly?

He carefully measures the original spring dimensions, calculates the necessary length and cross-section, forges the steel to precise dimensions, and fabricates a custom mandrel to bend the spring to the correct inside diameter.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Welcome back to the workshop. We've got a fun job on today. Have a look at this whopping great big spring that is not very springy anymore. We've got to make a new one. So, that spring is 119 years old, and it was forged for a very special steam engine. This is the suspension for a Wallace and Stevens engine that is owned by another fellow YouTuber, Norm from Vintage Iron UK.

Speaker A

Over the past several years, he's been completely restoring it. And when I visited him a few months ago, we started talking about this problem. You see, getting a new spring manufactured today out of round stock wouldn't be too much of a challenge. However, getting one made from square stock of this size is a very different story. In all his hunting, he wasn't able to find anybody to do it. And while we were chatting, I said, "Well, hey, you could just try and do it yourself. Surely it can't be that hard." And then somehow the end of that conversation involved me saying, "Surely it can't be that hard for me to do it.

Speaker A

And I think this would be good fun." So, here we go. Hopefully it is good fun and hopefully we can pull off a successful replacement spring for Norm. What is very interesting to see here, it appears that it has had a weld repair at some point in time. Look at that big blob of weld right there. So, somebody in the 119 years that this thing has been on that traction engine has tried to give it a good shot of fixing it, but obviously that didn't last. Now,

Speaker A

obviously I'm quite nervous for a number of reasons. Number one, the actual dimensions need to be fairly accurate. Number two, it needs to actually do the job of being a spring. On the engine are two of these springs, and they're sporting a lot of weight. The whole engine's got to be 10 tons. So, I can't just make a gimmick spring. I've got to actually make a real one that actually functions. In the saw, I've got a bar of EN47, which is an alloy of steel that is a spring steel. It is designed for making springs out of. It's round. That is square. Hopefully, this is big enough

Speaker A

that we can forge it into that square. Got to measure the cross-section of this. Now, as it gets bent, you'll see the bar size on the outer perimeter is going to shrink as compared to the inside. You see, we have about a 2 mm difference. We'll try and take this dimension from about halfway down. We need to make it 28.6 mm.

Speaker A

That makes me nervous. That's a 40 mil circle. That's a 28 mil square. There is not a lot of room to fit that. Oh, we're not off to a good start. That was the biggest bit of EN47 I could find. I presume they don't make a lot of coil springs that are larger than 40 mil in diameter. Maybe that explains why nobody else in the UK would make this. Make up a kiss block and we'll test it on that

Speaker A

little small piece. This block. See if this will work. Oh, I think we're going to be okay. Proof is going to be in the pudding. And the pudding is measuring it, but it looked like we filled that square cross-section from the round just fine with ample diameter to play with. That makes me happy. We need 28.6 mm.

Speaker A

[clears throat] What do we have? Oh, no. 28.74. 150 microns large. Oh boy. Got it first try. Well, I've always said if I ever forge something to dimension, I'll eat my piece of steel. Woo! This is fantastic. We are literally just able to make this spring from the material that we've got. So, done a little bit of maths. We know the outside diameter. We know the inside diameter.

Speaker A

That allows us to find the diameter in the middle with enough excess either side to hopefully mean that it all works out. Once we forge it into a square bar, we'll need 67 in or 170 cm. But since when we forge the round bar, it's going to get longer. We can start with 125 cm or 49 in. Blacking's a beautiful thing.

Speaker A

You beat on it enough and it grows longer. Let's go. Good. Oh, a little bit thick there. IT'S SHAPING UP. NICE and slow. Don't want to mess it up. Got to tidy that up a bit. It's just a little bit thick by maybe half a millimeter.

Speaker A

So, I'm going to take another heat in that spot. Nice, straight, square, and consistent. We'll let this cool down cold enough to be able to handle it. Flip it around. Do the other half.

