Chaz,
I once made a spring from a bicycle pants clip http://www.amazon.com/Inline%C2%AE-Metal-Pants-Clips-Pair/dp/B001B6EKHQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1342389571&sr=8-5&keywords=bicycle+pants+clips. What I did was heat the spring red hot to aneal it, then I cut, bent and shaped it how I wanted (for a sharp bend, I'd probably have heated and bent it while it was red-hot). When I was done shaping it, I reheated it and quenched it in water to reharden it. Twenty-seven years later the spring still works (it was a pistol part). Anyhow, it's an idea, if you can think outside the box a lot of this stuff isn't hard to do by yourself.
Steve

Approach life like you do a yellow light - RUN IT! (Gail T.)