What you will need:
- PET bottles with a volume of 1-2 liters;
- tablet;
- M6 washers – 5 pcs.;
- self-tapping screws – 2 pcs.;
- replaceable blade of a mounting or stationery knife;
- any U-shaped stud 40 mm wide with two nuts;
- hair dryer or hair dryer.
Chain weaving
First you need to make a machine for cutting plastic bottles into ribbons. To do this, the knife blade is screwed with a self-tapping screw through the hole to the board. First, 2 washers are placed under it. Its second end is also pressed, but since there is no hole on it, you need to place 2 washers on the bottom and one on top.
The bottom of plastic bottles is cut off, a thin cut is made around the circumference, and the resulting tape is inserted under the blade of the machine. Next, pressing the bottle by the neck down onto the board, you need to pull the cut. As a result, a long strip 3.1 mm wide is cut.
Then, for convenience, the long strip is cut into 1.4 m pieces. A U-shaped pin is clamped in a vice. Nuts are screwed onto its edges. Then 9 layers of tape are wound tightly around it. After this, the resulting ring is wrapped turn to turn.
Only the long sides of the link need to be wrapped. A pass is made at the points of contact with the pin. After winding the second long side, you need to bring the end of the tape between the layers. After this, the excess is cut off.
Without removing the link from the pin, you need to heat it with a hairdryer until the plastic shrinks and is firmly held. After this, the pin is removed from the vice, cooled in water and the link is removed. If the heating of the hairdryer is not enough, then you can simply dip the links in boiling water instead.
Then the next link is made in the same way. Having received a couple of links, you can combine them with a third. When winding it, you need to pass the tape between them. This will slow down the process a little.
Then the fourth link is made separately, and when weaving the fifth, it is connected together with the three previous ones. This is repeated until a chain of the required length is obtained.
In this way you can make a chain of any parameters. If increased strength is required, more layers of tape must be wound. The size of the links can be adjusted by using a pin with a larger or smaller gap. The resulting chain weighs almost nothing, but it is very strong, looks unusual, and does not rust.
