My cheap, fast and easy chain

[madmax]

I know we have 2 topics on how to make chains but here's another way.

I'm making my chain to hold a 8 foot monster so I need a larger looking chain. To make a 10 foot section the size of my chain would probably cost about 4 dollars....or one can of foam. I think you could get around 20 feet with a smaller chain. I can't say for sure because I only had about 1/8 of a can of greatstuff and it made 8 links.

Well here's a few pictures showing how easy it is....

Sand mold with greatstuff in it.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/wkuyoungguns/chain005.jpg

Links of the chain. To put them together I just pinch a link apart and hot glue the ends.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/wkuyoungguns/chain008.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/wkuyoungguns/chain009.jpg

A 14 inch section of the chain put together and sprayed painted with wal mart primer

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/wkuyoungguns/chain011.jpg

[mrklaw]

Great idea. Did you just use sandbox sand? Did you have to wet it down or anything?

[madmax]

I used the cheapest sand I could get at Lowe's....$1.88 and yes you wet the sand.

[Lilly]

thats a good idea also madmax..im sure they don't take as long as mine did too make either. have you tried these before, how do they hold up in the wind and rain? or snow you never know by me.

[Beepem]

you are amazing with great stuff.

[madmax]

Thanks, BP

Lilly, no I haven't tried the chain before and it was you who gave me the ideal, with your chain. I know they will hold up to as much rain as the skies can pour.

Here's a thinner section I made. This section is 9 feet and it took less than 1/2 of a can. I can only made 6 loops at a time but if you went to a park and took a gallon of water you could make as many as you needed....at one time. I took these out of the mold after about 10 mins. I guess total work time was around 15 to 20 mins on a nine foot section. It took longer than 20 mins (making 6 at a time) but not work time.

My flash is dead so I couldn't take a picture of the whole chain but here's a close up of a few links.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/wkuyoungguns/fake%20chain/largechain001.jpg

[Merlin (The Quiet One)]

Hey Madmax, great idea! You make it sound easy.

[madmax]

Merlin, this one would be easy to do for a child....I actually took my finger and made a circle in the sand and sprayed one thin line of foam in the circle I made. It's that simple.

[madmax]

I ended up getting 18 feet and 2 sets of hands out of one can of foam. The only other cost was 2 sticks of hot glue and one can of brown wal-mart spray paint.

The snake is there to give an ideal of the thickness of the loops. I can pick up a 3 pound weight with the chain without it breaking. I'm not much for fine detail, but if you took a little more time on making the circles and spraying the foam. It would be possible to get the loops more uniform.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/wkuyoungguns/fake%20chain/18feetchain002.jpg