Materials:
- sheet steel 20 mm thick;
- smooth rod d 10mm;
- square rod 14x14 or 20x20 mm.
Assembling a machine for making a chain
To make the base of a bending machine, you need to cut a 12x20 cm workpiece from sheet steel. You can use your own dimensions, but if the workpiece is larger, then the finished machine may not fit in a regular vice. Then it will have to be screwed to a table or a large wooden block.
A pair of bending jaws is cut from the same steel. Their size is 3x10 cm. One end of each sponge must be rounded by sanding or grinding with a grinder.
Next, you should grind the surface of the jaws and the previously made base of the jig with a flap wheel.
You need to make 2 holes on the prepared sponges. The first is drilled from the side of the rounded end.
Its diameter should be 11 mm.The center of the hole is located at a distance of 15 mm from the ground end and side edges. The second hole moves away from the first by 1-1.5 mm more than the thickness of the rods that will be used to make chains. A 10 mm drill is used for it. Since it is difficult to drill such thick metal, it is worth making thin holes first, and then widening them to the desired diameter.
Also, using a 10 mm drill, 3 holes are made on the base of the jig. Two of them are located in one line. The distance between their outer edges should correspond to the length of the desired links. The third hole is drilled in the center with an indentation to the side by the thickness of the bending rods.
You need to cut 5 pins from a smooth steel rod d 10 mm. Three of them are 60 mm long, and two are 40 mm.
Square handles are welded to the jaws. The longer they are, the easier it will be to bend the links. It is advisable to weld the handles at an upward angle, as in the photo, to make them easier to grip and pull together in the future.
The long pins are driven into the base of the machine, and the short ones are pressed into the jaws into the holes near the handles. Next, the handles with jaws are put on the pins at the base.
The finished machine is clamped in a vice. Pre-cut steel rods are placed in it and bent into links by moving the jaws. The length of the rods is selected individually according to the size of the resulting machine. Each subsequent rod is pre-threaded into the previous link. After making the chain, the joints of the links are welded.
