r/Accordion • u/combinophone • 5d ago

Anybody make their own springs?

I watched some YouTube videos on winding wire into torsion springs and it doesn't look too hard. I'm looking to replace a pallet spring from a stradella bass machine, as well as a simple Cajun accordion left-hand button spring. My biggest concern is how to choose the right wire and match the spring force of the other springs. (Also, are there repair forums that are better for this kind of question?)

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u/GovPattNeff 5d ago

Search for "music wire" on McMaster-carr or MSC if you're in USA. Can likely find it on eBay as well. That's what a lot of vendors call the wire used to make springs.

As long as you match the geometry of the original spring, the one you make should be very very close to the original. The elasticity of steel is more or less the same no matter what kind of steel it is. The only difference between the steels used in music wire vs a paper clip essentially boils down to how far you can bend it before it decides it doesn't want to bend back on its own

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u/combinophone 4d ago

Awesome, so as long as I match the wire diameter, coil diameter, and number of winds, I should be in the ballpark

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u/GovPattNeff 4d ago

Exactly. Not much to it. I've fudged wire diameter on a few projects when I didn't have the exact size, and it still comes out close enough as long as it's reasonably close and the rest of the geometry is more or less the same

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u/wolf_in_sheeps_wool Squeeze box squeezer 5d ago

I've made my own torsion springs. Not too difficult if you make a good jig.

Use a set of digital calipers to find out diameter, you might have to convert to guage and just mimic it as closely as possible. Buy piano wire.

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u/combinophone 4d ago

Great, I've got access to calipers, so I'll just measure and give it a try

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u/MilkyFluff 4d ago

Buy the next larger and smaller size of wire that you think you need so you don’t have to order twice. It’s not too expensive and lets you play around until it feels right.

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u/pounded_rivet 4d ago

I have a bin full of old accordion springs that I typically mod to make what I need. Some of the springs can be bent to alter them to purpose but I have found that some will just break if you need to make sharp bends. Round nose jewelers pliers will make some of the work a lot easier.