Small springs

[tigerman]

I am fed up with replacing the small spring that holds the front retract door open and shut on my Freewing Venom I buy the replace front assemble from Freewing at $4 a time and I only need the spring ( I have loads of door now ) Anyone know where I can buy small springs about 300mm long with little hooks on the ends ton attach to the front doors of the Venom .Look on e bay and Amazon but can not find any

[Denis Watkins]

What length again TM? Is the spring that long

Small tension springs are on eBay

Give the measurement of the spring length, the diameter, and the hook size, and I will look in my box for you

Edited By Denis Watkins on 02/03/2019 13:25:22

[cymaz]

Does it have to be a spring? Would a rubber band fit?

[Bruce Collinson]

Bought a whole box of assorted tension springs from Maplin, who appear to have done a Phoenix and are back online.

BTC

[Geoff S]

It's little things like that I find on eBay. Just do a search for small springs and there'll be numerous suppliers. I needed some 6mm aluminium bar a few weeks ago, searched on eBay and found a supplier just about 2 miles from my house in a small industrial estate I've passed the concealed entrance to 100s of times. I bought a metre direct by visiting them.

I know there are people here who don't like eBay but it's a great resource for those hard to find items..

Geoff

[tigerman]

Thanks for your kind offer Denis but CYMAZ came up with a great idea ,never thought of it but I have hundred of small rubber bands ,just put one on the Venom and yippee it works and I have hundred of elastic bands Thanks again .Problem solved

[Geoff S]

Rubber bands are very useful but when under tension tend to perish. I've no idea why and 'O' rings are the same. I use them on the long pins that help to fix the interplane struts on my DB Moths and keep a bag of spares in my tool box. The ones in the bags don't deteriorate at all. So keep a few spares to hand.

Geoff

[Plummet]

Posted by Geoff Sleath on 02/03/2019 17:14:02:

Rubber bands are very useful but when under tension tend to perish. I've no idea why and 'O' rings are the same. I use them on the long pins that help to fix the interplane struts on my DB Moths and keep a bag of spares in my tool box. The ones in the bags don't deteriorate at all. So keep a few spares to hand.

Geoff

UV light. Rots a lot of things.

You can buy fine silicone rubber tube.  Cut a length and tie it into a loop.  It lasts a lot longer than rubber.  I acquired a skein of it that was surplus to requirements many years ago and have been working my way through it slowly.     

Plummet

Edited By Plummet on 02/03/2019 17:39:06

[Phil Olson - Model Technics]

Tension springs are so easy to make yourself from fine piano wire

 

Edited By Phil Olson - Model Technics on 05/03/2019 11:23:20

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Geoff S]

Posted by Plummet on 02/03/2019 17:34:34:

Posted by Geoff Sleath on 02/03/2019 17:14:02:

Rubber bands are very useful but when under tension tend to perish. I've no idea why and 'O' rings are the same. I use them on the long pins that help to fix the interplane struts on my DB Moths and keep a bag of spares in my tool box. The ones in the bags don't deteriorate at all. So keep a few spares to hand.

Geoff

UV light. Rots a lot of things.

You can buy fine silicone rubber tube. Cut a length and tie it into a loop. It lasts a lot longer than rubber. I acquired a skein of it that was surplus to requirements many years ago and have been working my way through it slowly.

Plummet

Edited By Plummet on 02/03/2019 17:39:06

I don't think it's UV light, though that can be a factor. I keep most of my models in the roof space over my workshop and that's totally dark. When I've had models with the prop held on by an O ring on a so-called prop saver hub the O ring is perished and the prop has fallen off. Similarly, I hold a rear view mirror on my cycling glasses with elastic bands and they perish when the glasses are in the case.

We used to use rubber bands cut from old inner tubes to hold the competition numbers on our trials bikes or spare inner tubes etc to the frame somewhere and they seemed to last for ages.

Geoff

[Don Fry]

Inner tubes, the standard black ones, are made of butyl rubber. It had good UV resistance.

laccy bands (usually natural rubber) and O rings (usually Nitryl rubber ) are not as good to UV light. And once they have been exposed will deteriorate and keep deteriorating, and an O ring will also deteriorate is left stretched. That is because there is some subtle chemistry going on when you stretch an elastomer, and it doesn't like not going back to resting position.