Speaker A

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Speaker A

Alexsteel. One of you is going to get $500 of WhatNot credits. It's bloody awesome. You can buy, sell, auction anything. This morning I've been following this guy's live stream and I have been buying so many tools. I bought pliers, scrapers, magnetic pickup tool. Plenty more. I thought you hate magnets. I do hate magnets unless I need them to pick something up for me. What's not only great for tools, but also great if you're into your collectibles, Pokémon

Speaker A

cards, sports cards, toys, Legos, Funko Pops, electronics, coins, even candy, meat, seafood, and so, so much more. Oh, woohoo. I just won that candy for a Fiverr. Well, not only can you buy cool stuff by watching a WhatNot stream, you can also do a stream yourself and sell cool stuff. It's super easy to do using their seller hub. I've also made sure to follow Will on WhatNot cuz he's been doing some great streams there selling things from the Stella manufacturing

Speaker A

company. And so, please go check out WhatNot. There is a QR code on screen that you can scan or you can click the link in the description. And when you click that link and then follow me at Alex on WhatNot, you'll be entered into that $500 giveaway. My link and QR code is also going to get you $15 off your first purchase anywhere in the app. For example, you buy a $20 set of sockets, you're only going to pay five. How good

Speaker A

is that? So, go check it out and let's get back to the video. Now, we need a mandrel because we got to get bendy. On the drawings that Norm supplied, the inside diameter of the spring is 58 mm. That's 59.82, 58.3, 58, 58.9, 59.5. That means we need to shoot for 58 plus 1.5 is our tolerance. So, let's find some steel, cut it off, put in the lathe.

Speaker A

Nope. Wait, are you trying to chance it that you're going to find 59 mil bit of stick? I never discount the value of being lucky. 50. Oh no. I bet that's 60. That is literally the exact diameter. 58.

Speaker A

[laughter] But there's a problem. It's way too short. It's way too short. That is exactly what our mandrel wants to do. We're going to need another couple of inches. And there's another bit of it here. Weld them together. Bish bash bosch. That is

Speaker A

almost long enough. Hell of a contraption though. Bro, what the hell is this? Oh, there we go. This is my new Facebook Marketplace acquisition. I'm very proud to say that I have a problem. This is 5 m of R3 studless mooring chain. 5 m of

Speaker A

this mooring chain, guys, is 950 kilos. So, when I need to install the new power hammers, we've got our rigging materials. Since this has a minimum breaking strain of like 1,000 tons, RIGHT? HOW ABOUT THIS? [screaming] THAT'S CLOSE, isn't it? It also happens

Speaker A

to be a really expensive bit of tool steel. You're only going to turn it down like a mill or two and then you're still going to have it after you use it as a mandrel. So, it's not like you using the material. You're just borrowing it. Yeah. Oh, that's a surface finish. I'm going to put a little taper on the end here to help releasing it.

Speaker A

Little last minute research. That is running at 980°. 980. Oh, screaming quick, mate. We're going to be done by lunchtime. What? I'm going to need is I'm going to need some sort of a dog to catch this end there.

Speaker A

You got three of them in the workshop? Oh, I do. Good. Safety glasses. You're going to hold this part for me. Okay. I don't think I'm going to put my dog that close to the actual lathe.

Speaker A

But why don't you just make some sort of bracket out of metal and call it a dog? Good idea. Oh

Speaker A

We'll let this cool down cold enough to be able to handle it. Flip it around. Do the other half.

Speaker A

beautiful. As you guys know, I am always trying to acquire more tools for the workshop, and I have found an awesome place to do just that. Today's sponsor, WhatNot, is the number one live stream shopping app. And the great thing is

Speaker A

they're giving away $500 if you do follow me. There's no purchase necessary. Follow me on whatnot.

