How to avoid an injury?

[EOsteam]

I just received my 30' long roll of 1" wide of 1095 spring steel. There must be a way to unwind this without killing myself. I can just imaging this thing going SPROING and then I go to the hospital? Anyone know the the safe way to unwind this puppy?

HJ

[spro]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think it needs to be unwound. I think it should contained in a tight tube and cut, worked the way it will be used. Is it supposed to be sprung out for the application? Better than me will advise because there is a potential of a mess.

[Magicniner]

Spring wire comes tied with a series of loops round the material, that way it only unwinds as you slide the loops around the roll, I store and unpack rolls of sheet the same way, old leather belts work well for the larger rolls.

- Nick

[earlgo]

Never one to let a fixture design opportunity go by, this is what could be a solution. Insert your coil into the holder and then fold one or more of the leaves to capture the coiled spring. Maybe you only need 2 or 3 pairs of leaves, but this is conceptual. You would have to make the holder the correct OD for your application, or make it too big and let the coil spring into place.

Pull out the center end of the coil and remove what you need.

--earlgo

[earlgo]

So this concept percolated a while and here is the improvement. Just bolt/rivet the arms together at the center hole and then turn the arms to load your coil. Reposition the arms and then let the natural spring of the coil hold things in place.

COIL HOLDER.jpg (15.4 KiB) Viewed 3270 times

--earlgo

[mcostello]

Excellent idea.

[EOsteam]

Thanks for the great ideas! The job was accomplished with 3 loops of aviation safety wire that were moved as the roll was unwound. As there is about 15 feet leftover it will be re-rolled and fastened tight with the safety wire.

HJ

[hammermill]

gee harper i could come by and blow the wires out in the field next door for you. then you would have a long piece.

i had a helper snip the safety wires on a roll one time, what a mess.

treat it like a snake. with a bad attitude, eye protection a must then safe it off so somebody doesn't start a chain reaction playing with it. think stored energy

[EOsteam]

I looked like Randy from "A Christmas Story". The only difference was the full face shield .

Harper