I need to make a few small springs. Anyone know where to obtain small quantities of flat spring steel? In days gone by I would have raided a broken alarm clock for that, but haven't seen one of those for many a year.

Mitchell engineering at Hornsby had it , but last year I cleaned out that work shop and had the job of taking all the stuff to the tip .. dismantling metal racks for days .
You can still buy it in the states on eBay though.....it's only cheap too.

Actually G, go to Hornsby metal , scrap metal he will have some

Thanks for the tip, Pete. I'll give them a call tomorrow before heading up through the smoke.

The guy there is very helpful and they use flat spring steel for many many things , so it's just a matter of getting the right gauge. I went there to find something to lock up a motorcycle, he gave me this cable off a ship, it was about as thick shovel handle, superman could not through it . 15 bucks

Have replaced the impulse starter from my mower twice over the years because of a broken spring. Tossed out now, but might be a source if you have a junk mower.

might be a source if you have a junk mower.

I did replace one of those on a two-stroke a few years back, but tossed the old one.