If you find yourself in need of chain link fencing, you’d probably just head down to the hardware store. However, [The Q] has shown us that you can make your own at home with a simple machine.

The build starts with a length of pipe, into which spiral slots are cut with an angle grinder. This pipe is the forming tool which shapes the wire into the familiar chain-link design. The pipe is then welded onto a backing plate, and fitted with a removable handcrank that turns a flat bar. Feed wire into the spiral groove, turn the crank, and out comes wire in the shape required.

From there, formed lengths of wire can be linked up into a fence of any desired size. Of course, fastening each end of the fence is left as an exercise for the reader, and the ends are sharp and unfinished. However, if you don’t like the chain link fencing on sale at your local hardware store, or you want to weave your own in some fancy type of wire, this machine could be just the thing you need.

We’ve seen similar designs before too, but on more of a doll-house scale. Video after the break.

Woah. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never taken a second to think about how chain link fence is made. That’s pretty cool, and deceptively simple-looking.

What was the tool from which he removed the crank? Asking for a friend.

It looks like a type of breast drill, but I have not seen one that hefty or with enclosed gearing.

I think I found one. Now to find one I can add to my collection. https://www.tooltique.co.uk/shop/vintage-stanley-continental-no-748a-breast-drill-clean-condition/

Well, if you can weld, you could fashion one out of an old dual end box wrench, I suppose.

A vintage tool destroyed for its handle when all he needed was another strip of metal with a bolt through a wooden cylinder as the handle and a spigot at the hub end.

I noticed that, too. What the HECK, man? That’s a crime.

This would be an excellent way to make a one off fish net or barrier to let the smaller fish through and only catch the large ones in a river pool.

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