Speaker A

Alexsteel. One of you is going to get $500 of whatnot credits. It's bloody awesome. You can buy, sell, auction anything. This morning I've been following this guy's live stream and I have been buying so many tools. I bought

Speaker A

pliers, scrapers, magnetic pickup tool. Plenty more. I thought you hate magnets. I do hate magnets unless I need them to pick something up for me. What's not only great for tools, but also great if you're into your collectibles, Pokémon

Speaker A

cards, sports cards, toys, Legos, Funko Pops, electronics, coins, even candy, meat, seafood, and so, so much more. Oh, woohoo. I just won that candy for a Fiverr. Well, not only can you buy cool stuff by watching a whatnot stream, you

Speaker A

can also do a stream yourself and sell cool stuff. It's super easy to do using their seller hub. I've also made sure to follow Will on whatnot cuz he's been doing some great streams there selling things from the Stella manufacturing

Speaker A

company. And so, please go check out whatnot. There is a QR code on screen that you can scan or you can click the link in the description. And when you click that link and then follow me at Alex and whatnot, you'll be entered into

Speaker A

that $500 giveaway. My link and QR code is also going to get you $15 off your first purchase anywhere in the app. For example, you buy a $20 set of sockets, you're only going to pay five. How good

Speaker A

is that? So, go check it out and let's get back to the video. Now, we need a mandrel because we got to get bendy. On the drawings that Norm supplied, the inside diameter of the spring is 58 mm. That's 59.82, 58.3, 58,

Speaker A

58.9 59.5. That means we need to shoot for 58 plus 1.5 is our tolerance. So, let's find some steel, cut it off, put in the lathe.

Speaker A

Nope. Wait, are you trying to chance it that you're going to find 59 mil bit of stick?

Speaker A

I never discount the value of being lucky. 50. Oh no. I bet that's 60. That is literally the exact diameter. 58.

Speaker A

[laughter] But there's a problem. It's way too short. It's way too short. That is exactly what our mandrel wants to do. We're going to need another couple of inches. And there's another bit of it here. Weld them together. Bish bash bosch. That is

Speaker A

almost long enough. Hell of a contraption though. Bro, what the hell is this? Oh, there we go. This is my new Facebook Marketplace acquisition. I'm very proud to say that I have a problem. This is 5 m of R3 studless mooring chain. 5 m of

Speaker A

this mooring chain, guys, is 950 kilos. So, when I need to install the new power hammers, we've got our rigging materials. Since this has a minimum braking strain of like 1,000 tons, RIGHT? HOW ABOUT THIS? [screaming] THAT'S CLOSE, isn't it? It also happens

Speaker A

to be a really expensive bit of tool steel. You're only going to turn it down like a mill or two and then you're still going to have it after you use it as an mandrel. So, it's not like you using the

Speaker A

material. You're just borrowing it. Yeah. Oh, that's a surface finish. I'm going to put a little taper on the end here to help releasing it.

Speaker A

Little last minute research. That is running at 980°. 980. Oh, screaming quick, mate. We're going to be done by lunchtime. What? I'm going to need is I'm going to need some sort of a dog to catch this end there.

Speaker A

You got three of them in the workshop? Oh, I do. Good. Safety glasses. You're going to hold this part for me. Okay. I don't think I'm going to put my dog that close to the actual lathe.

Speaker A

But why don't you just make some sort of bracket out of metal and call it a dog?

Speaker A

Good idea. Oh yeah, that is exactly what we need. Let's just weld it on.

Speaker A

Dude, the second you turn the lathe on, that's just going to fly off. D to touch the coils. Don't. It hurts.

Speaker A

Don't ask me how I know. If you lick it, I'll give you 20 quid.

Speaker A

50. [laughter] Yeah. All right. Oh, I forgot something. Now it's a dog. So, this is a little bending tool so that we can tweak this uh the openings, the coil gaps as we go. Perfect. And then I spotted this video of a chap

Speaker A

making coil springs. And this little device there for controlling spring rate and holding the material down low. I like the look of that. So I made up this little guy there. We just have to add on a little knuckle here with a roller. Be

Speaker A

interesting to see if that works too. Can't think of any other tools that I need.

