Springy stainless steel sheet - bending?

Yngmar

Yngmar

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The little bent piece of steel holding my oven door shut has snapped in half due to undue force being applied by ignorant visitors.

your stupid oven won't op*SPRANG* oh! uhm.
:hopeless:

Spares are available, although not cheap and the old one was kinda rusted halfway through already on account of not being stainless. That probably didn't help it resist above mentioned undue force. So a stainless one would be better.

If I buy a piece of stainless spring sheet steel and bend it around a suitable radius (perpendicular to the rolled "grain") into the below shape, will it remain springy at the radius? Or do I have to molest it with lots of heat to make it springy again? Or is this a dumb idea and I should just buy the spare?

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VicS said:
I reckon it will be difficult to make

Fork out the £19 for a new one
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butdon'texpectittolastanylongerthantheoriginal.

oh hell why don't the spaces I typed in appear! Always happens on the first line of a reply! I have to type something and do a new line; just a new line without typing first doesn't solve it.
 
Stainless steel cannot be hardened by heat treatment. Increasing its strength/hardness is done by cold rolling or stamping, for example shroud wires which are hard drawn. If you were to heat springy stainless steel to red you would soften it but it would not be possible to re-harden it, for example by quenching as you would with carbon steel. Your plan to make your own might work but the new bend could be difficult to make as the metal is already work hardened.
 
Thanks everyone, all good points. I'll just order the part then and be sure the crew gets instructed properly. Maybe I ought to paint the spring red.
 
I found a fragment of a s/s jubilee clip lying around in the boatyard, and I thought "That might come in useful", and put it in my pocket and then I i found another, which I also kept. Imagine my surprise when, the following day I found yet another! It then became apparent that I had a hole in my pocket and there was actually only one piece:)
When I decided to cook one of those ready meals in the oven I was reminded that the catch had rusted and broken the previous season, so I set to work and bent it into a suitable shape, but not before drilling a hole through the remaining bit of the "threaded"part, where it was easy to drill. I also put a bump into it at the right spot, using the original as a template, filing a flat onto one side. I screwed it into place and found that, luckily, it need no adjustment, and it has now been working, better than the original, with no signs of deterioration, for the last three years.
Now that's Practical Boat-Owning :)
 
Hey, I've just practical-bodge-ownered a copper pipe into my fuel tank to serve as dipstick/sample extractor tube (yay, no water and only minor dirt). The Jubilee clip is something I should've thought of though, will give that a try just to see if it springs. Cheers :)
 
vyv_cox said:
Stainless steel cannot be hardened by heat treatment. Increasing its strength/hardness is done by cold rolling or stamping, for example shroud wires which are hard drawn. If you were to heat springy stainless steel to red you would soften it but it would not be possible to re-harden it, for example by quenching as you would with carbon steel. Your plan to make your own might work but the new bend could be difficult to make as the metal is already work hardened.
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Drifting slightly, I want to put a 5" radius in a shortish piece of 6mm x 60mm stainless bar.
I was going to heat to cherry red and bend over a former but not worked that much with stainless, so are there better ways?
 
I have a bit of springy stainless steel made and sold to be a clip to hold down a table cloth in the wind. About 10mm wide and 25cms long if opened out and very springy. It is bent into a kind of U shape and I wonder if it could be bent a bit more to serve your purpose. I am not sure what sort of shop you would buy it in perhaps a "pound" shop or kitchen utensils type shop. olewill
 
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William_H said:
I have a bit of springy stainless steel made and sold to be a clip to hold down a table cloth in the wind. About 100mm wide and 25cms long if opened out and very springy. It is bent into a kind of U shape and I wonder if it could be bent a bit more to serve your purpose. I am not sure what sort of shop you would buy it in perhaps a "pound" shop or kitchen utensils type shop. olewill
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There are thousands of these table cloth holders in Greece but the dimensions are different from yours, only about 2 cm wide. They are/were clips used for holding drawing paper onto boards, I remember using them in technical drawing lessons at school. Possibly available from a decent stationer's and/or Staples?
 
vyv_cox said:
There are thousands of these table cloth holders in Greece but the dimensions are different from yours, only about 2 cm wide. They are/were clips used for holding drawing paper onto boards, I remember using them in technical drawing lessons at school. Possibly available from a decent stationer's and/or Staples?
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Are the fickle finger of fait that put that extra 0 in. obviously should have been 10mm wide ....sorry.
 
I did not replace my spring clip with another. I just bought a small brass barrel bolt from B & Q & fitted that. Did not need the keep as the shoot bolt just slid past the door retaining it adequately. Been there for 11 years now
 
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