[Shop-talk] weakening a spring

[Mark Andy]

Howdy,

On Sat, 22 Sep 2007, Ron Horwitz wrote:
> Have a project that requires something like a clothespin to hold two 
> delicate pieces of fabric together.  I'd like to weaken the spring on 
> the clothespin a bit.  I know that I can just force the jaws open for a 
> couple of days and that will help some.  I can disassemble and bend the 
> spring a bit, but that seems to be fairly irreproducible, and I need 
> four that are fairly similar in clamp strength.  Will heat lower the 
> spring constant?  Do I heat with the jaws closed or open?  Any other 
> thoughts?

I can't imagine that clothespin springs are all that uniform from the 
factory... Why not just make a spring force meter (two pieces of something 
with a pivot like a scissors, with a spring on one end and the clothes pin 
clamping the other, measure the distance) and work on each one via bending 
until you get four you like?

Mark