welding harley chain

[leroyk]

I am getting some harley chain. How do i stablize it to weld into a billet.
thanks for any help guys

[Dodge]

Depends on if its the permanently lubed and o-ring sealed chain. Real hard to get all the rubber and lube out of them. If it's the cheaper non lubed type, you can wash most of the grease and grime out with cleaning solvent or kerosene (be careful using flammables to clean with). The remainder can be burned out in the forge but plan on some smoke. Slow heat til smoke is gone. Then fold, wire, mark it with a "B" just kidding. Make a billet; YMMV

[Rich Hale]

Leroy tack weld it in several spots with a mig tig or stick.....then on first weld tap it gently a few times and reheat flux etc. until it globs all together,,( sorry about useing technical terms)....Not sure where it is but I saw a utube video on welding harley chain see if you can find it was pretty well done.

[longhunter]

Have you guys ever heard of weld chain and ball bearings in a can ? One guy I know claims this is the easist way to work it

[Charlotte]

Have you guys ever heard of weld chain and ball bearings in a can ? One guy I know claims this is the easist way to work it

Not ball bearings but brake drum turnings and steel punchings to fill up the space not occupied by the chain. I have a hard time thinking that would work but, hey people do a lot of things that don't seem possible at first hearing (or sight).

[Frosty]

Saw cuttings are good too. I've been collecting some and will include some drill shavings and filings from some nickle to make a "wonder what this'll do" billet.

I've heard of the ball bearings in chain damascus, makes for striking patterns. Chainsaw chain makes striking patterns too.

Frosty

[781]

This is how I do chain.
I use garage door opener chain which is about the size of bicycle chain.
Cut the chain in about 4" lengths
lay the pieces side by side with the side links up. Stager each piece so the rivets are offset and they lay nicely together.
I do about 5 pieces of chain.
arc weld the chain on both ends so they stay together.
Weld a handle on one end making it easier to put in and out of the fire.
Start to bring the chain up to heat and then flux.
Continure bringing up to welding heat.
Bring out of the fire and lightly hammer the flats of the chain. This will take the slop out of the billet. You can also tap lightly on the sides to tighten.
Put back in the fire to take another welding heat.
Bring out and again strike on the links and a little on sides.
Dont burn off some of the links. You should be able to see what is welding and what is not.
I reduce the chain to about a 1/4 its original thickness trying to get rid of all the voids.
I then use 2 of these billets with a thin piece of high carbon in the middle.
forge weld these together and again reduce the thickness to helf squease out the voids.
If you want the round pools to show in the finished blade you MUST only work the chain with the links showing. If you make a bundle of chain having the links facing here there ect it would look more like chain saw damascus with long irregular pieces.

Once the chain is welded into a blade you could always say it is any brand of chain. The Harley primary chain is like timing chain as the sprocket has two sets of teeth.