Chuck Springs ?

[Dan Andrews]

I just bought a nice Red Head hand drill. Unfortunately this makes four drills I need to find chuck springs for. One Millers Falls drill needs the protected type spring. I realize I will only get that when I find the right parts drill.

The other drills I need springs for are a Stanley, Goodell-Pratt and the Red Head. Each of these drills use three 1/8" outside diameter coil springs. There is nothing special about them. They are generally about 1/4" to 3/8" long. Longer springs can be cut to length. They are a little smaller diameter than any pen spring that I have found.

I have searched on line, a hardware store and a power tool repair shop.

Any suggestions where I might find such springs?

[Michael Faurot]

You might try here:

http://wktools.com/

This gentleman rebuilds and refurbishes hand drills. I don't know if he sells parts for them or not.

[Kevin Lucas]

It may sound odd but I had to replace a spring in a hand drill. My own fault... curiosity got the better of me and I opened the chuck and lost one. The solution was to check a few ink pens for the right sized spring and cut to size. I did have to twist the end some for a good fit in the recess.

I know they are week looking springs but it works fine )

[Jonathan McCullough]

I was noodling around on the stanleytoolparts.com website for some parts to my mitre box and noticed that they have a lot of parts for eggbeaters -- bevel gears, handles, complete chucks, the works. You could probably build a complete new eggbeater from what they've got on there. Depending on your model(s) you may be able to find just the springs.

[Eric Brown]

McMaster Carr has many things and great service.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#

Eric

[Dan Andrews]

Thanks guys. I will follow through with all of your good ideas. I know for as long as I collect drills, replacing missing or mangled coil springs will be an issue.

[Bob Easton]

Make your own springs. It isn't hard.

I have an article about refurbishing the chuck of a GP drill. Winding a new spring was part of the refurb.

See: http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/?p=963

[Dan Andrews]

Eric, Mcmaster had just what I need. 20" of 1/8" spring to cut to length. Thanks for the lead.
Bob, I will definately check out your article. After all not all chuck springs will be 1/8".
Jonathan, I did check out Stanley parts. I'll bet the springs for the 1/4" chucks would be correct, but they didn't give spring dimentions. Still a good resourse. At those prices it is worth taking a chance on fit if I hadn't located the above spring.

Thanks to all for great ideas.

[Dan Andrews]

Bob, I just read the chuck article. Fantastic. I wish the instructions that come with things I buy were as clear.

[Paul Atkins]

I make springs using my metal lathe because it will go slow enough to hand feed it. Seems like I have to make a few test ones to get the diameter right because of springback. I use piano wire or music wire for most of them. If you can find stainless leader wire from the fishing shop this will work too for non rust springs.