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Wired Pop/Pull/Soda Tab ChainMailleby ekobor on February 23, 2010

Table of Contents

Wired Pop/Pull/Soda Tab ChainMaille ..............................................................................................

Intro: Wired Pop/Pull/Soda Tab ChainMaille .......................................................................................

Step 1: Ingredients .........................................................................................................

Step 2: Collect and Clean Tabs/ The Perfect Tab ...................................................................................

Step 3: Starting a row .......................................................................................................

Step 4: Tab Two ...........................................................................................................

Step 5: Move the wire~ ......................................................................................................

Step 6: Tab Three ..........................................................................................................

Step 7: Move the wire again ..................................................................................................Step 8: Tab four ...........................................................................................................

Step 9: Row end! Yai~ .......................................................................................................

Step 10: Starting Row Three .................................................................................................. 1

Step 11: Continuing Row Three ................................................................................................ 1

Step 12: Ending Row Three ................................................................................................... 1

Step 13: Ending the piece .................................................................................................... 1

Step 14: Properties of the finished piece ......................................................................................... 1

Related Instructables ........................................................................................................ 1

Comments ................................................................................................................ 1

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Author: ekoborNot much.

Intro: Wired Pop/Pull/Soda Tab ChainMailleSo I've been looking at different methods of making Pop Tab Chain Maille on this site. The ones that use wire tend to be rather ugly, and the ones that don't tend to

mangle and weaken the tabs.

I've been making tab-maille for a few years now, and thought I'd share my wire weaving method to those who want another option.

Image Notes1. Connected wires

Step 1: IngredientsThings you will need:

1. An idea: What are you going to make? I'm making a vest.2. A pattern: If you are making clothing, you will want a pattern to follow so that you get things the right shape. For my pattern I am using a vest that I like.3. Tabs. A lot of tabs.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not drink all the pop you will need for this craft! Not only will it cost you a fortune, you'll get very ill, and probably die. >.< Enlist your friends,family, co workers, school, and others to give you their tabs. Be not afraid to jump into recycling bins for tabs. You can buy them in bulk on eBay, even. Some charities

collect them. If you offer a dollar or so per pound, you can usually get them. (they sell them to recycling plants for ~$0.48).To find out how many you will need, you can use this for reference: a 4x4 inch square for me is about 8x10 tabs, when 'closed' (squashed together) or 8x8 when 'open'(spread out). This means that for an area of 2x2 feet I will need ~960 tabs. Always round up to the next hundred, to be safe.

Figure out the area for your project, then figure out how many tabs you will need. Make sure you can get that many. (You don't need them all at once, remember! A fewhundred to start with is good though.)

4. Wire. You will need a lot. I use plastic coated 'telephone' wire, simply because I have a lot of it on hand. It is approximately gauge 22 (in American), and approximately.6mm across. It is plastic coated copper wire, and quite flexible. Any wire that you cannot snap by pulling will do.

5. Scissors. To cut the wire6. Patience. This will take a fair amount.

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Image Notes1. Wire; I have lots of colours, but mostly use grey to blend in with the tabs2. scissors or nail clippers3. TABS~4. Computer with wire to speaker so you can blare music and piss people off~

Image Notes1. THE BLUR OH GOD I CAN SEE FOREVER2. THE BLUR OH GOD I CAN SEE FOREVER

Image Notes1. Most of my tabs2. Rejects3. A door in frame that I use to keep them together while sorting

Image Notes1. Argh, blurry box of rejects

Image Notes1. Blurry close up~2. Blurry closeup~

Step 2: Collect and Clean Tabs/ The Perfect TabThe proper way to remove tabs is to wiggle them back and forth as though opening the can and pushing the tab back repeatedly. DO NOT simply pull the tab. I f you do

this, more often than not the tab will rip, bend, or still have the rivet loop attached. This is bad.

It's surprising how many people do not know this.

The best tabs are the round ones. The square ones are neat, but are better used for other things.

To clean the tabs just rinse in hot water. pat them dry, and then leave out on a towel.

