DIY valve spring tester

[98-1074649673]

One project I'm working on as I get time is a DIY valve spring tester. the ole bathroom scale on the drill press doesn't cut it anymore!

I'm planning on using a 1.125" small air cylinder attaching a gage to it, chuck it in my drill press spindle and use it as a load cell to read spring pressure. A pound or two tolerance is ok since I'm only measuring them here in my shop for my reference. I also thought about picking up a small arbor press and make it a permanet setup on the bench by mounting the "load cell" to it.

Thoughts?

[Greg]

Bruce,
I bought a and mounted it in an arbor press. I had to mill out the bottom of the press and mount it on a steel plate to get enough height for some of the bigger springs.
The gauge reads to 600 lbs and is accurate when compared to a rimac tester. They also make a 300lb tester with a higher resolution.
I mounted a dial indicator on the top of the rack to measure height.
I made some different length blocks for different common heights so its quick and easy to set up, I just sit it next to the spring under the arbor and zero the dial gauge when it is compressed to the height I need.
The total cost was around AU$200 compared to $1200 for the rimac tester.

[jsmith]

[Greg]

Thats about the same size press that I used and its not quite tall enough for some springs. With the base milled out a bit to fit the gauge in you have tons of height for any spring. One thing i found is you need a fairly solid plate under it as you can have 600lb trying to bend it.
A photo might explain it better.