How chicken wire is made

Here's a mesmerizing Gabion machine, a massive loom that weaves chicken wire fencing out of wire. Machine grace ahoy.

Chicken Wire Fabrication - Video (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: maker • manufacturing • video • youtube

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The Snowden Principle

http://twitter.com/KnightNZ Steve Wells

The incredible engineering involved in making something as “simple” as chicken-wire. Thanks Cory.
Cowicide

I get the feeling that chicken wire machine could kill us all if it wanted to.
- rabidpotatochip
  
  I think the same thing about our office coffee maker. Judging by the flavor, I have no doubt it’s tried.
Erin W

Segments like these were my favorite part of watching “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” as a child. Thanks, Cory!
- relawson
  
  Mine too! Which is why I love “How it’s made” on science channel.
jramboz

So chicken wire ISN’T made from real chickens? Well I suppose that explains the flavor…
- PhosPhorious
  
  Yeah, I had always imagined a big machine where chickens go in one end, and wire comes out the other.
  
  I’m a little disappointed. . . .
  - Snig
    
    In the Boonies you can still find aged old school fencemongers who will knit a chicken into a fence for you. Though some have switched over and use powdered chicken bullion and 3d printers.
  - Guy Dawson
    
    You won’t want to hear the truth about baby oil then…
- http://www.tumbleweed.net/ tyger11
  
  “But I won’t want to be a wire. I don’t like electricity!” Okay, wrong type of wire, but still…
http://www.theblacklaser.net/ Joe The Wizard

Wow, I can honestly say I have never in my entire life wondered how chicken wire is made. That’s not to say I don’t think this is interesting, but it’s something I’ve never even thought about.
- flosofl
  
  The best part was the realization (upon seeing the first close up), “Even though I’ve never wondered how it was made, THAT’S how it’s done. And why the hell HAVEN’T I wondered how it was made?”
Chuck

Isn’t that what the Enterprise was up against in that Tholian Web episode?
relawson

Q: Know why a chicken coop has two doors?

A: Because if it had four doors it would be a chicken sedan!

Chicken wire holds a special place with champions like duct tape, wd-40, and vice grips.
- http://twitter.com/ColumbusArea Adolph Marx
  
  You must need to get a grip on yer vices…
- Bill Heffner
  
  Interestingly, most cities now prohibit the use of duct tape in installing or repairing ductwork. It dries out over time, a process which is accelerated by the warmth of heat ducts, and falls off. So the one thing which duct tape no longer ever is, is duct tape.
foobar

That is oddly mesmerizing.

Edit: dur, I’m an idiot who didn’t read below the video.
- Culturedropout
  
  Yeah… And it’s oddly mesmerizing, too… ;-)
Flashman

That’s not chicken wire. It’s a much heavier gauge of wire that they use to make gabion baskets. And if you don’t know what gabion baskets are, well… I guess it doesn’t matter.
- kartwaffles
  
  Yep, it’s for HESCO’s, although calling them that is kind of like saying “Kleenex” for facial tissues. Oh well. They’re HESCO’s, dang it.
Flashman

These are gabion baskets (used fantastically):
http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8264&stc=1&d=1134404946
http://www.appliedesoterics.com bfarn

I could quite literally watch that forever
Ray V

Also why many predators unravel chicken wire and eat hens. Best to go with something welded if you’re looking for security at night.
methodius

The rhythmic noise that machine makes would make a perfect sample for a hip-hop beat.
http://www.mechastewart.com/ Mark Stewart

But now the chicken know how it’s made! Posting videos like this threatens our national security. It’s only a matter of time before they create a chicken wire un-looming machine. Then, we’ll be doomed. Doomed I tells ya!
phiis161803

I agree this is an engineering accomplishment but, i donno, doesn’t it seem to be running a bit slowly? I’ve seen mints print money much faster.
I can’t help but think that if someone would need miles of this stuff that at the shown manufacture rate this chicken wire would be relatively pricey.

Perhaps is it being run at a lower speed for photographic purposes.
- spejic
  
  Yeah, but it’s a dead simple machine that doesn’t need a break and it’s doing it constantly 24 hours a day. I looks like it does about an inch a second, but that is over 2000 meters a day. In a week it will be over 9 miles long.
  - http://www.tumbleweed.net/ tyger11
    
    And that’s just with one machine. I’m fairly certain there is more than one. :)
- glatt1
  
  I agree. I was about to make the same comment. That’s incredibly slow. I bought a roll of chicken wire fencing in the spring and was wondering how it was made, so I’m pleased to see this video. But my roll would have taken something like 10 minutes to manufacture. That’s so long!
- Bill Heffner
  
  Ever watch a machine make nails? You want fast, I think that might satisfy your need for speed. Wire goes in one end, there are about eight levers flying in from all directions hammering on the wire so fast you can barely see them, and nails fly out into a chute at such high speed they are just a blur. Something like 1000 nails per second. Yes, that’s per second. A 4000# spool of wire feeding the machine lasts only a few minutes.
http://orbitnet.com JIMWICh

The rhythm it makes sounds like a standard blues lick.

(lick)
I can bring home the bacon…
(lick)
Fry it up in a pan…
- Allison McGurk
  
  I was just going to say something similar but you beat me to it. That percussion section inspires me to write some music.
  - 3William56
    
    I thought this is where Dubstep came from.
winter67uk

Jeez, that whole production setup looks way too accessible. If only there was some way to cordon it off to keep the workers safe? You’d need some sort of light-weight, highly light-permeable, yet strong and flexible barrier material. Don’t know what to suggest….
- gijoel
  
  Transparent aluminum?
CountZero

Hypnotic, I love machines like this, the mechanical poetry that goes into making a mundane, everyday object.
“The rhythmic noise that machine makes would make a perfect sample for a hip-hop beat.”
Place I used to work OT had an old Heidelberg platten press that was used to cut out printed card for folders and the like, and it had a wonderful rhythm, sort of ‘dum dum dash’ sound exactly like the beat and sound of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’. You could sing the song along with machine perfectly.
edi

who knew chicken wire could be so peaceful?
nixiebunny

As the posters above say, this isn’t chicken wire. It’s a lot bigger, and it’s woven differently.

Chicken wire has twists that don’t require the wire to be woven as this machine does. The adjacent wires are twisted a couple turns in one direction, then a couple turns in the other direction.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Chicken_Wire_close-up.jpg/1024px-Chicken_Wire_close-up.jpg

That said, it is a wonderful machine that would be just fine to listen to all day long.
Antinous / Moderator

Chicken wire is also used in antique bookcases, although it’s probably more accurate to call it rat wire in that case.
Culturedropout

Wow. That would certainly explain why it’s so darned expensive!
http://www.facebook.com/moosestudiospottery Moose Gueydan

The best rythmicly inspired machine is the overhaed Combination Spin Jenny and Loom. Complex rythms and a really cool back beat….
stasike

I do not know what you just did to BoingBoing, but, suddenly … videos on the main page work again. For a long time when I clicked on video in Firefox I saw the one that belonged to a post couple of weeks old.
Now, everything works
http://twitter.com/BadgerBeth Beth Cravens

Makes me miss the time when I worked in manufacturing.