Speaker A

Yeah, you will do it once you start though. Oh yeah, I'll need this tool right here.

Speaker A

Look at that. It's basically a roller bearing that will sit there. Boom. Boom. Boom. Oh no. Jamie, there is unfortunately nothing to it but to do it.

Speaker A

Have you checked the amount of oxygen in the torch? I think we're have got like a third of a bottle. So, we're going to have to be really quick. I anticipate it being absolute hell to get this spring off

Speaker A

when we're done. So, I'm going to put some forging lube on there. Hopefully, that makes it easy when the time comes.

Speaker A

Going to do one thing on these sh Oh, goodness sake. I'm going to soften these sharp corners with a grinder. Anywhere they're a little bit too sharp. So, there's a little bit of a radius there.

Speaker A

Want to make sure we don't have any cracks starting on the edges. We do the first little bit with a heat from the forge. You ready, Jamie?

Speaker A

More than ready. Let's do it. How hard do you reckon it's going to be to twist this?

Speaker A

I think it's going to be tougher than you imagine cuz it's pretty thick. You remember earlier when I was like, "Oh, I've got a third of a tank." I don't have a third of a tank.

Speaker A

Got a full tank. Messing with that. I think I have 1/if of a tank. Did you watch any old David Beckham footage for this?

Speaker A

Why from what is that? Well, it's He's famous for bending it, isn't he? BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM.

Speaker A

GO TIME, BABY. OKAY. And then wait for me to get in place with the other thing.

Speaker A

And Oh, wait. Oh, shoot. Go for it. Oh, crap. Wait. Wait. No, not yet. Okay. And go for it. Yeah. Go on.

Speaker A

Oh no. That's not going to be strong enough. That's like bending here, isn't it?

Speaker A

It's also like twisting it off to one side. That was a disaster. Oh, it just went really poorly. So, I'm going to try and put a bar of steel in this tool holder that'll stop the material from coming up and effectively serve the

Speaker A

purpose of this thing cuz that was rolling. It wasn't doing a very good job. Oh, perfect fit. Okay, coming at you.

Speaker A

Ready? Yeah. Come back. Go. Go. Yeah, man. GO ON. YEAH. GO ON. WE'RE DOING IT. YEAH, BABY.

Speaker A

Nice work, Ple. I thought we wrecked it the last time. Yeah, me too. I thought we were absolutely toast. I thought there was no chance this was going to work. Trouble is, though, don't think we're going to have an easy time of getting that into

Speaker A

the forge, aren't we? We now have to make the switch to the torch. [music] Perfect.

Speaker A

Quiet. Yes, mate. Yes, mate. Okay, stop. We're bound up. Nice job, Alec. Now, this is loose there.

Speaker A

A, [screaming] THAT'S A BAD MISHIT. That's the type of mishit that you don't want to do, cuz that's the type of mishit that causes a stress concentration. And that's the type of mishit that 50 years down the line is

Speaker A

why this spring might break again. We're definitely starting to figure out why they don't make these springs anymore.

Speaker A

Now it's got too much bend. Okay. And go. It's caught in the corner again, isn't it?

Speaker A

Nope. Lost it. Getting it started is tough. I REALLY UNDERESTIMATED HOW HARD THIS was going to be.

Speaker A

We'll pull it off. Do you reckon it'll be fine? AFTER I SAY, "ARE YOU READY?" YOU SAY, "BORN READY." ARE YOU READY?

Speaker A

PORN READY. [screaming] NO. NO. IT DOESN'T BITE ANYMORE. NO. THE DOG IS NO LONGER BITING.

Speaker A

I'm hoping that if it's straight, it'll then bite. You know, you know the old expression about biting off too much more than can chew you. Well, we're not biting it.

Speaker A

Yeah. There we go. [screaming] It's not good. Look at how bad the angle is. I can put some weld on it.

