We are fortunate that we are able to save ourselves tremendous amounts of time and money by simply being able to purchase large quantities of pre-made steel wire, complete with rust resistant galvanization, instead of having to forge our own. Unfortunately, the process from that point on remains a long and tedious operation. The only major advance in chainmail production that has been made in the past few centuries is the addition of a power drill in the winding procedure.
Before we can begin winding wire into metal springs we have to build a frame to hold the mandrel (dowel) during the process. To do this we need the three (3) hardwood boards, the four (4) wood nails, the four (4) square brackets, and the drill.
First drill a 3/8" hole in each of the two smaller boards, four inches from the bottom and 1 3/4" from the side (this should place the hole on the central axis of the board as shown.) Next place the two boards on their ends, centered, at a distance of 1 3/4" from the ends of the larger base block (as shown.) Fix these boards in place from the underside of the base board using the 1 1/2" wood nails.
To ensure that the frame will be strong enough to hold up to the rather large forces that you will be exerting on it, it is necessary to attach square brackets on each side of the side boards (as shown.)
Finally, you will need to drill a small 1/16" diameter hole in the 5/16" steel dowel, about 4 1/2" from one end. To do this you might want to put the dowel in some sort of clamp to keep it from slipping.
