Great Stuff fome rusty old chains

putrid · #1 (**permalink**) 03-07-2008, 10:41 AM

You can get quite a few feet from one can of Great stuff. This may take some practice at first but once you get the hang of it you'll have 40 ft of chain before you know it.

Needed things,

A LARGE area to work in.

Can of Great Stuff foam with the plastic nozzle cut to half it's size.
(I've found it easier to control this way )

A 2 x 3 foot area of sand. One inch or more deep.

Plastic trash bags

Latex gloves. The thin 'doctor' kind.

Dish soap.

Razor knife.

Low temp hot glue gun and glue.

Dark gray oil base paint. Water base paint doesn't stick to foam very well. If you don't already have one get a small pint of black and add what ever kind of white paint you have to it.

Nutmeg colored paint ( rust )

To set up your work space.

You'll need the 2 ft by 3 ft area of sand to start the project. You'll also need a large area covered by both trash bags to let the chain links harden. And something to put the chain links in after there hard to keep the project going.

To practice and get the hang of it. Draw a few 2 inch circles in the sand. Use a very light touch on the trigger. In a swooping and constant motion carefully spray as little of the foam as you can in the circle. The idea isn't to fill the circle. The circle is just there as a guide. This is not the size of the link you'll end up with so more is NOT better. Wile warring the latex glove squeeze a drop or two of dish soap into your hands and work it around the gloves. The soap will help keep the foam from sticking. WORD to the wise. To much soap will dissolve the foam. The trick is to wait till the foam gets just past the roasted over a fire to sticky to handle marshmallow stage. You'll want to be able to handle the foam. When it gets to this stage stretch it out to about a 4 inch oblong link. You want it free of large clumps but not perfect. Set this on the trash bags to harden off. It will shrink down some. Once you get the hang of it make more at a time. You'll have to work fast but it's possible to get 50 out at one time.

When there dry paint them. If your going to use these out doors don't do what I did and use black paint. Black doesn't show up well in the dark. LOL With the sharp knife make one cut threw a link. Slip it around another link then glue the one cut back together. Keep doing this till you get 20 or so links together and then start a new mini chain. When you get enough mini chains made use a single link to connect two of them together. Keep doing this till you get the length of chains needed.

To keep from having to draw out the circles every time they dissapear I made a 2 inch round cutter out of cardboard. The imprint should just be an imprint used as a guide.

This wont support any weight and are easy to break. Look great draped over things.

Things to look out fore. Your links should be free of large knots and thick areas. The center opening of each link will need to be wider than the foam. This way each link will clear the next when making the chain.

LV Scott T · #2 (**permalink**) 03-07-2008, 10:53 AM

Now, you know better than to post a How-To like this and NOT include photos...

putrid · #3 (**permalink**) 03-07-2008, 11:22 AM

LOL Don't have any photos of the process but did go up into the attic and take this shot after I posted,

The process of making this is simple enough. I can't take full credit for this idea. We had a forum member a few years back that needed real large chains for a monster he'd made. What he did was use the sand to mold each huge link. I just modified the idea a bit and formed each link by hand to end up with a smaller chain.

These chains also look great draped around the house like garland. Cool Halloween party decorations.

putrid · #4 (**permalink**) 03-15-2008, 07:04 PM

For those of you who don't have sand this might help. I know of a few folks that have done spray foam projects on plastic bags and not had problems with sticking. You could spray the initial circle of foam on the plastic and start form there. Do your best to keep each start the same size.

To help you not make the same mistakes I've made. Don't try just spraying a single glob to start with. When you break it open to form your link it'll be way to sticky to work with. Because this stuff keeps expanding till it hardens if you try to spray the links the size you need they will be to thick to work with.