Chain waxing question
 

What size crockpot would you recommend?

A size that fits the coiled up chain and enough wax to cover the chain. Usually far smaller a pot than what most meals would be cooked in. Do you have a store that sells kitchenware near you to check out? Andy

Thanks Andy, I’m looking at used crockpots online. Saw a 1 quart version…..probably large enough?

Coil up a chain and measure to see how big a pot bottom you need. Andy

I bought a 1.5qt crockpot on Amazon - cost me ~$14 IIRC. A 1.5 liter pot is about the same capacity.

For scale, you can put a chain in the bottom of a 20 oz (600 mL) Gatorade bottle and the chain doesn’t fill the bottle much past the half way point. 20oz is only a bit over a pint. A one quart crockpot would be more than enough. Finding one that size is going to be difficult, however. Most likely your are going to find all kinds of 4 quart ones.

Go to a thrift store and buy a used one. It’s not worth buying one on-line.

the smallest one works for me. $14 at target.

I recommend saving your money and using a mix of chainsaw bar oil and 4 parts mineral spirits on a cleaned chain. I gave up on hot wax a couple of decades ago because it was a pain and needed to be refried after a ride in the rain.

I must be doing it wrong as it is super easy and takes no time at all. I wonder what the heck I am doing wrong?

Whatever size your local thrift store has on hand.

But seriously, mine is a small 2 quart Crock Pot. $5 at Goodwill. You may want to use a larger one if you are going to use a hanger or do multiple chains.

Get the smallest pot you can and use just enough wax to cover the chain. Don't make the mistake I made and got a medium sized pot with way too much wax. now it takes me a whole hour + just to heat the wax up, and even worse- well more than an hour to wait for it to cool down.
Actually let me amend that to - just enough wax to reach where the heating coils are. I don't know about other Crockpots, but mine seems to have the heating coil on the SIDES of the pot roughly a third of the way up the sides. I have no idea why they design it like that. Seems like a really stupid design. So anyways, the wax needs to at least reach where the heating coils are.

Last year I bought a 2 quart Crock-Pot from Wally World for a whopping $10. I checked their website today it seems they've replaced the CP brand 2 qt model with their own Mainstays brand for the same price. Capacities of slow cooker pots is always less than stated. Two quart would be the smallest size I'd use as the inner pot is tapered, so a chain coiled takes up most of the bottom. If you wanted to have room to move the chain around an oval 3-4 quart one would be great.

The one you have.

You know, the one in the basement that you bought 20 years ago to make chili and pulled BBQ but hasn't been out of the dark since bolt-on aero bars were a thing.

I've been using a wax warmer (for removing hair) that I bought for heating accordion wax - 0.5l capacity and it's exactly the right size for 1 chain.

Not currently available on Amazon, but you can find something similar on the web.
https://www.amazon.com/Guckmall-Kit%...ct_top?ie=UTF8
It was £27 in 2018.

A very useful feature is you set the dial for 92C and just leave it until the wax melts and the chain drops in.

I use a modification of a method that was put forth years ago by a guy named Garth of the Bicycling magazine forums.

I heat up the chain in the oven to about 190 degrees in a pie pan, sprinkle it with a little powdered graphite, then rub it with a cake of wax. Turn it over and repeat.
Works fine, I don't have to deal with a pot of hot wax, and the most time-consuming part is waiting for the oven to come up to temperature.

But is the wax getting into the rollers where it's needed. I just throw my chains in the pot and go shoot a game of pool while it does its thing. By the time I return they're ready for a swish around the bottom and then hung up to cool while the pot is put away.:)

I bought a 1.5 Quart on Amazon for $14. I also bought a small round deep fryer basket/strainer that fits nicely into the slow cooker.

IMO I prefer a bigger crock pot over the very small one...I have one of each now...the larger one allows for easier 'swishing' of the chain in the oil bath while the smaller one did not.

I bought a small Crock Pot at my local GoodWill store. 2, 8oz blocks of wax exactly fit. So exact in fact that the chain displacement would cause an overflow. I stopped dropping in the chain, gave the wax pot a good stir and used a small Tupperware to remove about 4oz of wax.

1qt (16oz) is teetering on the edge of too small. It also requires a bit of care to get an entire chain to fit since the links are only flexible in one direction. A 1.5 quart is probably a better size.

I checked with a cooking thermometer. Mine holds at ~220 degrees farenheit. I don't know if that is good or bad. But it makes sense that it could be good to in the rare case a chain might have some moisture in/on it.

I've read somewhere that if you overheat the wax it will change it slightly and 92C (198 F) is around the ideal temperature.

Not at temperature or conditions you can get to in a crockpot. Paraffin is distilled from petroleum at 170°C to 310°C (338°F to 590°F). It has a flash point of of 200°C (390°F). It is also very stable chemically and doesn’t react with much of anything in the absence of some exotic catalysts.

That makes sense that mine would be a little warm. I am right next to the interstate transmission substation that feeds the distribution substation next to the neighborhood stepdown transformer. I literally have a 115,000 volt line above my driveway. Consequently my 220v electricity is closer to 245 & my 110v 124-125volts on any given day. That alone could make the resistive element heat the Crock Pot a few degrees warmer. Since there really isn't any controls in the thing and they have to make it for most consumers 110-115v nominal supply.

You're almost certainly correct.
I was going from stuff like this
..
From https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/wor...to-wax-a-chain
That could well be something particular to Speed Wax, or just complete b*ll*cks.

Looks like there's some concern about too much paraffin vapour as that's flamable.

Ah, carp. Everything was fine before I knew. Now that I know, Imma hafta install a resistor in line to voltage drop a bit so it equalizes at a better temp. Oh, the pains of living in the first world.

This should be fun.

You might be fine, I think a lot of people put a pan of wax in boiling water to keep the temperature stable.
That would suggest 212F is fine

That might be an issue if you do it on a gas cooker though - paraffin vapour..