Speaker A

COME ON, BABY. YEAH. YEAH, JAMIE. [screaming] LET'S GO. WE'RE MAKING PROGRESS. It's kind of like a spring, maybe.

Speaker A

Yeah, man. NICE JOB. COME ON. WHEN I SAY READY, you say born ready. What?

Speaker A

You didn't say ready. I know, but I will do at some point. OKAY. [screaming] READY? READY.

Speaker A

GO. YEAH, MAN. GO. I'M SITTING ON IT. YES. BUBBLE. GO FOR IT. [screaming] GO ON. WE'RE DOING IT.

Speaker A

THAT WAS A good heat. YEAH, BOY. [screaming] OH, IT ALMOST DOESN'T FIT IN THE FORGE.

Speaker A

YEAH, MAN. GOD, LOOK. It's bent in the wrong spot. Oh, it's We need to hit that down now.

Speaker A

How did that look? Yeah. Better. That better? No, not better. Well, it's better. [laughter] I didn't say great. I said better.

Speaker A

Oh, this would be great for my lathe, eh? We're getting good at that, aren't we?

Speaker A

See how like that last coil did not at all perform consistently. I wonder if the heat was too long and it then just got a kink.

Speaker A

Nice. Yeah, mate. It's doing it. Okay, that is a lot more like a circle in there. E, much better. Okay. Oh, that's a nice mit.

Speaker A

I need to straighten this twist. Yes. Nice one. Yes. Yes. Yes. Come on. These last few wraps are looking clean.

Speaker A

Okay, you can put me down now. [laughter] Almost ended on a high. That did go a bit funky at the end there. So, basically what we're going to have to do is pick wherever's best, cut the length that we need, and then uh deal with it

Speaker A

from there. Cuz obviously this stuff here is awful looking. We don't want that. Yep. And then I'm stepping down.

Speaker A

Yeah boy. Nice work. Are you feeling refreshed? Be careful cuz Jamie may or may not be hard right now.

Speaker A

My name's not Jamie anymore. [screaming] Trouble is now our forge is too small to fit that in there. Now you will see looking at this thing. This poor old girl. She's getting on for 10 years if not more than 10 years old. Ceiling's

Speaker A

all falling down. We've rebuilt the ceiling a good couple of times. The bricks in the side have changed. This forge has uh had a tough go of things.

Speaker A

So, on the list of things to do in the coming few months is to make another forge, a big forge. The type of forge that you might be able to fit something like this inside. You know, for reasons. 1 2 3 up.

Speaker A

Look at that. Right. There we go. For the first time ever, I've actually used my modular forge in a modular capacity. This is why it's super handy to have a separate top from the base. Not only does it expand

Speaker A

and contract however it wishes, but we can lift it UP HIGHER. To make life really easy, I'm going to weld these [music] two pieces back together so we've got a perfect thing to reference from.

Speaker A

That's a bit easier to have a look at, isn't it? [music] Going to mark this for cutting.

Speaker A

[music] Oh, I tell you what, it really would be handy if I had a pair of tongs to hold this bar. These are too big. Cuz this thing is going to get hot.

Speaker A

Maybe I'll at least be able to get the spring off. It's really slippery. Oh, did it go down?

Speaker A

No. I thought you snapped it. Oh, that's exactly what I wanted. [music] Oh yeah, that got that out of there. All right, let's have a look at it now. Got it off the bar. But there's something very crucial to note. Right. If we have

Speaker A

it next to our original, it almost looks like we have a decent spacing there until you pay really good attention top down. That gap doesn't go the whole way through. Neither here, neither there. On the inside of these coils, the steel is

Speaker A

touching and so it isn't a spring currently. Whereas here, we actually have the clearance for it to, you know, be a spring. There we do not. The cross-section here does have a little bit of a trapezioid shape to it.

