Does anyone have any uses for old chain?

[betterbuilt]

I recently was given at least a five gallon bucket of used chains. I finally went through them all and maybe twenty were junk. The rest were in really good shape. I was wondering what other uses there might be for the junk chains, other than scrap metal. Thanks.

 

[DangerTree]

Flip it over and use it on a bike.

 

[DavesMower&Saw]

Looks like forging them into knives is a pretty popular use.

http://www.knifenetwork.com/workshop/tut_chainsaw_burnett.shtml

 

[Trigger-Time]

Don't know if was here or some other place.

But someone was making knifes, blade and handle was made
from old saw chain, Damascus looking things




TT

 

[betterbuilt]

Looks like forging them into knives is a pretty popular use.

http://www.knifenetwork.com/workshop/tut_chainsaw_burnett.shtml

Nice. I have a friend that's a Blacksmith. I'll have to try that.

 

[betterbuilt]

Hang them on a nail in the shop. You never know when parts might come in handy for a chain repair. I even have a few hanging in the shop that have been sharpened back to the witness mark...it's a thing of pride.

I would hang them in the shop if they were mine but I'm not the guy that ran them to the witness marks, and on some to the point where the teeth came off.

 

[betterbuilt]

Well you never know what someone may call 'junk chains'.


Sounds like they are ready for recycling.

Well they are pretty shot. I figured there would be a few good uses for them. I like the idea of the knifes.

 

[HittinSteel]

I needed to get the light hanging over my work bench a little closer to the stuff I was working on.......thought for a bit........ an old junk chain was perfect.

 

[CentaurG2]

Nope. I used to save them on a nail for the rainy day but now I just scrap them like used brake rotors and bad batteries. If you keep saving stuff you eventually have a shop full of junk and you cannot find anything.

 

[lone wolf]

Do you guys have any luck sharpening chains with a grinder
I always use a file? Maybe I should start grinding them I been tossing them in the garbage before the witness mark .

 

[atvguns]

I seen some signs at a craft fair that was just a board and the letters were 3 or 4 inch pieces of saw chain nailed to it. looked really good I thought about making one for my front porch with my last name on it

 

[betterbuilt]

Do you guys have any luck sharpening chains with a grinder
I always use a file? Maybe I should start grinding them I been tossing them in the garbage before the witness mark .

I mostly mill with my chains. I hand file but I have a hard time getting the same amount of filing on both sides. As a result the cutters will not get sharpened equally. I have to grind them, to get them back to the same size.

I was pretty happy to come across fifty 16 and 20 inch chains that fit my saw.

I also got a few 325 chains for a friend of mine that are in good shape.

 

[Bob Wright]

I went to my dads old shop and picked up about 100 chains. The ones i can't use that i can still read the numbers are going to become display chains for the different links and cutters. I am cutting them 6" long and screwing to a display board for saw chain history if nothing else...Bob

 

[lone wolf]

I mostly mill with my chains. I hand file but I have a hard time getting the same amount of filing on both sides. As a result the cutters will not get sharpened equally. I have to grind them, to get them back to the same size.

I was pretty happy to come across fifty 16 and 20 inch chains that fit my saw.

I also got a few 325 chains for a friend of mine that are in good shape.

Can you get the chain as sharp with a grinder as a file i never could and what grinder do you use? Does the grinder solve the pulling to one side issue from hand filing ?

 

[betterbuilt]

Can you get the chain as sharp with a grinder as a file i never could and what grinder do you use? Does the grinder solve the pulling to one side issue from hand filing ?

Its not as sharp as a file. On milling chain everything has to work together or it really hard on the saw. I thing the grinder is a quick way to get the cutter the same length. I use it when i need it. I actually enjoy hand filing.

 

[lone wolf]

Its not as sharp as a file. On milling chain everything has to work together or it really hard on the saw. I thing the grinder is a quick way to get the cutter the same length. I use it when i need it. I actually enjoy hand filing.

Agreed that is what i thought.

 

[Eccentric]

I've taken a few loops of chain in the pitch/gauges that I use on my old saws, and punched a rivot out each loop so I can use them as 'try' chains when setting up a saw/bar/chain combo where I don't have the correct DL count info come loop ordering time. Of course, the chain has to not be so sloppy or stretched that the DL count I come up ends up being wrong. Has to not be rusted to the point that it's not flexible as well...

 

[indiansprings]

You can always cut a chain in half and attach it to half a axe handle making you a self defense weapon against crack heads. No joke I had a buddy in HS that moved here from Idaho and he carried one of these things behind the seat of his truck. His theroy was it would wrap around a limb of someone that might attack him and he could jerk it back and cut em' to the bone and then club the hell out of them lol. Makes one hell of a mean whip. It's a western red neck thing I guess.lol

 

[Net-Knight1]

 

[Sheriff420]

Well you never know what someone may call 'junk chains'.


Sounds like they are ready for recycling.

A friend of mine tosses his chains when they're too dull to cut anything.
Someone got it in his head that you can only sharpen a chain 3 times max so he just gets a new chain when one gets dull.
My jaw hit the floor when he said that.