A bit of an unusual question here. A friend bought out a business that builds custom u-bolts and also does suspension work, and moved it into my home town. Along with u-bolts we also re-bush walking beams and build and repair leaf spring packs. Most leaf spring materials that are available come with an arch already built into them, I'm working on a project that requires flat material, and have not been able to locate anything. I can de-arch the material we can get but it would be much better to start with it flat. So basically I am looking for leaf spring flat bar, currently needing 1/4 x 2", does any one happen to know a source for this? We're located in north west Washington so something west coast would be nice but not necessary. As I head closer and closer to semi-retirement I thought this would be something to different and I find it very interesting and challenging. We bend u-bolts from 1/2" up to 1 1/4" diameter and most often are able to do it while the customer waits. We've also done several sets of walking beam re-bush's in the last month and have been able to complete these in under 2 hours when you bring the beams in to us, we do not do the removal/ re-installation. Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.
Usually in three hours or less, call for an appointment? I remember those adds in Log Trucker. Complete lower rebush for $875.00. Has to be the same place on Kimmie.
Not sure if the former place advertised in Log Trucker or not. I revised my original post, we only do the re-bush, we do not remove/re-install. Also not sure what Kimmie is?
Kimmie Street off of exit 99.
We're located in Lynden, Wa. former company was in Nooksack, Wa.
I see. To answer your question, 5160H hot roll is a common leaf spring steel. I bet you can find some in Western Wa.
Generic 5160 will need to be heat treated.
Fun fact: Lynden has more churches per capita than any city in the US.
We used to have Gitt Spring down here in Auburn. There was a place up by Issaquah some years ago that did the walking beams but I don't know if they are still around or not. My guess to find the steel closer might be in Vancouver, Canada. The only steel mill down here is Nucor. They would probably worth a call. https://nucorwa.com/ Years ago I used these guys a lot but then they only wanted to do big orders. Northwest Steel and Pipe http://www.nwsteel.net/index.html The Komatsu dealer used these people long ago but I don't know for sure now. They carried the specialty stuff. Specialty Metals https://www.specialtymetalscorp.com/ Good Luck!
5160 is getting popular with the artisan hobby blacksmith crowd. Shippable chunks are available on eBay and Amazon.
Yes, I've been reading about 5160, it seems to be very popular along with 1095. Now to figure out the differences. I've been a heavy equipment mechanic my whole life, never dealt with metallurgy much.
Thanks for the info John, I'll check them out. I'm thinking this will be an interesting venture. If you're ever up here again I'd love to get together with you.
I'd love to as well. I still have the fraud case going and hope to get up to Lynden when that comes to some kind of conclusion.
I'd love to see the new project and how you are doing.
You may be a supplier for these people, but this may be a source also; https://www.paccarparts.com/
The place was called Universal in Marysville, $1,500 for a rebush while you wait {2 hrs} They did a lot of municipal work as well as dump, garbage and logger. Jerry was the guy to talk to at Gitts, but he retired/left some years back. Did a lot of business with Gitts.
I couldn't remember the place up north but had several customers that used them all the time. Schedule your time and they would work on a Saturday to get a truck done. Gitts was the best in this area, especially for service trucks that got cranes put on them. The trucks always drove level down the road when they got done.
Gitts knew their ****. I bought a lot of three leaf high rate springs from them when removing a 12 stack pack on steers for KW and Pete. Rode and handled much better, plus their prices where very reasonable.
Yeah, Marysvile! That’s the place. My memory was a little fuzzy. That was the outfit my Dad used.
Universal Fleet Services closed in 2003 and sometime later moved north to Nooksack. This is the company/equipment that was bought and is now in Lynden.
I was wondering.
Terex, do you have any good insite on heat treating 5160? We are going to be building numerous leaf springs for ag machines, they will be 1/4"x 2" up to 24" long using leaf spring material from Dayton. At this point we are likely going to cold bend them but I am interested in learning the process to hot bend and then heat treat them. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I would suggest finding a heat treatment facility and ask them. Tempering temperature depends on your design and design loads. Its been a long time, but I think 950F was a typical temper. Whether you bend hot or cold will depend on how much you need to bend the material. You may even want to find a spring manufacturer and farm the complete job to them. Leave your development time to focus on the part of the job that you can't farm out.
When I worked Ag, our machine shop custom built the application equipment, they used Pohl Spring in Spokane.
I think unless it's pretty minor bends spring steel has to be heated and re-tempered to keep the proper bend and spring qualities.