Using Sissy Rails on the hammer | Power Hammers and Presses | Forum

I dont have a chain link attachment, no- but depending on what shape of chain link you wanted, it certainly could make chain links.
If you mean just making circles, sure, it makes those.
I have made a jig for it, and dies, to roll 20 foot pieces of steel into springs, which I cut into circles. I have dies to do circles from about 2" up to about 12" diameters. In material up to maybe 1/2" round or square. Its fun to just toss in a 12 footer of 3/8" stainless round, and it coils it up in 30 seconds or so.

If you mean oval chain links- I could make oval dies for it, I suppose- and roll endless oval springs just as easily, and chop them off one at a time.

I also have the scroll head attachment for it, and, it would be quite possible to make a die for that that made bigger ovals- Hot, I would imagine up to 1 1/2" or 2" round wouldnt be a problem. Not exactly battleship chain, but decent sized.

If you mean itty bitty little rings for chain mail- then, no, the Hebo is a bit overkill for that. Its a 5hp or so, 10 rpm, electronically braked CNC motor- controllable to 1 degree of rotation, and with enough torque to twist 1 1/2" hot rolled square steel cold.
For 1/2" diameter circles made of 28 gage wire, you can make a hand cranked jig that clamps in a vise, you dont need a HEBO.

The Hebo machine is worth it if you have the work for it.
They are very expensive, but what they do, they do very well.

I had a job a couple of years ago where I needed to make about 900 scrolls, ranging in size from 8" in diameter to 24" in diameter, from 1/2 round stainless bar. First, I textured all the stainless, hundreds of feet of it, then I forged the ends. All power hammer work.
But I used the Hebo to make the scrolls. I had 6 different sizes of scroll- but I could use one die on the Hebo, and we could crank out a couple dozen an hour. Making those by hand would certainly have been possible, but a LOT more work, and a lot more man hours, which I pay for, one way or another.
So in that case, the Hebo sure was worth it.

I have had other projects where I twisted hundreds of parts, all the same, or, hundreds of parts, every one different, where, again, it saved months of time.

I dont do enough production work to really justify the Hebo- but I like it, and I had a big job that paid for it.
Most places that have em run stock thru em 8 hours a day, places like King Architectural metals, the big supplier for cut and paste gate builders.
For me, its more an expensive luxury- but it can do stuff so quickly, and so well, that many other tools could not approach.

Like any tool, you can use it to do boring production work, or, you can push the limits and make interesting stuff with it.
Grant, for example, makes truly unique tools, using the same milling machine and EDM that many shops would use to make boring widgets. It aint the tool, its the user.

I will be bringing the Hebo, and using it, in my demo at the spring conference of the NWBA, in Mt. Vernon.