Not another set of home-brew tire chains...

[Jim Timber]

Not another set of home-brew tire chains... These are different

Scored a good deal on CM G43 high-test chain on clearance so I decided to whip these up.

The pattern is 16" across, and my tires are 16.9, but close to 16 across the lugs. The side straps go out another 8" for a total of 32 from side to side for scale.

I'm going to fit them up and do any needed adjustments, then have them heat treated before putting much use on them. The nice thing about G43 is it's not hardened so there's no harm welding it. These were also supposedly galvanized, but there's not enough zinc to prevent rust on most of them, and on the shiny ones the welds never acted like or showed any signs of zinc (which was a relief because I didn't need to remove it either).

The in-progress shots show some tack welds and incompleted back side welds. I've finished all of them.

 

[Mysfyt]

Awesome job, Jim! What did you weld them up with?

Give us some more detail about the heat treat.

 

[Jim Timber]

Combination of MIG and TIG. The side straps and retention chains (the outside ones) are all TIGed, the first web (the 4 middle rows of 3/8" chain) was TIG tacked, and then MIGed on the back side. The second web was all just MIGed since I assembled it a bit differently from the first one once I had the pattern figured out. I discovered early on that fighting 100# of chain is annoying when trying to add in a shorter outside section. So when I made the second set, I made the outsides with all the straps, then welded them to the middle chains and that worked a lot better!

There's an outfit I use for my products for heat treating who can do a number of different processes. I'll probably just have these case hardened with Salt Bath Nitriding (what glock does to their slides) because it'll double as rust prevention along with creating a hard case. Sadly, that'll double the price. :laughing: I'm into these for a little over $300 and some consumables and about 2 days fabrication time. There's 36 side straps per tire with 4 welds per strap, so it's a decent amount of arc time, but a whole bunch cheaper than buying anything commercially made which has this much chain in it. My TIG basically paid for itself again on this project.

 

[Mysfyt]

Pictures please when heat treat is complete!

Always remember, good quality comes with a price, but you're never sorry when it's done.

 

[Jim Timber]

I live to make stuff. I have no regrets about building these (now if my math is off and these don't fit well, I might change that opinion :laughing: ), and I was very fortunate to have the inkling to make them when I did. The chains I got were sold out within a couple days of my putting my order through. Dumb luck that I scored what I did.

I'm not sure if 1022 will turn black on it's own or if that's another process. My normal parts are 303 stainless, and it turns black as a process of the oxidation with being exposed to oxygen at elevated temps.

Sometimes they don't meet my expectations for visual perfection. I had a bunch that looked like this and I sold them as seconds because of the little chips in the edges.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Now THAT is a set of chains... nice work.

 

[Jim Timber]

Thanks Greg!

 

[MinnesotaDaveChalmers]

Very cool - love stuff like this

 

[roadhunter]

Nice work. Thanks for sharing

 

[s219]

great work!