Can you tell a spring rating by looking at it?
 

I have a zip lock back full of springs on my workbench - none of which are labelled.

Is there any way you can tell a spring rating by looking at it? They vary so much some are lengthier and some are stiff etc.

Obviously the surefire way is to assemble a complete set up and chorno but if I have to go back into this SR25 one more time I may consider breaking my Lionel Richie - Can't Slow Down album on vinyl.

Borrow someone's Ares G36 or something =P
Takes less than a minute to change the spring on one of those.

No.

I've considered buying one just to use as a spring tester lol.

So have I. Easy to change the spring, total bitch to do anything else lol.

I did the exact thing when I got a s&t g36c from a mystery box. Tested each of my springs and labelled them with tape on the end of the spring.

No but if you get good at it, you can tell them roughly by feel...

Only way to find out quickly is get a quick change gun and a chrony and a few hours.

you can build a tester with a plank, a hook and a weight.
You need marked springs to calibrate it.
The weight pulls on the hooked spring, you draw a mark where it stops going down with gravity.Any other spring with the same weight attached will give you an idea of the hardness difference by descending lower or higher than the reference mark.

it is quite precise because you get an answer in spring stiffness, not fps.
Differently marked springs with the same stiffness will be visible right away.

like a spring balance to get their value in newtons:
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/med.../BS-SCALE3.jpg

I remember using those in physics class back in high school. You can can measure the force in joules and compare to a spring guide to estimate fps. I have a loose idea of what the range of spring ratings are for mine so to compare them I place them on a wooden spoon and see how hard they are to compress. But you cant compare between linear and non linear springs though because non linear springs have an irregular compression ratio.

What ever happened to this idea?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iWoUSRqqZY...or+muelles.jpg

the coating flakes off.

Here is what I do.

To give me a ball park.

• Take a very long and thick screw driver
• Then take the spring put it over the screwdriver and push the spring down till its totally compressed.Careful not to stab yourself.
• Then take another spring and try it. Do that a few times and you will quickly tell the difference between the 2. One will most likely be WAY stronger than the other.
• Then do another, then another till you are finished
• Eventually on a batch of 10 you will immediately be able to get a super strong one and a super weak one.
• Take those 2 and put them on one side of a table and one on the other.
• Then, take the remaining 8 and do the same. Strong to weak.
• Once you are done you will have a very good idea of sorted from strong to weak.
• Then take the strongest one and install it. Once chronoed you have top limit of that spring
• Then take the weak one and do the same. Bottom limit.
• The ones in between will be steps of X fps more or less.
• If strongest is 440 FPS and weakest is 350 and you have 8 springs gaining strength in between they are likely 11FPS apart. 440-350= 90. Then take the 90 and divide it by the 8 springs gaining strength moving up.

This is a good start point to get you on track. Remember, we all know out of the box most springs are out by a solid 10 FPS +/- in reality.

And before guys pile on saying springs unwind at different speeds etc, this is not a method to measure microns

Its to sort and put you into a category of 10 springs that are in a zip lock bag. There is ZERO way the weakest spring on a pull test will be anything but the weakest on FPS.

Try it---you will be surprised on how obvious the spread is.

What, and get every company that makes springs to follow the same coloring convention?

Yeah, right.

they could just laser etch the rating on the end of the spring where it's ground flat.
better yet, coat the end of the spring that sits on the spring guide with a color. either enamel or epoxy. it would not only show you the spring rating, but also which end faces back.

That would make too much sense. And would add 20c to the manufacturing of the spring :P

Queue the questions of "which way does the painted end go"? Just like irregular pitch springs :P