Originally Posted by
3alarmer
I understand the allure of pop rivets, but why use them in
this application ? Every one of these I've ever made has
used the chain's own pins to fasten a female link to the
bar stock in question.
Do I win something in the cheap guy sweepstakes ?
I mean, three pop rivets saved....... gotta be worth
two or three cents, easy.
Well, given the gauge of metal of the BBQ fork, using the outside links of the chain to join to the fork (as in a conventional chain whip) would have left some lateral play, and the pin is a pretty small diameter, so the holes in the fork material would be under higher stress than with the way I did it. I had concern that the fork material wouldn't be up to this stress, leading to enlargement or tearing of the holes. The holes I drilled in the fork are 9/64", which allowed the narrow links of the chain with their swaged rings to fit in snugly. And the pop rivets (I used steel) fit nicely through the narrow links. I finished off the loose end of the whip with a wide link, using two bushings stacked together and a chain rivet.