Tool for cutting 1/8" steel wire.

[BGHansen]

I use roughly 12" bolt cutters regularly to cut 5/32" and 3/16" drill rod. Cut 36" rods into 7" and 9" segments. Mark the cuts with a Sharpie and cut away.

Bruce

 

[Tony Pisano]

If your lathe has back gears, you can wind the coils with your mandrel chucked or in a collet. For spri g winding, we'd make a tool that is a chunk of steel that fits in you tool post, with a horizontal hole. Place a bolt through the hole. This bolt will have a ho,e that your stock passes through, and two brass washers to clamp some pressure on the stock. You can use power feed for consistent pitch between coils or feed by hand to make tight coils.

 

[gr8legs]

I just tried my aircraft cable cutting plier on solid steel wire and it worked very nicely. Since this tool is designed for stainless wire, cutting through mild steel was easy.

Go to eBay and search for "Stainless Steel Wire Rope Aircraft Bicycle Cable Cutter" and you'll see what it looks like - and unlike using a bolt cutter this is a 'bypass shear' so the cut ends are square rather than the 'crushed and mangled' ends most V-bladed bolt cutters provide.That should work well for chain mail construction.

The eBay ones are probably imports at about $25 and should last a while - (I paid a lot more years ago for a USA-made pair that are still going strong after hundreds of cuts. )

Stu

 

[magicniner]

Dremel cutting discs will do that kind of job at a reasonable speed, a 4" grinder with a cutting disc will do it quicker

 

[RJSakowski]

Cutting 1/8" wire is easy. Cutting a tight coil so that the cut ends aren't deformed is more challenging. Any shearing action will introduce deformity.

If your mandrel had a shoulder with the starting hole drilled in the face, the coil could be slipped off the mandrel and cut with a band saw using a tight fitting secondary mandrel and a small drill press or machinist vise with the jaws parallel to the blade. You would have to make a 90º starting bend but this setup would allow you to separate the winding step from the cutting step.

 

[gooberdog]

I just tried my aircraft cable cutting plier on solid steel wire and it worked very nicely. Since this tool is designed for stainless wire, cutting through mild steel was easy.

Go to eBay and search for "Stainless Steel Wire Rope Aircraft Bicycle Cable Cutter" and you'll see what it looks like - and unlike using a bolt cutter this is a 'bypass shear' so the cut ends are square rather than the 'crushed and mangled' ends most V-bladed bolt cutters provide.That should work well for chain mail construction.

The eBay ones are probably imports at about $25 and should last a while - (I paid a lot more years ago for a USA-made pair that are still going strong after hundreds of cuts. )

Stu

You can also search for Felco C7
Chuck

 

[Wheelcock]

I've done 16ga filler wire 0.522" OD coils for chainmail with bolt cutters. Put bottom jaw in the bench vise, use one arm to operate the top handle and other arm to feed coil -- cuts like butter. You're talking twice the wire diameter though, wo maybe a different ball game.

Still buy the welded rings though and make yours to match. Basic 4-in-1 pattern can be done without any real inconvenience with 1:1 welded and split rings