Quill return spring

[Gerry Sweetland]

Hi all,
I am putting a RF 30/31 clone back together that I bought dismantled.
Have any of you folks had experience in re-winding the clock spring and installing it?
I'm trying to figure how to do this. The first couple of tries the spring wants to come unsprung side ways. I can't seem to keep it contained.
Thanks,
Gerry

 

[Tin Falcon]

I would download a manual for it from Grizzly. If that does not help give them a call. Grizzly has pretty decent customer service. They should have a service tech to help you.
Tin

 

[cfellows]

Gerry,

Is it the kind that fits inside a steel cup with slots around the outside? If it is, then you put the spring (unwound) on the spindle and place the cup over the spring, making sure the larger slot in the cup (bottom of cup, not visible in the picture) slides over the curved outer tang of the spring. Hold the cup out from the milling head far enough that the slots don't engage the retaining pin. Wind the spring up by turning the cup (counter-clockwise on mine). When you get the tension where you want it, push the cup home so one of the slots in the cup engages he retaining pin. Screw on the retaining screw and you're home.

In the picture of mine, you can see the small retaining pin protruding slightly through the front slot. Of course, if your mill is different than mine, ignore all the above... :-[

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

Gerry, I originally said turn the cup clockwise. It's actually counterclockwise, which I've changed in the original post.

Thx...
Chuck

 

[Gerry Sweetland]

Thanks Tin and Chuck for the quick replies.
Tin, I have a couple of manuals that generically cover this mill but I never thought to give Grizzly a call. I'll try that if I can't get Chuck's advice to work for me.
Chuck, yes, mine is very similar to yours. Depth gauge is in a different location but the clock spring assembly is exactly like mine. I'm going out to the garage right now to give it try.
Thanks again fellas!
Gerry

 

[cfellows]

Let me know how it worked.

Chuck

 

[Gerry Sweetland]

Let me know how it worked.

Chuck

Hi chuck,
I gave it a try. Had my wife turn the quill handle whilst I held the "cup" with the looped end of the spring inserted as best I could. The problem I had was that the looped end was reaching across the opening of the cup and at an angle to the slot and would not allow the ~90% wound up spring to fall into the cup... make any sense?

We are going to try again tonight after I get home from work. I'm going to see if I can find some other way to hold the cup rather then with just gloved hands. Something that will give more leverage so we can wind the spring more and some how get the looped end to curl w/ the rest of the spring so that it slips into the cup.
I'll keep you posted
Gerry

Edit
I just re-read your post... you said to rotate the cup where we were rotating the quill handle attached to the shaft. We'll try it that way too.

 

[Gerry Sweetland]

Just to follow up,
I got the spring wound finally by using a short length of left over angle that I used to hang my garage door and opener. I attached the angle to the shaft w/ one leg over the shaft horizontally. That was used to capture the bent edge of the end of the spring. I then turned the quill handle and wound the spring till it was small enough to slide the cup on to it. I used a piece of wire to retain the coil then removed the angle and slipped the cup over the spring.
As I was cutting and removing the wire the beginning of the spring came off the screw in the shaft :'(
I pulled the cup away and I see the beginning end of the spring is pretty distorted, the key way is pulled out of shape and will not be held by the screw.
At least the spring is now wound and retained in the cup ;D
I guess my options are to try and fix the beginning end of the spring, try some other way to counter balance the quill like an external coil spring? Or a gas filled piston, like on the hatch back of a car?
I emailed Grizzly tech support to ask if the clock spring ships coiled as the description in the parts section for an equivalent mill calls it "coiled spring".
So maybe I can just order a new "coiled spring" with a new screw (which by the description is much larger than the screw I have) and adapt it my mill?

Gerry