Time to get creative again with some fresh inspiration drawn from what would otherwise be considered waste! In the video that follows, the author presents a simple DIY approach to revive your old bicycle chain into something valuable.
Transition an old, broken, and rusty chain into a brand new infinity cube to engage your wit. Check out the simple steps involved.
Restore The Old Chain
Dig up your old bicycle chain with all its unsightly elements and set it on your worktop for revitalization. Start by spray painting it using a rag. Ensure you apply the paint as evenly as possible throughout the chain.
Use a special spray that doubles up both as a lubricant and cleaner to restore the sanity of your dilapidated chain. The multi-purpose spray serves to prevent corrosion, remove soil debris, and displace water on the chain.
Dislodge The Chain Links
As soon as the paint dries up, roll out your chain into a linear posture. Reach for your chain tool and start delinking the chain in a uniform sequence. To make your work easier, count up to 10 linked pairs and unlink the chain at that point. Do this until you hit your target of six infinity cube sides.
Delinking the chain simply involves inserting the chain in the chain remover tool in an upright posture and firmly twisting the lever.
Square Weld The Delinked Chains
On your worktop, set a plain metal sheet welded on a straight square bar to act as a stopper for your welding needs. Link this setup to your welding terminal and grab your welding gear.
To get a square shape of the chain strips, fold them into three equal sides leaving one face hollow. Place the chain squarely against the bar fortifying the underlying plate. Start arc welding the square edges used to fold the chain. If welding gloves are absent, use pliers to move and align the chain as you weld each corner against the stopper. Repeat this for all the chains and allow them some cooling time.
Refine The Welded Chains
Once cooling is complete, set the square chain pieces on a flat floor surface for polishing and other modifications. Step on each piece one after the other and wire brush the slag and other stuck residues on the square chains.
Once the chain luster is back, head to your hand grinder and start trimming the excess edges of the chains to yield a perfect square. To simplify the process, you can just elevate the grinding angle using a wrench or some other flat metal while securing the welded chain with your foot as you grind off the projections in each chain piece.
Assemble The Square Chains
After grinding, head back to your worktop and using the same welding setup, start assembling the different infinity-cube faces. Use your pliers to hold each piece on top of the subsequent one as you gently arc weld them. Assemble the pieces such that each terminal only links to the next terminal once thereby leaving a visible furrow-like gap along the edges.
When done arc welding, let the newly formed piece cool down before embarking on a thorough wire brushing job to augment the luster.
End Product
At last, this is what your brand new infinity cube looks like. With a black paint finish, you can spruce up the look even further. With a sizeable end product easily befitting your desktop, you can add a new interior décor element without spending an extra dime or breaking an extra sweat!
Conclusion
When you are on a budget and feel the irresistible urge to engage an infinity cube, before heading to that nearby store, check your garage for some good old bicycle chain and get creative with it. If you stick to the above guidelines, you’ll spare yourself the trouble of acquiring a brand new cube!
To draw more fresh inspiration on simple DIY tricks to enliven your life, the author of this video runs a ProjektHeld YouTube channel. With a current subscription of 1,920 followers, the DIYers community is expanding, and you too can join the creatives!
