Mystic Chains Tutorials

Step 1: First, you need to find a fairly fine-grained piece of wood, since the holes you will be drilling are very close together. Then mark the centers of the rings you'll be connecting to. This strip is 9 rings wide, 5 in one orientation, and 4 the other. I found it easier to do this for the EVEN numbers...
Step 2: After marking the centers of the rings, move the strip back, and verify they're correctly aligned.
Step 3: Then make a mark some smallish distance away, centered. This will be where your single-ring connector is located.
Step 4: After you've completed marking, drill a hole the size of your mandrel at each location, approximately half-way into the wood.
Step 5: At some point, you'll need to have the proper number of posts the same diameter as your mandrel. My mandrel is a bit shorter than it was. {grin} I like to have slightly different length posts, to make certain steps easier. (and maybe I didn't measure them anyway)
Step 6: First I insert the central post, and wrap tightly TWICE around it. In this case, with 17 gauge wire and 3/16" posts, I started with about 8 inches of wire. Take note that the tail on the right is on the bottom.
Step 7: Starting with the tail that is on the bottom, I proceed to wind outward across the 2 posts. I find it's easier if each post is slightly higher than the last. Getting the wire tight enough often requires a good tug with pliers.
Step 8: After finishing 1 side, I flip the partially completed connector left for right, and insert the 2 posts on the left. Now the OTHER tail is on the bottom, and I proceed exactly as in step 7.
Step 9: Make sure both tails and all loops are nice and tight, and then PUSH the whole thing against the wood to flatten it. Re-tighten, if necessary.
Step 10: This is what you get, after removing the posts. Note how each side starts from the central loop, and heads towards the CENTER of the connector. That is, the tail on the left emerges from the top of the doubled loop, and tends DOWNWARD through its outer loops, and the tail on the right emerges from the bottom of the doubled loop, and tends UPWARDS through its outer loops.
Step 11: Trim the tails, and flatten as much as possible, and you end up with this.
Step 12: Use the thing. In this case, I'm connecting 17 gauge, 3/16" aluminum rings on the right to 16 gauge, 1/4" stainless steel rings on the left. Note that this connector will not pull loose unless enough force is applied to open all 5 of the aluminum rings holding it to the ribbon.
Not A Step: This is just to show you what happens if you don't choose the proper side when beginning the outer loops. Note how difficult it would be to get this thing to lay flat enough to use. Contrast with Step 10.

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