I gave up trying to find a Di Acro spring winder like George has. So at a recent yard sale I spotted this old Ward's wood lathe and thought it would work. I threaded the lathe spindle to take this old 3 jaw chuck and made a tensioner. The first try is in the photos, and with a little practice I should be able to make good looking springs.

Interesting project.

How are you going to control the spacing on the coils so they are uniform?

On both the DiAcro and the Porter, the arbor is moving at the desired rate to get the spacing.

When you use a metal lathe to make springs you set the feed rate so your tool post moves at the desired speed to get the spacing.

Not sure how you'll do either of those methods using a fixed arbor on a wood lathe.

Of course you can always control the spacing by hand which is what I'm guessing you did, but it would probably take a fair amount of practice to get evenly spaced coils.

Keep us informed on this project.

And yes I know I'm terrible about getting you information :rolleyes: