I'd like to cut some rings to make chainmail. I'm using 16ga mig wire and
winding them on a 1/4 inch dowel.

I want to cut them with a jewelers slotting saw. I've found the blades
all over the place but can't find an arbor that will fit into a 3/8 inch
drill chuck. Where do I get one?

--
Mark Healey
marknews(at)healeyonline(dot)com

"Mark Healey" wrote in message
news
I'd like to cut some rings to make chainmail. I'm using 16ga mig wire and
winding them on a 1/4 inch dowel.

I want to cut them with a jewelers slotting saw. I've found the blades
all over the place but can't find an arbor that will fit into a 3/8 inch
drill chuck. Where do I get one?

--
Mark Healey
marknews(at)healeyonline(dot)com


Hand holding a jewler's saw in a drill might prove a little vicious... It
is going to want to grab and jerk. I'd suggest a Dremel tool with a cutoff
wheel.

Jerry

I used to use nippers but now I'd use fencing pliers if cutting by hand. I
like your idea but I'd build some sort of jig with the arbor mounted to it
and a guide for the coil. That was always what I planned to do anyway.
We preferred galvanized electric fence wire as we believe it was stiffer
than regular wire.
I spun the coils using board a with a hole slightly larger than your rod and
a screw near it as a guide. I'd recommend a !/4" steel rod in a variable
speed drill. Start the wire by sticking it in the chuck between jaws or
drill a hole in the rod and make a loop in the wire when you start so you
have a way to cut it off the rod. It goes without saying keep everything
including your fingers away from the wire while spinning.
If you want to use the dremel cut off wheels use the fiber ones the others
wear out quickly. For the number of links you'll be cutting I doubt it's
cost effective.
The final most important suggestion is google search for: Society for
Creative Anachronism SCA chain mail.
Karl


"Mark Healey" wrote in message
news
I'd like to cut some rings to make chainmail. I'm using 16ga mig wire and
winding them on a 1/4 inch dowel.

I want to cut them with a jewelers slotting saw. I've found the blades
all over the place but can't find an arbor that will fit into a 3/8 inch
drill chuck. Where do I get one?

--
Mark Healey
marknews(at)healeyonline(dot)com

Mark Healey wrote:

I'd like to cut some rings to make chainmail. I'm using 16ga mig wire and
winding them on a 1/4 inch dowel.

I want to cut them with a jewelers slotting saw. I've found the blades
all over the place but can't find an arbor that will fit into a 3/8 inch
drill chuck. Where do I get one?


Got a 15YO painstakingly making himself a big old bunch of chain mail this
summer, he just uses wire cutters. I've watched him, and he spends maybe 1% of
his time on cutting. I don't think it's worth your time to fuss with exactly the
right tool -- it's the crimping and assembling the rings that takes all the
time. Find a tool to speed you up there and you have something.

GWE

I want to cut them with a jewelers slotting saw. I've found the blades
all over the place but can't find an arbor that will fit into a 3/8 inch
drill chuck. Where do I get one?

DON'T DO IT!
I did this as a kid and damn near cut my thumb off.
DON'T DO IT!

If these were silver jump rings the way to do it would be to split the rings
with a jewellers saw, cutting lengthwise along the dowel (ie with the
mandrel still in the rings). You do all the of the rings-to-be coiled on the
mandrel with one cut. BTW I cut mild steel (and worse) with a jewellers saw
all the time. I suppose you might use a hacksaw, but my bet is that the
jewellers saw would be enough easier to control that it ends up being
faster.

Hand tools are very efficient for some operations.

Adam Smith
Midland, ON

"Chuck Sherwood" wrote in message
...
I want to cut them with a jewelers slotting saw. I've found the blades
all over the place but can't find an arbor that will fit into a 3/8 inch
drill chuck. Where do I get one?

DON'T DO IT!
I did this as a kid and damn near cut my thumb off.
DON'T DO IT!

Grant Erwin wrote:

Got a 15YO painstakingly making himself a big old bunch of chain mail
this summer, he just uses wire cutters. I've watched him, and he
spends maybe 1% of his time on cutting. I don't think it's worth your
time to fuss with exactly the right tool -- it's the crimping and
assembling the rings that takes all the time. Find a tool to speed
you up there and you have something.

I used tin snips to cut my coils. The problem is it leaves a pointed cut
edge. With a thin cutoff disc you get nice flat cuts that close up really
well.

-will

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 07:35:42 +0000, Jerry Foster wrote:


"Mark Healey" wrote in message
news
I'd like to cut some rings to make chainmail. I'm using 16ga mig wire and
winding them on a 1/4 inch dowel.

I want to cut them with a jewelers slotting saw. I've found the blades
all over the place but can't find an arbor that will fit into a 3/8 inch
drill chuck. Where do I get one?


Hand holding a jewler's saw in a drill might prove a little vicious... It
is going to want to grab and jerk. I'd suggest a Dremel tool with a cutoff
wheel.

The drill is already taken apart and mounted (The trigger is in a pedal so
I could foot operate it.) I don't plan to hold it.



--
Mark Healey
marknews(at)healeyonline(dot)com

I have some old costume chainmail with links made from almost 2 turns
of wire and cut with diagonal cutters. The points rest on and are
shielded by the other loop and don't snag tightly-woven cloth too
badly. They look a lot like small key rings.


I also have a single link of ~500 year old mail that was damaged when
lightning struck the museum. The ends were flattened and pierced,
evidently with a shaped punch, then riveted with thin wire.

jw

You just need a mandrel with a 1/4 ir 3/8" shaft on it. Any of the
handpieces loke Foredom have the mandrels as well as the 1/(" Dremel
mandrels.
Tool shops should have all the mandrels that you'd desire.
I'll note that a drill motor doesn't have enough rigiditity in the
pistioning of the chuck in and out of the motor to really handle a slitting
saw. You'll have all kinds of problems ussing something like this. Much
better would be to make up a sort of table saw with a groove in it so that
the winding mandrel with the rings on it can slide along nicely against the
blade.

--
Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

Mark Healey wrote:
I'd like to cut some rings to make chainmail. I'm using 16ga
mig wire and winding them on a 1/4 inch dowel.

One other tip I saw recently was to double the wire when
you wind it, then you won't have to open half the rings
to weave them (just close the closed ones).

I've seen rings cut using aviation snips, and with a small
set of bolt cutters. I think the best way is as someone
else mentioned a cut-off wheel in a dremel, because you
get a cleaner joint when you close the ring. The various
snips often leave a burr.

HTH
--Glenn Lyford

"Bob May" signed off with:

Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

Do some research, there is.


--

Sorry, there is depletion of the North Polar area but not a full extiction
like at the South Polar Region. Besides, 80% or more of the nasty ozone
depletion chemicals are vented to the atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere
and they don't fall down to the South Pole, now, do they?
Seems the polar bear farts don't do as good a job as penguin farts do ;-(

--
Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:42:28 -0700, Bob May wrote:
Sorry, there is depletion of the North Polar area but not a full extiction
like at the South Polar Region. Besides, 80% or more of the nasty ozone
depletion chemicals are vented to the atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere
and they don't fall down to the South Pole, now, do they?

I still want to know how freon, which is a heavy molecule, gets way up
into the ozone layer. And if the interaction happens here, then why is
ozone considered a pollutant at our altitude?

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 15:50:34 +0000, Mark Healey wrote:

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 07:35:42 +0000, Jerry Foster wrote:


"Mark Healey" wrote in message
news
I'd like to cut some rings to make chainmail. I'm using 16ga mig wire
and winding them on a 1/4 inch dowel.

I want to cut them with a jewelers slotting saw. I've found the blades
all over the place but can't find an arbor that will fit into a 3/8
inch drill chuck. Where do I get one?


Hand holding a jewler's saw in a drill might prove a little vicious...
It is going to want to grab and jerk. I'd suggest a Dremel tool with a
cutoff wheel.

The drill is already taken apart and mounted (The trigger is in a pedal so
I could foot operate it.) I don't plan to hold it.

When I was in High School, mumble-mumble years ago, one of my buddies
claimed that he was going to make chainmail out of split lockwashers,
now that you've got your cutter all set up. ;-)

Good Luck!
Rich

That's part of the question. The old Freon R12 is pretty much obselete due
to only enviromental "conceerns". The stuff worked very well and was easy
to produce. Yet the enviromentalists have succeeded in getting it banned on
all new production referigation systems.
Brownian motions of the atmosphere will make the chemical raise into the
atmosphere but you still have to fight the truth that the freon hasn't been
proven to be really an ozone depletion chemical otherwise you'd see the mid
latitudes having more of a problem than there supposedly is.
As to the "global warming" problem, all I can say is when are we going to
get to the temps that were around 1000 years ago, much less those that were
around 2000 years ago? We still aren't that warm yet.

--
Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?