Chainmail: How to Make Your Own Mandrel

I know that a few of you are going to be snickering going 'he he, he said mandrel'. But I assure you this is not a sex toy, despite that its name sounds like 'man-drill' when you say it out loud. It is a very useful tool if you are going to be making a lot of chainmail. Why pay for pre-cut rings when you can make your own from raw wire at far less? The whole point of the mandrel is to create uniform metal rings of the same size and diameter so that your chainmail work is uniform as well.

As a bit of forewarning, making your own mandrel requires a bit of investment, around the 40 to 50 dollar range if you have none of the supplies. Now if that does not convince you otherwise, read on!

Whats a mandrel you ask? Well to be honest, all a mandrel is would be a metal rod or bar that is used as a core around which you wrap metal/wire/glass or even people! Just kidding. Or am I? The first thing I want to be sure to mention is please, please be careful. I am not, and will not, be liable if you hurt yourself. It hurts to get your fingers caught under the wire when its being wrapped around the bar. I went through gloves fast because they would get worn or torn easily.

That being said, as long as your careful enough that you passed shop class with all your fingers intact in high school, using a mandrel to make your own rings isn't all that hard.

First, the list of ingredients to make your mandrel:
1x 2x4 length of wood about 2 feet long- This is the main body of your mandrel.
2x smaller boards, about 1 foot long each. - You can use chunks of 2x4, no reason not to as long as they are cut to the same length as each other, but shorter than that first 2x4 that I mentioned.
1x steel dowel - You want one thats flat, not grooved like a bolt. The grooves can mess with your wire and make it hard to take off. It needs to be about 2 and ½ feet in length or more, don't go for more than 3 feet.
1x Power drill - This is the engine of the mandrel. Go to the pawn-shop and buy one secondhand. Don't make my mistake and use a good one, you can burn it out if your not careful. Quality doesn't matter, as long as it runs with decent torque.
1x 3/8 inch drill bit - For drilling the pilot holes. if your using a smaller or larger dowel, change your bit accordingly. You want it slightly larger than the dowel so that the dowel can turn in the holes with ease.
1x small drill bit - you want to match this one to slightly larger than your ring will be, something in the 2.5mm range would be good.
2x bench clamps - for attaching the finished unit to a bench/sawhorse/counter.
1x Hammer - for hammering stuff.
4x 2" Carpentry nails - to attach the two shorter boards to the longer 2x4

Step 0 -- Gloves and eye protection always, your working with a power tool here. Cool kids don't get hurt.

Step 1 -- Take the two 1' lengths of 2x4 and drill out the pilot holes for your dowel. Try to get it as centered as possible, but the important part here is to make sure its matched up in both boards. You want this as straight a shot as possible.

Step 2 -- Stand up the, now drilled, lengths of 2x4 vertically with the 2' length laid flat between them. It should look something like this I___I. You want to nail them through the bottom to the 2' length of board. It doesn't have to be pretty, just make sure that they go on evenly and the dowel can still run between the two upright boards.

Step 3 -- Take your metal dowel and very carefully drill a hole completely through the diameter of the rod with your small bit. It might take awhile if your bit is dull, so don't force it. Breaking the bit sucks, once again speaking from experience here. You want the hole to be far enough down the length of the metal dowel that it is on the inside of the two uprights when the dowel is run through the holes and far enough that you can remove the dowel from the boards without ever having to run that little hole through the guide holes. You'll see why later.

Step 4 -- You may want to flatten one end of your dowel just slightly so its more square than circular, this is so that your power drill will be able to get a grip on it. Once that is all set up, run the dowel between the two upright boards and make sure everything fits together right. Once its all put together, clamp it down to something like a desk/counter/workbench/sawhorse. Try to position the clamps so they are pointed down, in order to keep things out of the way while you work.

Step 5-- tighten the power drill down onto the flattened end of the dowel like its a big drill bit. You want to be careful not to leave the power drill attached to the dowel and just hanging there for too long. It can cause the dowel to bend, which at the very least can ruin the dowel, and the worst it can destroy the whole unit.

Step 6 -- Use: with the drill attached and the whole contraption bolted/clamped down, you unroll some wire and get good heavy gloves on. Feed the tip of the wire through your little hole you drilled in the dowel. Give the drill a little power and slowly guide the wire onto the dowel and down its length. You want to make sure to wind it tight against the metal of the dowel and work slowly so your fingers don't get caught. It sucks, trust me. Once you get within a few inches of the dowel's end, stop and cut the wire free of the main roll. Remove your dowel carefully. It most likely won't fit back through the pilot holes now that it has wire on it, so this is where its important that you didn't drill your wire-hole too close to the end. If you did happen to, you can usually cut the wire free and just slide the dowel out anyway. You just need to be careful that your not putting too much stress on the boards.

Step 7 -- With that finished, you now have a coil of wire the appropriate diameter for the rings you'll need. All thats left is to settle down on the couch with your wire cutters and snip the individual rings free. Cut one at a time and do it cleanly. It takes awhile to build up the hand strength to do this for a length of time, but I was able to do it by distracting myself with TV. You can use the wire-cutters that I mentioned before, I have heard of folks using a Leatherman to cut the rings as well. Just remember your going to do a lot of cutting, so don't use something that your afraid of wearing out. Also, the type of wire you use can greatly change how much force is needed to cut it. I started working with galvanized steel, and that was some tough stuff to cut. Aluminum is a little easier for costumes and jewelry, but won't pass inspection for armor grade work.

Step 8 -- Now that your rings are cut, you can file down any that feel like they have sharp edges and start working on your project. The edges of the cut surface can be a little sharp or have barbs on them. Those get really painful, so be sure to take a fine grain file and smooth them out. Not every ring will need filing, so just check them over as you go and sort out the rough ones for later filing while you cut.