Spring tester

I like to play with my suspension.  A lot.  With the Slash, I was looking for some third-party springs because I didn’t like the GTR springs.  Well, the tricky part is that every manufacturer uses different published measurements for their spring rates, so it’s hard to figure out if something is stiffer or lighter than another brand’s spring.

G-Force makes a spring measurement tool, but it costs $100 so I was looking for a cheaper alternative.  It turns out that a friend of mine had a Dremel Workstation that he hadn’t used and was selling it for cheap ($20).  This looked like something that might work as a spring tester, so I bought it from him and tried it out.

It works really well.  I have a Protek scale that fits perfectly on the base, and the Dremel has a nice adjustable throw so you can set it to a particular distance.  With some calipers I set the throw to 1 inch, and with the Workstation I can measure lbs./inch really easily.  You just set the spring uncompressed, turn on the scale, and then move the handle 1 inch.

If you already have a scale, this is a fairly cheap way to make yourself a spring tester.  New, the Workstation costs $40 on Amazon.