# Yet another plastic chain tutorial



## jetskijigsaw84 (Feb 1, 2014)

Nice! May have to implement this!


----------



## Chewbacca (Oct 12, 2010)

jetskijigsaw84 said:


> Nice! May have to implement this!


The chain did turn out pretty good didn't it? 

I've still got about 200 links to go before I'm done with this batch. I should end up with about 80 feet of chain. It's time consuming and tedious but it's cheap. Time I've got, money, not so much.


----------



## Scary Papa (Jan 31, 2012)

Chewbacca, really neat bunch of chain.


----------



## Chewbacca (Oct 12, 2010)

Scary Papa said:


> Chewbacca, really neat bunch of chain.


Thank you. Here's a pic of the finished product after painting. I ended up with approximately 80' of chain.


----------



## SavageEye (Aug 30, 2010)

Please share how you painted it... Love the look!


----------



## Chewbacca (Oct 12, 2010)

I just dry brushed it with dark brown, reddish brown and very sparingly with a little beige in that order. Let each color dry before applying the next, it doesn't take long. I have some hooks in the ceiling of my shop so I hung the chain and painted a section at a time. I painted the entire chain with each color before moving on to the next. The nice thing about using ABS is that the black is a nice base color and if the paint is scratched it doesn't matter.

The paint is just some oops house paint from Home Depot. I check to see what's available whenever I'm there. I've found a lot of small sample jars for 50 cents each.

Here's a close-up picture.


----------



## Hilda (Jul 31, 2011)

Great chain! Thank you for sharing.
I admire your dedication.


----------



## Phantom Blue (Sep 28, 2008)

Great idea.....much strong than the foam pool noodles!


----------



## skid_68 (Aug 30, 2009)

Nice work. Not sure how well it would work. But I wonder if you could take a section of pipe, maybe 12" long and try and form that piece into the oval shape. Then cut each link from it, instead of heating and forming each link.


----------



## SaltwaterServr (Jul 28, 2014)

skid_68 said:


> Nice work. Not sure how well it would work. But I wonder if you could take a section of pipe, maybe 12" long and try and form that piece into the oval shape. Then cut each link from it, instead of heating and forming each link.


Oh heck yeah. If you took the pipe, heated it up, and then pressed down on it with a section of 2x4 that's longer than the heated pipe it would work. 

All you would need to do is hold the 2x4 until the pipe cooled down. Maybe a minute? 

You could also use a few clamps to hold the 2x4 against the pipe so you would know X number of turns of the clamp would give you the desired oval shape.

Get a jig saw, hack saw, or band saw and go to town. You could crank out a butt load in a hurry I bet.


----------



## Chewbacca (Oct 12, 2010)

Nice Idea, but it's really hard to heat a length of pipe evenly enough to get the entire length to be soft enough at the same time. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.


----------



## DeadED (Oct 12, 2010)

This is an awesome idea thanks for sharing.


----------



## LAKE OF THE DEAD (Apr 15, 2009)

Chewbacca , the chain turned out great , how are you going to use it


----------



## Loogaroo (Oct 19, 2008)

Fantastic! I'm all over this!


----------



## Chewbacca (Oct 12, 2010)

LAKE OF THE DEAD said:


> Chewbacca , the chain turned out great , how are you going to use it


I'm going to use it strung between torches along a walkway in my graveyard.


----------



## Skeptic (Aug 29, 2013)

Nice detail, adds to the realism. Thanks for sharing, I'll definately try your technique.


----------

