Harley Chain My Way

Bruce Bump

Forum Owner-Moderator
I can't stand it anymore, I've got to post a WIP on something.
Our own KnifeDog Laurence sent me a Harley primary chain and wanted me to forge it into a billet. Actually he had a Harley drive chain but I knew from experience that it would give me trouble with all the chain lube, rust and dirt inside the rollers. I talked him into finding a "primary drive" chain. The primary chain on a Harley spends it entire life in a oiled clean environment and can be forge welded very nicely.

The problem with forge welding chain is the voids between the plates. I like to fill those voids with powder metal so making a canister is necessary to contain everything.

The chain needs to be cut to be dropped down into the canister. Just cut it across anywhere with a chop saw. A band saw won't even touch it as this thing is hardened.

I found a thin wall square tubing will work just fine for the canister. The thinnest I could buy was only .063" and worked great. A thick tubing isn't needed as it will need to be ground away later, the thin wall tubing is much easier to grind off. Luckily the chain is just under 1 1/4" so a 1 1/4" square tube fits nearly perfect.

More to come,
Our Daughter Krista and Benton had a baby boy yesterday and I need to run up there. Please come back later and see some shots of this HD Chain process. Its pretty cool I think.
 
Bruce,
Congrats on being a Grandpa! They didn't waste any time. I remember you writing about the wedding about one year ago?

I actually had a buddy give me five HD drive chains, I didn't know that the dirty inside the rollers could be problematic.

I am ready to see how our buddy Bruce did this handsome looking billet?
 
Sounds like an interesting project. Congrats Bruce on the new addition to your family, don't forget to spoil him rotten (Grandparents duty)
 
Oh Boy, I'm back. That is a cute baby Boy. They named him "Ezra James", should have named him "Lots O Hair"

Thanks for the Congrats! I love being a Grandpa, just spoil em rotten and call their parents when the sugar kicks in. :)
 
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Boring but necessary, is to clean the chain in thinner or acetone and blow let it dry.
Cut the thin wall square tubing on all four corners to get "ends" for the canister. The ends need to fit inside the tubing and be welded airtight. I just crimp all four sides so the end stays in place long enough to weld it solid.

Turn it over and drop the chain inside. I like to drop it in a few times until it folds up as tight as possible in there. Mark the tubing 1" longer than the top of the chain and cut it off there. Drop the chain in again, tamp it down tight and start pouring powder inside. Tap the sides with a small hammer until it just won't take anymore powder. In this case I chose 4600E powder because it is very very fine grained. The trouble with 4600E is there is no carbon in it and it won't hold an edge but there will be more high carbon steel than powder and there will be some "carbon migration" although I'm not sure how much migration is going to happen so I'm not counting on that. What I'm looking for is "color" differential. The 4600E is gorgeous ultra fine grained and can be heat colored or better yet hot gun blued. I'm not worried about edge holding on this one as it will be a double edged "boot knife" not a high performing "Hunter" knife.


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Notice the "pin side up" written on the can? I had to remove the end cap and dump some powder out so I could tell which side the pins of the chain were on. I also welded a lug on the handle and will keep it in the "up" position when forging down. I want ends of the pins to show on the face of the blade. They will be compressed and spread out and slightly drawn out and will show the "chain pattern" with all the plates. The powder is just a filler but will show too.

I like to do 2 billets at once as it takes no more time and propane that way.

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The billet is mostly compressed down but it needs to be squeezed on the edges to keep it parallel and narrowed to be a knife width.

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Here is what they look like. From here I need to grind them down to about 3/8" or less. Laurence wants his down to 1/4" so I still need to do that for him. I could forge them down and longer but it would stretch the chain longer and wouldn't look so much like a chain. There is allot of grinding to do. I started with a angle grinder and ended with my surface grinder. Lots of metal came off in the form of steel wool.

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Congrats on the grand baby and yes my parents too like to get my 2 year old boy all shakin up like a can of soda and hand him back to us to open ;)
So you are grinding off the thin square tubing (that was there to just hold it in place) to reveal the chain?
 
Congrats on the grand baby and yes my parents too like to get my 2 year old boy all shakin up like a can of soda and hand him back to us to open ;)
So you are grinding off the thin square tubing (that was there to just hold it in place) to reveal the chain?

Yes, thats right. I have a 7-9" heavy duty angle grinder with a silicone carbide cup (stone) that takes it off rather quickly and then I go to my surface grinder.

There is another method that works really well that J Nielson taught us at the Alberta Canada Hammer-in last year. He used "White Out", the kind at any office supply store like Staples and paints the inside of the canister. For some scientific reason the canister will not weld to the parts inside. Its like a miracle.

On these billets I chose to not use anything and just let the square tubing weld itself on as it will get allot of grinding anyway. Besides its not thick tubing and grinds away fairly easily. Remember there is no flux involved so there is allot of scale while forging at the high heat of 2300 f so the canister gets thin just from that.
 
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Bruce,

Any particular reason for a scalloped belt on the surface grinder ? I've always just used regular belts.

Thanks buddy,

-Josh
 
I love that picture of the wave of grindings from the magnet on the surface ginder.

I think you should invent a pair of magnets that cover a makers nose. Wouldn't that be nice to stop metal dust? They could be light weight and hang off a pair of safety glasses. You'll make a million bucks. You have time now to work on it. :)
 
I think you should invent a pair of magnets that cover a makers nose. Wouldn't that be nice to stop metal dust? They could be light weight and hang off a pair of safety glasses. You'll make a million bucks. You have time now to work on it. :)

Bruce,
You may be on to a great idea:biggrin:
 
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