hairychinchin

Just replaced my chain today and was wondering what to do with the old chain. Any suggestions for a creative use of the old chain or should I just let the dumpster divers have it?

jeepr

You can do lots of stuff with old chains.

Art
bracelets
jewelry
chain whips
hangers
bottle openers

Just depends on your creativity and skill set.

Jeff Wills

With luck, your local shop knows about this: https://www.resourcerevival.com/recycling

Where old chain is turned into new art:

JanMM

You can use a couple of links to make a bicycling trinket to carry around in your pocket - bike worry beads, you could say.

Velo Dog

There's a woman here (in Reno) who makes jewelry and knickknacks from old bike stuff to sell at flea markets. I haven't seen her for awhile, but she charges $14, I think it was, for a slip-on bracelet made from an old chain. Pins in shell shapes, from coiled chain, were $10 or $12. I imagine the market is fairly limited, since anybody serious enough to want one probably has a chainbreaker and will think, "Hey, I could do that in about nine seconds." She also made a couple of alleged stools from old frames, pretty much just pulled off the forks and put on take-off bin saddles, but they were really ugly and fell over.

wahoonc

I have used them to secure saddles, put them inside an old inner tube, run them around a seat stay and up over the saddle rails, then pinned them back together. Other than that mine go into the steel recycling bin.

Aaron

rm -rf

Never heard of that before.

JanMM

I probably owe you royalties on that. Please don't sic lawyers on me for copyright infringement.

rm -rf

We need a thread where every poster has a bike parts avatar.

Jeff Wills

No we don't.

slipstream8

We used to make them into bracelets in college, but they're really pretty uncomfortable to wear. Especially if you spend much time typing on a computer. Steel is a little heavy for earrings unless you're trying to mutilate your lobes.

I second the vote for recycling.

Mr. Cranky

I did the same thing but made it twice as long. Endless hours of finger fun.

wahoonc

Maybe use titanium chain for the earrings?

I recycle whole bikes when they reach the end of their lifespan. Recently I have been getting ~$12-15 for a big box store aluminum frame at the scrappers. Steel not nearly as much. But it gets the stuff out of the landfills and hopefully back into the useful materials stream.

Aaron

Looigi

Good use for old chain by somebody who knows how to use it:

CNY James

best answer yet.

Booger1

here you go:

clock
lamp
christmas
necklace
chair
bowl
cufflinks

CliffordK

Since everyone likes old threads

I just blew out another chain. I think it was only about 4 months of use I should pay more attention to mid-winter riding

So, any new suggestions for chain art? What's your favorite project?

I did also find this thread, and a few unique items on the
I don't have quite enough chain saved up to do some of these larger sculptures (unless I find a shop to donate discards). Nor quite enough creativity for some... but I can do a bit. I just need some inspiration.

So, what's your favorite chain art projects?

KLiNCK

rex615

That looks nice, i might copy that idea.

exmechanic89

Wow, 4 months! That is some serious riding.

Homebrew01

I have one of these belt buckles. Requires a welder of some sort.
This version has a recycled tire too.

Sy Reene

I've found that I can strip down an $8K Colnago to various parts, and sell $12K in trinkets.

FBinNY 

If the chain is nice looking, you can accumulate a bunch, add some specialized hardware and build a shelf system that hangs from the ceiling. For the shelves themselves you can use wood or glass depending on the look you want to go for.

GlennR

Drop it down the seatpost to make the UCI weight minimum

chedarhead

I used a piece of old chain to make a chain whip to take off cassettes. Was simple to do and cheaper than buying one.