If you got tabs from someone else, and they are bent, you can flatten them by placing them on a wooden board and whacking them with a hammer. Be careful. If youmiss, you can end up with a sore thumb, or a pop tab in the eye.

If the rivet loop is still on, you can simply fold it down, or you can wiggle it back and forth to remove it. This is hell on the thumbs, so I recommend a pair of tweezers ornail clippers to do the work~

If the tab is broken or otherwise not usable, you can donate them to the charities that collect tabs. They sell them by the pound to recyclers, so they don't care the shapethey are in.

Included are pictures of some weird things I 've gotten in boxes of tabs I've bought on eBay. They won't be useful here, but they are interesting.

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Image Notes1. happy times, this one is perfect!

Image Notes1. Bend Forward

Image Notes1. Bend Back

Image Notes1. Repeat until it falls off... the rivet loop will stay~

Image Notes1. rivet loop bent down

Image Notes1. With rivet loop still on. We need to fix this!

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Image Notes1. back without rivet loop

Image Notes1. Needs to have both the bottom loop and the top loop. These ones work wellfor other projects, or trim if you want to be fancy.

Image Notes1. Square ones don't work as well, I use them for other things

Image Notes1. Usable, but I'm saving them to do an epic pattern on something else.

Image Notes1. too dirty.

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Image Notes1. Mangled beyond repair.

Image Notes1. No, I don't know why they left coins in.

Image Notes1. The top part of a tab. If you think you can use this, you need to go sit downaway from anything sharp.

Image Notes1. Wrong size and shape. Not from a pop can, obviously. I use these for otherprojects.

Image Notes1. Seems kinds silly to me.

Image Notes1. This won't work. At all.

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Image Notes1. Different kinds of things I've gotten in shipments of tabs that I can't use.

Step 3: Starting a rowTo start a row, you are going to take the wire and loop it around the top of a tab. Make sure it is secure.

This first row is the hardest part. Once it is over, do a happy dance, mm'kay?

Step 4: Tab TwoPlace second tab over top the first, with the second's bottom hole over the fir st's top loop.

Image Notes1. Hold over first

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Step 5: Move the wire~Thread the wire over the top tab, through the overlapped bottom and top holes, and under the bottom tab.

Image Notes1. over2. under

Step 6: Tab ThreeAdd a third tab, under the second one and beside the first.

Image Notes1. add third under second, beside first2. first3. second

Step 7: Move the wire againBring the wire up through the third tab and the overlapped second tab.

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Image Notes1. under2. over

Step 8: Tab fourAdd a fourth tab the same way you added the second tab. Keep repeating this until you have enough across the bottom to be the length you desire.

(I'm doing a shorty to show~)

Step 9: Row end! Yai~When you hit the end of the first row, it should look like this. This is actually the first two rows. Congrats! Do a happy dance now~

But we're not done with the project yet. Oh lords no.

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Step 10: Starting Row ThreeBring the wire up through the top loop of the final tab in the top row

Image Notes1. under2. up

Step 11: Continuing Row ThreeAdd a tab, and go over the bottom loop. Go under the two loops of the ones below it, and back up. Then place a new tab beside it , and repeat.

Image Notes1. over2. under3. over

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Step 12: Ending Row ThreeContinue Step Eleven until you hit the end of the third row. This should stick out as much as the fi rst row, half more than the second row.

The entire piece will continue this 'zig-zag', but will end up straight.

Image Notes1. first row2. second row3. third row

Step 13: Ending the pieceTo end the piece off, loop the wire around and around the end tab of the previous row.

This will make a loose end tab. If you have no intention of tying this end down to something else later, I suggest looping the wire around the top of the previous row aswell as the center of the end-tab.

Image Notes1. looped around

Step 14: Properties of the finished pieceAt first your maille will be quite stiff. Don't worry. Just start pulling it in every direction, squishing it, rolling it, just generally messing with it. It will loosen up a bit.

The loosest piece I have is also the first piece I made. It is about a foot across the top, a foot and quarter down the side. I can wave it around as loosely as a piece of cardstock. Gravity effects it a fair bit. It will hold its shape if bent to much. It can bend almost 180 degrees width wise, almost 90 length wise.

