How to make Chains from Soda Can Tabs

whether you’re going for bling swagger
or just looking for a different way to
decorate you might be surprised at what
you can do with the tabs from your soda
cans in this project we’re upcycling
these marvels of engineering into
lightweight aluminum chains for this
project I swung by a local recycling
depot and picked up a whole load of soda
can tabs for free now let’s get started
by breaking off the rivet mounts for
each of the tabs we want to use then
stack five of them together so they’re
all aligned this will be the first link
in our chain and you can see I turn the
smooth shiny surfaces so they’re facing
outward now if we take a pair of
scissors and carefully cut a slit
through the thinner end this gives us
the ability to gently pry it open
creating a small gap now all you have to
do is push the hook through the thicker
end of our chain link and bend the metal
back to close the gap it’s as easy as
that just repeat the process again until
you’ve got five tabs secured in place
and double check the sides to make sure
they’re smooth if you want a longer
chain just continue the process by
cutting five tabs at a time and linking
them onto the end once you get the hang
of it there’s so much you can do with
the idea for example you could try
making yourself a custom keychain or
maybe even a wallet chain that’s pretty
awesome how about a metallic wristband
like this you can see I linked the chain
to itself so the piece is completely
seamless now because our chain is
aluminum it’s amazingly lightweight but
still strong enough to replace my belt
how’s that for swagger if you’re feeling
especially adventurous try closing your
chain off with a padlock and throwing it
around your neck I ended up using this
one as a picture frame and I bet you
could use the same idea for framing a
license plate as well by the way make
sure you hang on to your colored tabs
they can add a lot of variety to pump up
your style well now you know how to
engineer these common soda tabs into
lightweight metallic chains now what
they’re used for is completely up to you
that’s it for now
if you liked this project perhaps you’ll
like some of my others check them out at
the king of random calm
[Music]