Lock & Chain finally finished

[Bayward]

The lock has been done for almost a week. The chain is a different story. After rough cutting the chain on the scroll saw I whittled the final shape. It took me over an hour per link including the scrolling part. Way too much time for a little chain. To think I started out going to make the chain 24" long !

Bob

[DWSudekum]

Very nicely done Bob. I used to whittle chains all the time when at summer camp as a scout. I like your wood choices. Thanks for sharing them with us.

DW

[Wood Dog]

Ya done good Bob, and I know what you mean by stopping at 6 links, 24 I can even imagine.

[Cutting Cathy]

Love it Bob! I too agree with you on the chain! I have mine cut and rough sanded. Maybe I'll get it done by next weekend and will post it. What woods did you use for your lock and chain?? What kind of finish did you put on both?? Thanks for sharing!

[Sally]

You did a wonderful job!!

[Dragon]

beautiful
Diane

[Rolf]

They look great! does the chain fit the hasp?
The chains on the cover took me 3 hrs for each chain and I thought that was long.
I would not have the patience to whitle them.

[DukeNukem]

That came out sweet, I want to make one of those but I'm still waiting for my scroll saw.Jerry

[Bayward]

The chain was made from a piece of hard maple I had in the garage. It was just standing there in the corner already 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" and about 24 links long. I had nothing else on hand that looked suitable.

That was one mean piece of maple to try whittling a chain for the first time. Plus it was the first whittling I have done in more years than I can remember. Almost wish I had not been able to find my Flexcut knife.

It took a little over an hour per link including the rough out on the scroll saw. With four cuts on my right hand. Three of them on my thumb, one of which should have had a couple of stitches. It is still too sore to touch. I did finally re-establish the art of whittling wood without removing meat also.

If I whittle another chain in this lifetime, I will not be using the rest of that piece of hard maple.

What tools and how do you sand the links to shape ? All I have in a hand held small tool is a Dremel with sanding drums and a bunch of carbide burrs in various shapes.

Bob

[Wood Dog]

What tools and how do you sand the links to shape ? All I have in a hand held small tool is a Dremel with sanding drums and a bunch of carbide burrs in various shapes

Bob I used my Dremel with burrs and sanding drums, you should do fine with those. I sat close to my box fan/ filter set up, it does make lots of dust.

[HAMMER]

You did a fine job on them No matter what time frame.

[Rolf]

Bob,
After I cut the initial cross in the blank I rounded all of the outside edges with a trim router so that was half of the shaping. I then did all of the scroll work. Then used a flex shaft on my Dremel with a flame shaped burr like this Buy Carving Burr Silver Coarse Grit 1 8 Shank at Woodcraft . The final bits I did with my Mac mop sander and some cloth backed sandpaper holding each link in a wood vise.
I have not done much carving but my wife bought me a set of Flexcut tools and I bought a Kevlar carving glove ( I hate stitches)
The chains I made were out of Cherry, hard but not like the manly wood you decided to use.

[Bayward]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Before starting to hand carve I tried the Dremel / burr routine and decided it was too difficult to hold the links and keep my fingers out of the way. At this point my piece of wood had six links scroll roughed out of a planned 24" ( not 24 links ) run of chain . I was going to do the six links then switch to a regular scroll blade and rough the rest of the stick of wood. I could not spin the full length piece of wood on the saw.

Rolf, I did not choose the hard maple to prove to myself how tough I am. It was what I had in the garage. No driving to get something and no money spent. Or so I thought. In hindsight it would have been more than beneficial to drive the three mile round trip to Home Depot to get a piece of Poplar. Or even better to wait one day and pick up a piece of Basswood or Butternut from Woodcraft on the way home from work.

Way cheaper than the cuts on my right hand ( I am left ) pushing the knife into that hard wood I used. I did the laundry today and found slices in two pairs of the jeans I was wearing last week. On the left thigh, right where I would rest the links while I carved. At least they were cheap Walmart Wranglers and not my name brand Levi's. So add two pairs of jeans to the cost of using that maple.

Another thing Rolf, when I first saw the magazine picture and scrutinized the key hole inlay fit up you did, I thought wow, how can he be that good ? Excellent fit up.

Bob

[Rolf]

Thanks for the complement Bob, I was raised by a German toolmaker.

All kidding aside I drilled the hole with a forstner bit and put a very slight taper on the insert pluse some careful sanding for a press fit. The acrylic was much easier without the insert.

[Block]

This project is on my list (my daughter saw the cover, and she's already been asking for a lock for months (to play with basically)).

I don't have a drill press or forstner bits, so (unless I buy the $110 Skil drill press on Amazon), I will cut the round hole and the insert with my scroll saw (with the insert purposely being a tad too large) and then sand where needed.
Or, would the circle cutting tool that came with my Dremel 4000 cut both parts accuately enough? I do not believe it is tiltable - no taper ability, so I'm leaning against using it.

Back to the scrollsaw - would double cutting (the insert and hole at the same time) using a thin puzzle blade work, or would the kerf show? What if I cut at an angle/taper so that the insert would sit back a bit?
Ah - I think due to the taper (if done in the right direction/angle!), the insert would stick out a bit when inserted fron the backside, and then I'd sand it down flat. Is that what you (Rolf) did where you stated above that you used a taper? Assume I know nothing, and you'll be close!

I suppose yet another option is to not cut the insert, just cut the keyhole...

As for the chain, cutting and glueing the links is clearly the way to go. :-)