Make Your Own Chain Link Fencing

If you find yourself in need of chain link fencing, you’d probably just head down to the hardware store. However, [The Q] has shown us that you can make your own at home with a simple machine.

The build starts with a length of pipe, into which spiral slots are cut with an angle grinder. This pipe is the forming tool which shapes the wire into the familiar chain-link design. The pipe is then welded onto a backing plate, and fitted with a removable handcrank that turns a flat bar. Feed wire into the spiral groove, turn the crank, and out comes wire in the shape required.

From there, formed lengths of wire can be linked up into a fence of any desired size. Of course, fastening each end of the fence is left as an exercise for the reader, and the ends are sharp and unfinished. However, if you don’t like the chain link fencing on sale at your local hardware store, or you want to weave your own in some fancy type of wire, this machine could be just the thing you need.

We’ve seen similar designs before too, but on more of a doll-house scale. Video after the break.

 

22 thoughts on “Make Your Own Chain Link Fencing

          1. The sound recording would have been pretty close to the quality of David Attenborough shows of 1998, and I imagine used a lot of the same techniques and technology.

      1. That was quite fascinating. Being someone who’s previously worked in a machine shop, there’s so much room for error if even one small step of that process goes wrong. I think the most interesting part was the “boiling” of the wire.

  1. It’s simple looking when you see the video, but trying to actually make one isn’t so simple. Having the right power tools, a drill press, a welder and knowing how to weld are a big setback for me. I’ll admit I have the power tools and maybe even some scrap metal, but the drill press I have is still unassembled in the box due to lack of space and I don’t know the first thing about welding, let alone, actually having a welder.

    1. Drill press? Just set it up and get drilling! Once you get the stand dialed in at exactly 90°, you’ll feel bad about all the wonky holes you’ve drilled by hand in your life.

      There’s some nuance to putting the hole exactly where you want it. Good lighting, look from X and Y, small bits first, then progressively bigger if the material is tough.

      But the drill press is the one machine tool that I could not live without. A lot of people say that about a lathe, and I wish I had space for one, but really. Drill press. Most utility / ft^2. Set it up!

      1. About that drill press. I’m quite computer savvy with building and repairing them, but not so much when it comes to assembling a drill press. The last time I attempted it was when I worked at Sears and had to setup a display model. Got it done for the display purpose, but it wasn’t quite functional. Also, I literally do not have the room to set it up or try assembling it, at the moment. Haven’t had any crucial hole-drilling projects, yet, but I’m sure that will change once I actually do have a drill press.

        1. Kind of like the one video I watched with someone testing wrenches and they bought a used USA Craftsman wrench off ebay just to end up destroying it in the end. Interestingly, that USA made Craftsman wrench came in around 3rd, I believe, out of about 10 or 15 wrenches tested, including some high-end brands costing over $50 that fell towards the end of the scale and failed miserably. When Craftsman was made in the USA, it was still god quality, but now it’s just Chinese junk cranked out like 90% of all other brands. Honestly, I think they’re all made in the same factory, there, and just adding different brand names to them.

    1. There’s a word for that! B^)

      https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/seine

      Definition of seine (Entry 1 of 3)
      : a large net with sinkers on one edge and floats on the other that hangs vertically in the water and is used to enclose and catch fish when its ends are pulled together or are drawn ashore
      Definition of seine (Entry 1 of 3)
      : a large net with sinkers on one edge and floats on the other that hangs vertically in the water and is used to enclose and catch fish when its ends are pulled together or are drawn ashore

  2. I think it should also work, to wind the wire in tight windings tight over some flat steel bar of slightly smaller width, then remove the bar and stretch the coil to the desired length.

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