Try recoil springs from the pull start of a chainsaw or weed wacker. That works really well. That's what I used to build homemade leaf springs for my RC Toyota rock crawler
I am confused. If you soften the metal to bend it... consequentially it loses its springy propperties. At least at the points where it was heated. Is there a method to reharden it? I do like the choice of material... it being readily available and basically a giant leaf spring in and of itself.
Its not all this is just the shaping part do harden it again after bringing it to a useful shape heat the bend spot up until it is orange hot and than rapitly cool it down under for example water. You turn austenit into martensit bend it and tham tur it back into austenit
If you heat it (or correctly, anneal it) it goes soft and can be bent, this is what he is doing. Best would be to anneal the entire part, make the shape you want, then harden it. To harden it you warm the entire part to cherry red (800+ celsius), and dunk it in water. It will turn EXTREMELY hard and brittle, almost like glass. done properly the material is no longer magnetic (ie, magnet wont stick to it). Now to turn it in to a spring. to make this part easier, polish it carefully with some sand paper to remove all sooth and oxidation. Now heat the part again, slower and to around 290 cels, it will turn blue (this is called blueing metal, its a form of rust protection from old) and then let it cool slowly. When done, you will have a part that is as elastic as the original material - a spring essentialy. You might need to have metal with right carbon contents, thats why its easiest to just buy a springy metal from start. There is other videos that show this process. essentialy you harden the material to almost tool-steel (think a file) and then to spring-steel.
