The 68 kilo ones are definitely too stiff. All i had to hand at work was some enormously heavy valve amp transformers (300 watt bass amp) that weigh 15 kilos each at least. Some deflection, but not much. I was still well under my ‘springs budget’ bit of the build though, so i bought a pair of 36 kilo springs as well, wot have just arrived. First impressions- much more like it. Ill do a proper test tomorrow once i can get to the shed. Its dark and cold out there right now, so sod that..

In other news, these springs sort of rule out my GN idea, cos theyre too curved, so I’ve decided to do a Riley special. Possibly the White Riley. Just busy messing around with some aero modelling ply offcuts at the moment, makin a 1/6th scale model to work out the process of making a curved laminated wood set of chassis rails.... ill start a proper build log at some point and post some pics.

Cheers!
Rich

Could the stiffer 68kg springs be used on the rear?

I’ve done a quick and dirty rig up of one of the 36k springs at work, and dangled a couple of heavy things off and measured the deflection. I’ll do a more comprehensive test on a less bendy bench this afternoon when I’ve got a bit of time but dangling a 25 kilo bass amp off the end got me 50mm of deflection. An 8.5 kilo transformer got about 20mm. Which seems pretty close to the US springs.

They’re all American amplifiers, so maybe Watts/Inch? Anyways- clamped to the Big Bench the 36 spring exhibited the same amount of bend as earlier, so I declare this experiment a Success. Now to fabricate some eyes for the ends....

How much deflection do you get at the moment?
I’m carrying on with mine, on the strength of them deflecting about the same amount as Rhys’s ‘control set’ under a 25Kg-ish weight. if they do end up being rubbish then we’ll have learned something(that they don’t work) and then I’ll just have to save up and get a set of metal ones made up to the same dimensions from midland road.

Watch the dust if you bandsaw it. Is nasty stuff. I thought about drilling holes down the middle of mine, but that might introduce too many stress points.