How well do you know your 3 letter words ?

Can you construct a chain of 3 letter words such that the last 2 letters of the first word, are the first two letters of the second word. The last 2 letters of the second word are the first two letters of the third... etc. 

Or to put it another way, add one letter onto the end of the line always making a valid 3 letter word with the last three letters .

Example :

QAT

QATE    (AT shared between qAT and ATe)

QATEA  (TE shared between aTE and TEa)

QATEAR   (EA shared between tEA and EAr) 

etc...

until 

Q A T E A R E M O W E X O

Here the line stops as there are no 3 letter words that start XO.

How long a line can you make without using the blanks ? Or with the blanks ?

You may use a word multiple times in your chain, and as a hint to get a really long line you may find QAT, QIS or QIN useful start points.

Can you get 40 letters ? 50 ? 60 ? more ?

If you are unfamiliar with all the valid 3 letter words, then there is a handy list on the ABSP website here : http://www.absp.org.uk/words/study3lw.shtml

Good luck!