It now appears that broken springs can be achieved without ultra sonic cleaners.
I recently soaked the assembled action and locks of an English sidelock in lacquer thinner for about 24 hours to clean them. Then allowed them to dry out in the sun. Then at some unannounced point, two springs simply BROKE !!! One the left lock's mainspring. The other, the safety roller spring. Both of which worked and appeared fine previously... only dirty.
I have never had this happen before. And can only think that the springs had failure points already, and the solvent allowed them to manifest the weakness.
No ultra sonic bath needed.
I guess you learn something every day...
|