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Old 06-08-2007, 07:48 PM   #34
rickst29
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Reno, NV
Posts: 1,324
Default About steel chain....

Quote:
Originally Posted by SneakyFrog View Post
I really liked the simple heavy duty chain idea that someone mentioned in the other thread....
Hmm. a "simple heavy duty chain" which can withstand MY bolt cutter isn't cheap or readily available. (No, a heavy duty chain for lifting 20,000 lbs is not the same thing as a tamper resistant chain in which the loops are hardened from cutting attacks AND still "soft" enough to prevent shattering under Sudden, hard hits.) Because hardened steel is brittle, prone to break via the "freon"+sledge hammer type of attack, you really need it constructed with a hard outside (to prevent hacksaw and bolt cutter attacks) but a much softer core (to hold the hardened steel intact when it's faced with a sudden, heavy impact). Nearly all of the sub-$200 chains which can withstand my bolt cutter will break under my sledgehammer, because they're built cheap, hardened all the way through.

Yeah, along with my grinding and drilling stuff, and chain cutter, I have a 20-pound sledge hammer AND I know how a swing it. Even worse, (for a chain), I do own a separate and unsharpened "splitter head". (Kinda like a slightly dull axe head.) I'm attacking some rocks which I don't like in our yard-- and even the granite boulder is gonna submit. If I were a thief, I would be your WORST NIGHTMARE.

Lotsa cheap chains consist of hardened steel all the way through, or hardened in the core-- these aren't good. (Hardened in the core I just cut or saw the outside first, then smash the core.) You need soft, flexible core with hardened outside. And a good lock, built the same way. If you're buying more than 6 feet of the good stuff, you're lookin' at way over $200.
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BTW, for hardened chain users: You can be VASTLY more secure by arranging your connected chain and it's connection points, so that I can't get links all the way down to the ground. (If I can set it on top of a bit of hardened steel plate which I brought for this purpose, with the plate on the ground, the power of my swing doesn't get dissipated into "soft" TM tires and suspension, or "soft" ground ). Don't let me get a solid hit!
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