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What you need to do is mill up a set of jaw inserts/dies for the Channellock pliers. The lower die would have a Tee shaped slot in it, this slot would do 2 things. First it would keep the chain in the proper orientation as it went through what are effectively crimping dies, and second by controlling the overall depth of this slot you could control how much you mashed the chain. If you and the elves are sneaky enough, you could do a bunch of links in one squeeze - depending on the rigidity of the dies.Put the chain in the crimping dies, squeeze the handle to mash the links, pull in fresh links, then lather - rinse - repeat until you're done. Of course once you've done all the chain once, you'll need to twist the chain 90° and do it all again so that you get ALL the links. It's either that or squeeze - twist - squeeze - twist, etc... Which just sounds like a hassle to me.Don
I would imagine that any of the slip-joint type pliers would also flop around like that. If you ever have to do something like that again try either an old linesman's pliers or an old needle nose pliers. Maybe they would have a more stable pivot point?Don
A clear instance of a lack of leadership here. As manager ( yea, I know you hate to think of yourself as manager) but with a lack of clear management the elves have taken it upon them selves to make command level decisions on important issues. Consider yourself lucky that you caught this in time and adverted a tragedy. I hope that in the future you will take your management responsibilities, regarding the elves, seriously. They are somewhat like dogs; lacking clear leadership, they will assume that responsibility themselves. Come’on Chris. Step up to the plate. They just need a little leadership.