Originally Posted by
kingston
Not nitpicking, I'm genuinely confused by this thread because I have no idea what people are talking about when they use the same words for different things and different words for the same things. After following this thread, I still have no idea how I would go about formulating my own wax-based lube.
You can use straight paraffin wax, melted , and just soak your chain in it until it creeps into every nook and cranny. This works well but is a bit of a pain because you need to remove the chain and resoak it in hot wax to re apply. This leaves hard chunks of wax on the chain which will fall off when its flexed.
or you can add teflon powder to your wax to add lubricity to your wax.Teflon, or,T
etrafluoroethylene, is a powder in this instance, also called Ptfe.
You can add lamp oil, also called paraffin oil , to the wax. This softens the wax so it's not so brittle. Kind of like thick slush. It stays attached to the chain better and gets into spaces easier. In the oz video he dips a butter knife into the wax/paraffin oil mixture, and cools it by running it under cold water. Then he test its consistency with his thumb nail to see if it clings to the steel. Plain wax tends to peel off clean. Mixed in the right measure it smears but stays on the steel like a lubricant should.
The above methods all need heat to liquify the wax, first,to mix the ingrediants together. If you use any.and second, to apply it to the chain.
Some folks use an evaporating solvent as a carrier to assist the now desolved wax in application onto the chain. The solvent evaporates and leaves behind the wax, wax/oil, or, wax/oil/teflon,(whichever you choose) mix, on, and in the chain. In the Oz videos he uses xylene. I hate the smell of xylene, and have switched to Naptha, also called camp stove fuel, or lighter fluid, which is a further refinement of mineral spirits I believe.
Some others add motor oil to the mixture, but, to me that defeats the purpose of using wax. I like wax because it stays clean. Oil attracts grit and just makes a big slimey mess.
One last thing about completely dissolving the wax in.a carrier, and this is just my opinion. By the time you cut the wax 6 to 1 to liquify it there isn't enough wax left in the resulting mixture to properly lubricate the chain after the carrier evaporates. I like 3 to one and heat the bottle up in hot water to aid in its application. More wax = more better.
hope this clears things up for you.