pastorbobnlnh suggested I post this up. I made a chain whip yesterday from a $1.50 thrift store BBQ fork. I separated the necessary pieces of chain from an old chain that had reached the service limit, stretch-wise, and pop-riveted them to the fork shank in holes drilled to size. I finished it up by cutting off the tynes and grinding the end smooth. I would have made two chain whips but the thrift store only had one suitable BBQ tool. Today I'll check a couple of other nearby thrift stores in the hope of finding a donor BBQ tool to make my chain whip's brother.

Nice job. I made a pin spanner the other day. It gets the job done. It is nice not to have to run out to the lbs for every project. I will keep your idea in mind. My fixed gear cog is 1/8" and the usual chain whip doesnt work too well, and i have a 89 pinarello with a casette that takes two wips. Good project.

Pb

That's a classy looking tool, old's'cool, but you must be a cheap-skate like me!

Here is a chain whip I made from a Stanley hardware strap I purchased at Lowes for about a buck: Not as pretty as yours but it works. I ground out the curve you see for a little better bite, then painted it black so it doesn't rust.

Yep, I am a cheap skate, but also impatient. Here in Canada the cheapest price I can find for a new chain whip is about 20 bones. I could order the 8-dollar ones from Niagara Cycle and have them delivered to my US workplace (cross-border shipping - fagetaboutit!), but I don't know when I'm going to be back that way for sure, so I got fed up and made my own.

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, old's'cool mentioned his BBQ Fork chainwhip in an email, and I just couldn't picture it.

That is really special! I'm trying to think of what you might fabricate from a BBQ spatula? A headset or BB wrench? What about a BBQ tongs? A wheel truing guage?

In my case, the stock I used was slightly thicker than the chain, so the pin kept popping out under force. I wound up putting a little bolt and nut through it.

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.

I keep meaning to pick up some scrap bar stock from work and make a huge pile of them to sell at the co-op for super-cheap... one of the perqs of working at a steel mill I guess.

Another $1.50 thrift store BBQ fork, a dozen or so chain links, and 3 pop rivets later, here is my homemade chain whip's new baby brother:



I disassembled and overhauled a Sachs 6-sp freewheel today, that had gimballed innards (the pawls had a tendency to stick - could be very exciting ).

Now I just need more pin wrenches to fit my Suntour & Shimano freewheels.

After finding that the BBQ fork material is not stout enough to overcome really stuck sprockets, I resolved to make a pair of irresistible chain whips. Well, I finally got around to it, and here's the result:



The materials are 1/8" steel bar and approx 1" dia. thinwall pipe. The pipe began to split at the edges where it is flattened, so my nephew welded the cracks shut for me. If you're going to buy rather than scrounge the material, I'd recommend mild steel tubing instead of pipe; I think the tubing would be ductile enough to flatten without cracking. You can also anneal the material before flattening it. I did that on the second one I made, and the cracking was less severe.

My ugly chainwhip made from a piece of angle iron cut from a bed frame:

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Shown with the sawed-off pickaxe handle that is used to apply force where needed.

I have a couple of home-made ones. One of them is for 1" pitch. It's hysterical when someone finds that one first. I like the axe handle. That is hot.

The ax handle is sweet.

I've got one of those Harbor Freight 2lb rubber mallets which is my all-purpose whacker of things. I think it was $1.99 or even .99 on sale in the clearance/damaged section as it was a little pre-beat up.

Not home made, but I would not use anything less than the Park Tool tool! This got ugly immediatly! I work on a lot old/older bikes and I need as beefy a tool as I can get! The other tool was part of a kit I thought my grandson could use! Most of the tools are under an old bench, unused!

I've been using about 5 links plus a single-hook bottom bracket spanner -- only to remove Hyperglide lockrings, which are not very tight. This inspiration to raid the recycle bin at the LBS for some more chain links...

I took a different approach....

I cut this Sugino AT crankarm years ago before I returned to C&V biking. (I know, how could I?)
I needed to modify it to create a spanner to install a spring seat to a Macpherson strut for my exwife's car.

I found it a few years ago and made a whip because I was in need of a 2nd one to remove Suntour freehub cassettes. It got a 2nd life in my tool box.

... and for those really stuck threads, install a pedal & stand on it!