Cutting 8mm chain

[eddystone]

I want to cut a section out of an old 8mm anchor chain to splice rope on to each end; is this feasible with a hacksaw or do you need very big bolt croppers?

 

[dom]

No prob at all with a hacksaw and I've often cut chain like that; unless that is you are dealing with G80 or something like that.

 

[Poignard]

I want to cut a section out of an old 8mm anchor chain to splice rope on to each end; is this feasible with a hacksaw or do you need very big bolt croppers?

A hacksaw with a sharp blade will sail through it.

 

[Ruffles]

If you're doing it on the pontoon and therefore don't have the use of a vice a large mole grip is handy to hold the link while you saw.

 

[Kelpie]

Hacksaw will be fine. Would need some pretty heavy duty bolt croppers.
Or a grinder, but that risks spraying little fragments of hot steel everywhere. They will embed themselves in your gelcoat and weep rust forever.

 

[eddystone]

No will be done on land so can put it on a workmate

 

[vyv_cox]

Last year I cut some of my old 8 mm chain into short lengths for weights on dinghy racing marks, something like 12 in all. Using a hacksaw it took less than 10 minutes.

 

[johnalison]

I've done it with a hacksaw under water while dangling myself from a rubber dinghy. (We anchored where the HM said we could and picked up something on the bottom which no amount of effort would free us from, though it may have been 6mm chain).

 

[Yngmar]

I've done it with a hacksaw under water while dangling myself from a rubber dinghy. (We anchored where the HM said we could and picked up something on the bottom which no amount of effort would free us from, though it may have been 6mm chain).

Sawing underwater seems a good method to prevent flying rust ;-)

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Hacksaw or a small angle grinder as long as you can secure the link firmly.
Laying the chain on something solid and applying a sharp cold chisel and a lump hammer will only take a few seconds. Wear eye protection.

 

[charles_reed]

I want to cut a section out of an old 8mm anchor chain to splice rope on to each end; is this feasible with a hacksaw or do you need very big bolt croppers?

hacksaw 20', angle-grinder 20". dependent on how well the chain is restrained.

I always use the latter.

 

[sailorman]

All in the true spirit of The PBO

 

[Fossil]

Bolt croppers - not huge ones - did the job for me fairly easily, out on the pontoon, without the faff of putting a link in the vice to hacksaw it. In fact, I had already tried unsupported hacksawing and given it up as a bad job, before I thought of the croppers.

Actually, this is absolutely the only time in twenty years that I have ever used the croppers in anger and I was pleased to see them working so well. I have always been careful with them, cleaned regularly, liberally coated with grease and stored rolled in a greasy rag inside a dry plastic bag in the driest part of the boat, a cupboard above the engine.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I've cut chain several times out on my mooring when adjusting/relaying. There's no electric obviously so an angle grinder can't be used and the bottom is sand. I use a hacksaw and hold the chain by sticking a nail bar through the link and into the sand. It takes a couple of minutes to saw through a chain or shackle and the tools can easily be carried.
If I had bolt croppers, I'd probably try them but hacksaw works well for me.