Thread: Easy chain from pipe insulation

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Nice! That's a great idea.

If you have a table saw you can do the same thing with plastic pipe for plumbing or electrical conduit. Simply cut a line on one side of the plastic pipe first; it is the same method WETA studios used to make light weight chain mail for the orcs in Lord of the Rings.

And if you need to make the PVC pipe chain links stronger, a dab of PVC cement will fuse them together. Get a bench vise ready, dab the glue, clamp them gently together in the vise to hold the link's cut together for 30 seconds, can remove and go to the next link.

I ended up making in excess of a hundred feet of this in all. I bordered my front walkway up with chains connected to conduit topped by finials...the links fit snugly right over the finials and secured PERFECTLY. A few links ended up splitting due to the wind, in which case I just re-hotglued them. Also, we have in-ground sprinklers and I noticed that the foam did get saturated, thus weighing them down a bit, so I had to take up the slack a bit also. But I also bracketed the driveway for a good stretch as well, leading up to the flaming skull tiki torches.

A few folks on Halloween said they had to reach out to touch them to see if they were real! All in all, it went well and this project took less time than I thought, although it was pretty time intensive when all was said and done, especially the painting part.

That is sheer brilliance!! Thank you!

Also remember, folks... you don't need to split and glue every ring. Cut one ring, slip two in place, glue it shut, take one of those uncut rings and drop it into the next cut ring. Only half of your chain should have to be cut and glued.

Even if you're using the foam insulation, only half need to be cut.

Originally Posted by Bryan316

Also remember, folks... you don't need to split and glue every ring. Cut one ring, slip two in place, glue it shut, take one of those uncut rings and drop it into the next cut ring. Only half of your chain should have to be cut and glued.

Even if you're using the foam insulation, only half need to be cut.

Yup. And if you set up your workspace the right way, you can plow through putting the chain together in no time.