4.) Making Links
Once you've finished building your frame you will be ready to start making links for your maille. The first thing you want to do is make sure that you are wearing a pair of leather gloves. The wire will be running through your fingers at a rapid rate and could easily cut your hands if you were not wearing gloves. Some people find it helpful to clamp or bolt the frame to some surface during winding, to keep it from sliding all over the place. Personally, I have found that it is sufficient to sit in front of it on the floor and hold it steady with my feet.
Chuck the dowel into the drill such that the hole in the dowel is closest to the drill. Next put the dowel through both holes in the wooden frame (as shown.) Make sure that there are no tangles in the first 8-10 feet of wire on the spool. When you are ready to begin, insert about 1/2" of wire into the dowel hole. Holding onto the wire and applying constant pressure, slowly start the drill turning. As the wire winds itself tightly on the dowel, make sure that you are winding the wire in a right-handed fashion if you are right handed (the drill should be in forward), and in a left-handed fashion if you are left handed (set the drill in reverse.) When the coil has covered the entire dowel between the two side blocks of the frame, you are finished making a single coil. If you are using 16 gauge wire, and a 5/16" dowel, this should produce about 300 links.
Before you unchuck the drill, you will have to cut the wire coil from the spool. Using the wire cutters, snip the wire as close to the dowel as possible (CAUTION: when winding the coil, you have put a large amount of potential energy into the coil. When it is cut is will release some of the potential by snapping quickly forward and around the dowel once or twice. This force is sufficient to slice through a heavy leather glove, causing cuts, bruises, and gashes. Be sure that both hands are away from the coil when you cut.) Finish by cutting the coil at the hole. Once the dowel is slid out of the frame, it will be ready to be cut into links.
To cut links off of the coil, first slide it down to the end of the dowel. Take care not to stretch the coil out as you slide it. Once at the end of the dowel cut off the excess left where you cut the wire after coiling.
