Breaking and making chain

[Acer]

Rather than buy loops, a friend of mine makes his own up from a reel. As the bench breakers and spinners are expensive here, he breaks the chain by filing the head off a rivet and knocking it out with a hammer and centre punch. To make up the loop, he simply peens the end of the rivet over with a small cross peen hammer. It seems just as fast as using a breaker/spinner, but are there any hidden dangers in doing it this way? ie. are you more likely to suffer a chain breakage?

 

[John Ellison]

Acer, I have made my chain up that way since 88. It is fast if you have a solid bench and a heavy chunk of steel to work on. Never had a chain break. If you have a chain anvil you dont have to file the head off the rivet.

John

 

[Gypo Logger]

It's fast to make chain in the woods all you need is an anvil hammer or axe and a good punch.
John

 

[Lawn Masters]

I keep my granberg break-n-mend tool in the toolbox all the time, like a roll of duct tape its handy.

keeps the hands strong too when breaking chains. I love it for what I do. especially since I only paid about $20 or so for it on ebay. saves me a great deal of time. but I'd rather have the bench mount breaker/spinner combo when I build my new shop.

 

[JimL]

When I make chains, I make 50- 100 at at time usually.
I use a bench grinder with a 1/4" wide wheel made for a foley belsaw chain grinder. I just grind the rivets off half way through the tie strap and a little twist and its apart. Faster than a punch, not like im going to use the tie strap again anyway. We have made chain that way for 25 years here. Use a spinner from stihl.

 

[Al Smith]

Ditto

I have a spinner,but have made many loops by the old peening method,works for me.