Recently one of my guns return spring had broken, AGAIN , I have seen a few different types of return springs out on the market that don’t seem like the regular old metal ones. One of these was a “hardened” return spring from tac edge and another was a “tightened” one from GBU. Could someone tell me if these worth it and if would they not break as easily as regulars ones, or either increase my FPS.
Are you referring to the return spring for the tappet plate or the main spring for the piston?
I would imagine is talking about the tappet return spring judging by the description 
I found that the “tighter” shiny springs lasted longer than “hardened” return springs.
These are a consumable item though, which will always need replacing, especially with more constant use and high ROF.
I do have a little trick to make them last much longer, even with stock return springs, that involves cutting and reshaping the eye ends for a straight pull on the coil windings 
2 Likes
Yeah sorry for the missed context I did mean return springs. Ok so do you think I would be better off getting a tightened return spring. I haven’t actually seen the broken return spring in my gearbox so I don’t know if its rusted out or not but I did a bit of a self diagnosis. Are stock return springs stainless or are they meant to be rust resistant? I would like to find one that will work well and not rust or at least take a while to rust.
They are normally just a shiny plated steel spring.
Stainless Steel is too brittle and hardened black springs are just as susceptible to rust and breakages as well 
I always used to be sure to lubricate the spring with a good light silicone grease, which helped keeping the rust at bay and less friction in the windings
My fix was to slightly cut down and re-loop the ends to be “inline” with the tappet plate hooks.
This fixed the problem of the springs always breaking at the 90° bends where the windings meet the loop ends.
Only shorten just enough so that you still have a few mm’s of spring tension when the nozzle is fully forward.
Too long and there’s no tension whatsoever to seal the nozzle, causing FPS and jamming issues…. but too short puts too much tension on the spring and can cause many more problems 
3 Likes
I concur exactly my experience.
The stainless or black ones are harder and advertised as stronger but that is not what we are after as they are more brittle and break.
Regular maintence helps too as parts of smashed up gels build up in that area restricting tappet plate movement and putting extra pressure on the tappet return spring to where it fails.
2 Likes
Too right
Especially the amount of gel confetti that builds up in that area which can be plenty if the blaster isn’t feeding right
Always amazed me how much can also be packed back into the piston head and nozzle when the amount gets too much to compress any further 
What @DocBob said on the re-ending of return springs as most are not bent right in the first place, done right they will hold the tappet plate down and in place when re-assembling the gearbox👍
1 Like
Whats a return spring 
Return springs are what you use when tappetlesss cylinder heads don’t work! 
As DocBob stated, they are a consumable realistically. I have found the coated black hardened ones seem to at least resist rusting from gel chad buildup more, and shiny stainless ones seem to be similar, but the more dull looking stainless ones I got loads of from Ali years ago seem to last ages. I give all return springs a good coating with silicone paste, seems to prolong them a bit. I make most of my own and customers that want the most consistency possibly tighter than I should by a loop, but a customer that wants it to be reliable I shorten less. Typically there is only a slight loss in shot to shot fps consistency for the reliable build, but they last a long time. The main thing is coat it in Hershells silicone paste, and resist rust if there is a build up of gel chad, correct voluming resists this build up also.
Lubrication is key, never go in dry 
1 Like