Speaker A

However, the trapezioid on the spring that we've made is much much greater, which is concerning. And I don't know what they did in terms of how they made this. It's possible they could have had a preform to minimize the trapezoid

Speaker A

effect. And I didn't think to do a preform cuz I thought, oh well, this thing already has a trapezioid. It must have just been a square bar that then got wrapped around and that must be the inevitable amount of trapezoid. But here

Speaker A

we are. If we take a cross-section through those trapezoids and making the coils touch. My plan to hopefully fix that is to heat this whole coil up and smashing it down that way.

Speaker A

Counterintuitively tightening it down, but hopefully forging those trapezoids against themselves so that we can then stretch out the spacing afterwards. Oh no, I left my shorts at home. I'm going to have to make these into shorts.

Speaker A

Oh gosh, street cred just disappeared. What do you want from me? You want me to just melt my legs off? I think that would be better, Jamie.

Speaker A

Sick. It be funny if you knock that out and knock that one in. I know. It's Sod's law. It's exactly what'll happen.

Speaker A

See, it's exactly what has happened. Now I've got both of them stuck. So, seems like we might be having the effect we want in here cuz these gaps are getting smaller, which means we're crushing it together. Out here, it's all

Speaker A

quite rough. And uh the overall diameter is also pretty rough and inconsistent. So, [music] next heat, we'll see if I can shove that in there and then use that as a mandrel to forge a ground.

Speaker A

[screaming] THAT'S SO HEAVY. THAT IS EXACTLY [music] WHAT I want it to be doing. Trying to make sure that it conforms to that mandrel. [music] Now we do a little more compression.

Speaker A

Right, let's take a measurement. So while it heats up, we can do some [music] maths. Basically, what we got to calculate is make sure that in its closed position, it's closed length at full compression as it is right now,

Speaker A

that matches up with what this would be at full compression based on these gaps there. Closed is currently 140. Original open 163. I think we're going to have to compress it more. That's my gut feeling cuz I don't think it's short enough in

Speaker A

its closed state. just for goodness sake. Got 36 mm of gap, which means it needs to be 127 [music] mm closed. So, we got to take off 13 mm.

Speaker A

Okay, a little more rounding. Need 127. 135. 135 still. What? [music] How's that still 135?

Speaker A

There we go. Ah, how good is the hole? Okay, nice. Close it up a little bit.

Speaker A

Trouble is, it's not closing. If anything, it's forging and getting larger. [music] Okay, how did that get longer? You hit on it one way and then you lose the measurement the other way. Let's have a look at the outer diameter. That's 118

Speaker A

mm, but we need a an outer diameter of uh 114 mm. Bugger. So, it is somehow both too long and too wide.

Speaker A

Oh, no. It's the first time in human history that anybody has complained about this type of problem.

Speaker A

OH, BABY. [music] OKAY, GREAT. If you look at that closely, Jamie, you'll see that we've done absolutely nothing to the outside [music] diameter. Got to say, it's not looking half bad.

Speaker A

Woo! Well done. Congratulations. Oh, I didn't drop it. You put it in the fire without dropping it.

Speaker A

Thanks, Jamie. [music] Oh, yeah. That's better. 114 mm. That's on the money. Now it's got an angle to it. Leaning tower of Norfolk. That doesn't fit.

Speaker A

Okay. And with that, I'm going to go cry in a hole. It's all right. We just got to drift it open.

Speaker A

Wait a second. I got to really focus on it being upright. Are we at the bottom? I think that did a good job at straightening it. Now we'll GO UP TO HERE.

Speaker A

Pretty good, guys. Need to get that off. [music] Why don't you just pick this up like that? It's not going TO COME OUT. OH, [screaming] LOOK AT THAT.

Speaker A

GET SOME. OKAY. DIAMETER. PERFECT. SO, here's my plan. It is a bit longer than it needs to be. I need to take about a centimeter off or so, but I'm not getting as good of a result shrinking it

Speaker A

down by hammering on it cuz then it just gets wider and then we risk getting it kind of toppling over. So, what we're going to do is we're going to tackle the length by grinding off at the end

Speaker A

material from this side. Now, what we're going to do is we're going to forge in our spacings. So, we're going to heat it up and uh we're going to try our best to drive some chisels in here to create

Speaker A

that gap. [music] It's kind of doing it, eh? Kind of. What do you mean? Nothing wrong with it at all. Nothing wrong with it. Oh, I like your optimism, Jamie. Thank you, mate.