If you need any help, or this wasn't clear enough, please shoot me. Er, a message, that is. =P

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Image Notes1. nice and even~

Image Notes1. holds its shape

Image Notes1. widthwise

Image Notes1. lengthways

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Image Notes1. flattens out well

Related Instructables

Recycle SodaPop Tabs IntoChain Mail bybabasfarmlife

Can TabChainmailleHand Guard(Photos) byreddevved

Genuinechainmaillefrom pop tabsby quixotiCfluX

FingerlessChainmailleGloves by Kenta-Rin

Chain mailleembroideredShirt by Lizander

Soda TabChainmailLaptop Bag byshesparticular

Comments

16 comments Add Comment

ninja of suburbia says: Oct 3, 2010. 5:44 PM REPprops for this, but if you have enough time to make soda tab maille, you should try real maille. its way more worth it.

ekobor says: Oct 3, 2010. 6:20 PM REPI would, but I don't have the money.

ninja of suburbia says: Oct 4, 2010. 1:34 PM REPyou don't need a lot of money, just time. you can make some decent maille out of baling wire or other wire you can find around your house or inscrapyards

ekobor says: Jan 9, 2011. 9:26 AM REPI might give it a try when I have the time for more crafts again (after college)

TapeSmith says: Oct 4, 2010. 10:43 PM REPso I see you completed a sheet, but how did the whole vest work out? i 'm sure a sheet is easy enough, but i could forsee creating a wearable shape to beproblematic.

ekobor says: Jan 9, 2011. 9:25 AM REPI never got the whole thing done (it is very time consuming) but I got it about 2/3rds done before taking it apart again (I no longer do this, so gave my tabsto a friend) it was reasonably simple to make the object. Very simi lar to sewing. Make the pieces and stitch them together.I made a front panel and theback panel, and stitched them at the side with leather thread, making it more flexible at the join. If I were to do it again for some reason I'd make only theback panel and sew on thick fabric front panels.

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golddigger1559 says: Jan 8, 2011. 11:26 AM REPcheck this out http://www.instructables.com/id/Pop-Tab-scale-the-real-thing/

ekobor says: Jan 9, 2011. 9:21 AM REPThat's quite neat!

armourkris says: Feb 27, 2010. 9:00 AM REPI make tab maille really similar to this, I use 5/16 butted maille rings to hold it all together instead of wire though. the end effect looks almost identical, but it'sfloppy like leather instead of holding it's shape

mimisikokryptonite says: Aug 16, 2010. 7:56 AM REPDo you think you could post where to get that, because I'm looking to do something very similar to what you're describing, i just can't find enough rings!

armourkris says: Aug 16, 2010. 8:17 PM REPI made my rings. i just spent $5 on a roll of rebar tie wire and wrapped it around a bit of 5/16 bar stock to make my rings. you should be able to findboth at any reasonable hardware store. otherwise for pre-made rings I'd recommend www.theringlord.com

ekobor says: Feb 27, 2010. 2:34 PM REPThat sounds pretty cool. I would've done something similar to that, but I have several hundred meters of this wire on hand from an uncle... Free

materials are the best materials, eh?

Boowiggins says: Feb 27, 2010. 8:40 AM REPThis is the method I like best so far - glad I didn't go very far yet with other ones! Very consistent pattern and aesthetic to boot!

insomniaSAH says: Feb 26, 2010. 12:41 AM REPHoly crap thanks for posting this.

I've been looking for a proper Tabistry tutorial for what seems FOREVER (had it sort of figured out but kept starting in the wrong direction apparently for theeffect I was looking to achieve) and this is a life saver.

ekobor says: Feb 26, 2010. 7:22 PM REPxD Tabisty, I like that.

I'm glad you like it~ This method took a little trial and error, but it's been worth it.

servion says: Feb 26, 2010. 6:18 PM REPNice way to do it ;-), its good to see something new!I'll try this somewhen this summer