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Door stays


Brent B3B

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 I am working on my "door stay clip" project for my b3/b4's.  built a "form" and cut up a saw blade into 3/16" x 4" strips

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and worked on heating/ forming the metal. 

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here is my first and second attempt

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although I think they would hold, I am not thrilled with my results so far.

any suggestions for a different metal I should use?  

Edited by Brent B3B
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  • 1 month later...

ok, I think i am getting closer..... I used an old broken door handle return spring.

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oxy & acetylene heated, formed and cooled 

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not perfect but I think it will do the job and it is a lot stronger metal than my first attempts :)

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  • 5 months later...
On ‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 5:31 AM, Jocko_51_B3B said:

Looks good, especially the end loops! Does it hold the door open OK? Did you have to heat the spring material in order to bend it or was it easy to shape?

thanks jocko, so far so good..... yeah, I used oxy & acetylene got it red hot, the spring steel is much stronger/ harder than my first attempts. 

although I like to recycle, I need to find a source for the spring steel.  

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Brent,

I think I found a source for the right size and type of spring steel. I was poking around on the internet looking for a source of spring steel that closely matches the steel strips that Dodge used to make these parts. I got lucky and read something on the Practical Machinist that lead me to McMaster-Carr. Here's the spring steel strip material I found...

 

https://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/124/3809/=1cw6zul

 

The McMaster-Carr part number is 9075K456. It's the first listing in the .062 section of the chart. Here's their description...

 

"Wear-Resistant 1095 Spring Steel, 0.0620" Thick, 3/16" Wide, 25 Feet Long"

 

First of all, it's spring steel. Second, it's close to perfect in thickness (I measured the thickness of the steel strip material Dodge used. (It's .060 thick as far as I can tell using a caliper). The width is almost perfect too...3/16". It comes in 25 foot lengths, but the cost is not high ($35.73). If my math is correct, there should be enough steel in 25 ft to make about 100 of these door stops if I can find a machine shop to crank them out. I wonder if there is a market for this part among Pilothouse owners. Luckily, I have a McMaster-Carr warehouse close to where I live and I can examine the material before buying it.

Jocko

 

 

Edited by Jocko_51_B3B
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I always forget about McMaster..... nice find (you kids and your internet ?)

i suspect the market might not be red hot for these but who knows. 

If you end up finding a shop and need a sample let me know, I'll mail you my original and buy a few.... 

If it isn't cost effective to have them made but you think the product looks good, let me know, I might end up buying a 25' section to play around 

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I found out that heating the spring material from McMaster-Carr until it's red hot makes it possible to bend into tight circles, but the bend has to be done when the steel is red hot. That means that I had about two seconds to form the steel after heating. As I'm sure you know from your experience, the hard part is duplicating the original shape, so I now realize that a jig like the one you made is essential. I'm a little concerned that the .062 thickness of the M-C material I bought is a bit too thick and I might try thinner stock. (I hate to buy another 25 ft roll.) In the meantime I'll keep looking for a shop that can make these clips new.

Edited by Jocko_51_B3B
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Jocko, if you want to split the rolls, I might be able to go in halves with you on the roll you bought and the next........ send me a PM

 

if you are going back to "M-C" can you see if they carry the toe kick bolts? they are the 4 that go on the sides of the two upper floor boards 2138151675_toeboards.jpg.4a52df5aed4ad152e41bee0aaa857b6d.jpg

bolt.jpg.ea726ec34d8a81be65850c00a51e2491.jpg

I know I could use any bolt and nut but if I can get them I'd buy some

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If ya need less than a full stick, ya might could call'm up and see if they could send ya a 12 inch sample for validation purposes...sometimes they do, sometimes they don't... :cool:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I decided to fabricate a clip myself using .042 thick spring steel (1/4 in. wide) from McMaster-Carr. The .062 material seems too thick to me. I asked M-C about getting a foot or two of sample material (which they wouldn't do), but they did something even better; I had to buy the whole 25 ft roll but M-C promised to take back what I didn't use and refund the money for the returned part of the coil. Can't beat that. Trying to find a shop to make the clips just sounds too hard. Most shops want big jobs. Anyway, here are a few pictures to show my approach. I drew up a simple schematic of the clip with my best guess as to the correct dimensions of the clip. The end result isn't perfect, but I think it will be close enough to hold the door open and stop it from swinging too far.

 

 

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Edited by Jocko_51_B3B
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