A couple of spring tuning questions

[Toolmaker]

 I've read up on springer tuning and understand how polishing the spring ends helps with twisting / torque. What about polishing the whole spring? It seems to me that it could prolong the life of the spring if it was smoothed and polished its whole length to remove any possible nicks and burrs which could cause stress fractures.

 I've also read about putting polished stainless washers under each end of the spring. Would bronze thrust washers not work as good or maybe better for helping the spring twist without that motion transferring to the gun? 

[ezman604]

Hopefully Bob, Gene or Ed will chime in with a TRUELY profession answer but I'll take a stab at it with what I've learned home lube/tuning. I can't see polishing the entire length of the spring. There's really no drag associated with the sides that would cause a problem. If you debur the chamber, there shouldn't be anything to cause problems. As for stress fractures, I would think that is more likely to come from leaving the spring cocked and under load for an extended period of time as well as shooting too heavy or too light of a pellet.
I grind and polish both ends of the mainspring. I also polish stainless washers and add them to either end. What you are trying to achieve is two polished and lubed surfaces that rotate freely on each other. Polished bronze would work but is softer material and probably will not hold up as well as stainless. I'd rather not take a chance by using bronze.
That's just my humble opinion. And like I said, one of the tuning experts will probably chime in and give you the real skinny. 
Happy Shooting....and tuning!!!!
Dave
 

[Frank]

I've used bronze and oilite washers, ezman is right,,, they don't hold up,,, they broke in half........

[MichaelM]

Bronze would be awsome from a slick point of view but bronze is pretty brittle and I dont imagine it holding up real well to the shock of the piston slamming home

[shadow]

Polishing up the washer's along with the proper lube will let the spring do it's thing without transferring the tork and twist throughout the action. As far as polishing the whole spring I don't do myself since when lubes like heavy tar are applied to the spring the unpolished spring will hold the tar better then a polished one. There are part's that require polishing and part's that should be left alone. Ed

[Toolmaker]

 Thanks guys!