Damn you, tiny little spring

[ThermalRunaway]

I bought a faulty camcorder off Ebay for practically nothing. It's quite a nice one too - side LCD screen and everything! Chuffed!
Upon arrival the unit was found to be completely jammed up so I stripped it down earlier this evening to see if I could attempt a repair. I had it all in tiny little bits, and I've found that the only problem with the mechanics of the unit is that they appear to be out of alignment. Nothing looked bent or broken, so I began to assemble everything back together.

I got right to the end where I was refitting a tiny little spring for one of the cassette spool brakes, and I was foiled at the last hurdle.

I carefully compressed the spring with my fandangled tweezer tool, negotiated it into position and... just have to compress it a little more.... ooooooooh just gotta move it that way a bit.... and........

BOING!!!!
​

The flipping thing has gone. No chance of finding it now - as soon as you hear that twang your heart sinks because you know there's no way you're gonna see that spring again!!!

Great eh? I was busting to see what's on that jammed up tape too!!!

Brian

 

[hjames]

Find that big harddrive magnet(s) you have stuck to the fridge door and go fishing...

James
^(has spent way too much time crawling under his desk)

 

[AllVol]

Close the door, quickly. Make sure it doesn't leave the room!

 

[Marks256]

Yes, i would suggest grabbing a magnet. Unless you have hardwood floors, then it is gone for good.

 

[Exo]

Yeah, rip apart an old harddrive and get the magnet out ..

Those are earth-magnets , Quite powerfull little suckers
**broken link removed**

You'll find your spring in no time.

 

[ThermalRunaway]

I knew that hardrive magnets were powerful, but I've never had them out before to try them. I've got a couple of broken HDs around, I think I'll take one apart - just to get the magnets out! They'll be useful for periodically magnetising my screw drivers.

I really don't think I've any hope of ever seeing that spring again though - not going by past experience of losing them anyway.

I have actually found a similar spring in another piece of scrapped equipment, but the only problem is it has too many turns so it's a bit too powerful. The original spring was only designed to hold the spool brake off when it's not in use. I've looked in RS hoping to find some spring kits or something, but no luck. Any ideas where these can be obtained, assuming anyone actually does them? Maybe a model shop would stock spring kits...

Brian

 

[hjames]

I'd guess the best way is to adjust some spring that is "close" enough. Stretch it, clip off a couple turns, or add some spacers and you should have something that is close enough. If that isn't possible, try replacing it with something else - thin rubber tubing is sometimes used in place of springs, with the last solution being to make your own - music wire, drill bit, vise and some locking pliers and you'll have something that is functionally equivalent.

I've never seen assortments of small springs - my local Aces hardware has some of the larger sizes, but considering the size of stuff in most camcorders, I doubt any retail store stocks the stuff. I think there are some distributors which deal with VCR repair parts, but I doubt it would be worth it.

James

 

[eblc1388]

I've never seen assortments of small springs

Cause you don't. One builds up one's own stock via years of dismantling assemblies.

BTW, 'C' clips also like to fly away often, during removal or a failed fitting attempt.

 

[fergcu]

actually i beg to differ... in my local vllage (Englefield green, near windsor) we have a great little hardware shop that has the most random things possbile. including a drawer filled with little springs of random sizes for people to purchase... Unless they just keep breaking things!

 

[HiTech]

Yeah, rip apart an old harddrive and get the magnet out ..
Those are earth-magnets , Quite powerfull little suckers

Just happened to disassemble a HD last night and yes indeed those are powerful magnets. Also brittle as one broke in half when it accidentally fell to the concrete floor in my shop. They must be neodymiun types. I placed one on the top of my palm and the other under it and they stayed put!!! Your skin can get pinched a good one if your fingertips should get caught as they attract.

 

[ThermalRunaway]

I tried taking one of mine apart but I couldn't get the cover off it. I'll have another go later, with a big hammer or something

Brian

 

[HiTech]

The one I disassembled used very small Torx screws on everything. Other than that it was easy to tak apart. It came out of an Apple piece of $hit.... I mean pie.

 

[ThermalRunaway]

I took all the screws out, but something inside - near the head - was holding the cover on somehow and I can't bend it out enough to figure out what's stopping it.

Oh well, I've got another crashed HDD somewhere...

Brian

 

[t.o.]

Don't put the magnet too close to your mechanical watch. My watch runs 15 to 20 minutes faster every day after I put the magnet to the watch. I was so stupid to do so.

 

[ThermalRunaway]

LOL

I've got a degaussing wand you can borrow

Brian

 

[RODALCO]

Collect some old VCR's from the inorganic rubbish. these contain many very useable parts including springs etc.
I'm still looking for a 1.5 mmØ circlip for a cassette tapedeck, no luck with the old VCR's yet.

 

[zevon8]

If you haven't worked it out, check for screws hiding under decals.

On the topic of springs...I have bought assortments from places that supply the repair industry, and online part dealers. MCM sells one, I bet somebody similar near you does too.

Instant 10 years of scrapping collection: LOL

**broken link removed**

Most often they do E clip and C clip collections too:

**broken link removed**

When I used to do consumer electronics repair, the ones I really hated were the little Japanese stainless steel "no groove" clips that were absolute pigs to remove sometimes without launching them into the fifth dimension. I had some pretty creative ways of removing them , but some would still twist and make that sickening "ting" sound as they departed this realm. ( somewhere Nigel is laughing as he reads this, as I'm sure he's done the same )