Speaker A

How am I going to get it out now? Sick. It doesn't fit. [laughter] Look.

Speaker A

Well, that that's not what I meant. I meant if you just sit that on top of that and then hammer down onto the top of that. [music] YES. OKAY. IN THE FLAT.

Speaker A

[music] It's starting to LOOK LIKE A SPRING. NO WAY. [music] That looks even, consistent. Oh, there's the original next to it. Oh, it needs to be a bit longer.

Speaker A

Very nice. I checked the drawing. I actually need 167. We currently have 171. That leaves me 4 mm to grind off that end. Outer diameter is still good.

Speaker A

We're now going to heat it up for a normalizing cycle where we're going to get it to its oitic state. Now that's that phase that is the starting off point for subsequently hardening it. But we're going to be normalizing it. So

Speaker A

just letting it air cool in still air. We'll then heat it back up to its oetic point and then quench it in oil to properly harden it. And on the note of quenching it in oil, the mass of this

Speaker A

piece is so large that if I was to use my 20 L 5gallon bucket of quench oil, we would turn it into an enormous fireball.

Speaker A

And so we've ordered more quench oil. God, isn't that a beauty? Oh. [music] Hopefully, this is going to be enough oil. We've got about 100 L of the stuff.

Speaker A

If it's not enough oil, we'll be finding out the hard way. All right, let's see if we can get this outside safely.

Speaker A

Oh. In we go. I put this in there so we can set it on it.

Speaker A

Well, it's in there. We're at temperature about 8:30 Celsius. Go time. Okay. On the ground. 1 2 3 and stirring. Woo! [screaming] baby. And then I'll set it down on that beam.

Speaker A

I love it when it's anticlimactic and nothing significant seems to happen. No pops, pings, fireballs. Perfection. Got the kiln up and running so that we can immediately temper it. As per the data sheet, there's our spring. Hopefully, it's hard as nails. It sounds a lot

Speaker A

harder. Maybe I'll try and blow off the oil. Please don't crack. [music] Temper time. Plenty of time has passed.

Speaker A

Oh, we hopefully now have a finished spring. How cool IS THAT? There she is next to the original. It looks like the thickness of the cross-section of the spring is a little bit narrower here on the outside than

Speaker A

there. I really think they must have started with a trapezio preform. It does mean there is a chance that it is not an exact replica, but by goodness, I hope it's close. And by goodness, I hope it doesn't [music] break. And so,

Speaker A

unfortunately, we have to risk breaking it. I can't go sending Norm a spring for little Lauren, not knowing that it's not going to immediately snap when little Lauren sits on top of it. We've got [music] to put this spring in the hydraulic press.

Speaker A

Better that it breaks here and I have to remake it here than it breaks and [music] destroys his steam engine.

Speaker A

Scary. Here we go. Testing. Whoa, that's terrifying. Oh, that's so scary. All right, I think we're still okay.

Speaker A

Brilliant stuff. Ph. [laughter] That was nerve-wracking. Let's oil it up so it looks pretty and then we can send it off.

Speaker A

[music] There we go. That is little Laurens's replacement spring forged using my 1915 Massie steam hammer for a 1907 steam engine. How cool is that? So much harder than I thought it would be, but so much fun. Go check out Norm's

Speaker A

channel, Vintage Iron UK. Brilliant machining videos restoring this thing. Please also check out today's sponsor, WhatNot, by clicking the link in the description. I'll see you all in the next one.

Topics:Alec Steeleblacksmithingspring forgingsteam engine restorationWallace and StevensEN47 spring steelcustom fabricationtraditional blacksmithmetalworkingworkshop project

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