Symox

Tried it, this works great thanks!

procrit

Honestly, it was hard to tell. Darkish for sure, but also the color of the crockpot is black so I didn't think anything of it. I set the chain on top of the cold wax and turned the crock pot on. When I came to get it out like 45 mins later it was that color...

holytrousers

How many miles does a waxed chain perform better before it needs rewaxing ?

terrymorse 

This is an excerpt from Zero Friction Cycling - Lubricant Testing:




...the "JUMP POINT". This is the moment in the test where the chain wear rate measures change from zero or minimal wear, to a notable wear jump. This signifies when the lubricant treatment is effectively done. Whilst it may continue for some hundreds of km's from that point until it reaches wear rate limit, this JUMP POINT denotes when there will be a marked increase in friction losses for that lubricant. Once hardened steel parts begin to wear at a noticeable rate - friction losses have jumped.

seypat

After reading through the thread, not as easy as this:

holytrousers

which one of them would correspond to plain paraffin wax ? The AB graphene wax ? Aren't these tests made in a clean environment?

datlas 

This thread is lasting longer than a waxed chain!

seypat

Still some wick left.

Polaris OBark

You are supposed to take the beef stroganoff out of the crock pot before you put your block of wax in it.

Branko D

None. Plain paraffin wax without any additives is worse than the tested waxes.

seypat

For those of us that haven't tried waxing, what kind of a result is this? How close is it to a good job?

Symox

There are different grades of Paraffin wax. The purer (less mineral oil content) the better for this application and the more expensive it is. Food grade wax (like Gulf Wax used for canning) has been used by many with good results. I don't know how it compares to recipes with additives.

Candle wax is cheaper and has more mineral oil in it but doesn't perform as well for chains. I don't recall why I just know that is one of the issues with DIY waxing.

Lab grade wax I read is the purest and supposedly is what some of the pre made chain waxing products are based on.

yaw

Any chance the paraffin base overheated? I recall that yellowing is a sign of ruined wax through overheating and loses its properties.

Here is a pic of two freshly waxed and dried chains




Degreasing chains sucks, but fortunately this is a one-off process.

To loosen the chain you can run it over a round piece of wood or plastic, like a broom handle, much quicker and easy on your hands if you have too much wax on the chain. If it's pulled out and dripped hot then breaking the links is much easier. As you can see in the image above, there aren't any long stalactites or fat drops forming at the bottom and the surface is coated but not caked.

I never wax the quick links. The hole the pins go into is waxed with the chain and will lubricate that link. If you don't wax these then you won't have to scrape the little grooves free and can just go ahead and connect it up.

To reduce the amount of flaking on your freshly coated chain, pull it from the hot wax and let it drip off immediately while the wax is very liquid. Some people do some semi-cooled pull-out or double dip method to get as much wax onto it as possible but that's just an external mess and won't change how much wax is retained inside as that is coated and stays in place even if you pull it out at its hottest. If you are doing that anyway then the amount of residue is just what you will have to live with, just don't backpedal it all off at home as it will fall off on the first ride anyway and then you can just brush the chainstays and RD to get rid of the flakes that landed there if they bother you.

yaw

It is absolutely abnormal, see my picture above how a normal waxed chain looks like. It also leaves the cassette and chainrings clean and does not change in appearance over time (i.e., does not darken or discolour).

SoSmellyAir

Polaris OBark yaw If I don't wax the chain with the Quick Link in place, would there be too much wax on the inner plates for me to install the Quick Link later?

For reference, I am using plain Gulf Wax with no additives. I also bought a bag of Silca Secret Chain Blend but have not opened it since the Gulf Wax seems to be doing OK.

yaw

You can just push the quick link pins through and it will push out any wax that may have dried in there out the other side. That usually does not get anything into the quick link pin grooves either but if your Gulf Wax (I am not familiar) is a bit softer/stickier than the commercial bike wax stuff and gunks up the grooves still then just use the back of a toothpick to clear the wax from the last roller out before popping in the quick link pin. That's what I did before I discovered that I can just skip that step and push the quick link through without issues. I never tried waxing the quick links because I read one shouldn't do it when researching the topic precisely because it blocks it up. Just try leaving them out and you'll see that what stays inside the chain (after you popped out the wax plug from the last pin) will suffice to lubricate it perfectly and it's just going to pop on without complaints.

Polaris OBark

I've never waxed the quick-link. I just remove the wax from the ends, put the pins in a few times to push out the residual wax, and then close it with the Park tool.

holytrousers

Hmmm, it doesn't look like an interesting lubricant if i need to rewax twice a week then..

yaw

What distance do you ride per week?

holytrousers

I commute 90km, which averages to 450km weekly.

yaw

You could run a number of chains and batch wax them once every few weeks if you would like to go that way. Unless you also commute a lot in the wet, then it would be annoying.

holytrousers

Conditions are mostly hot, dry and dusty, so waxing sounds like the better alternative, but if it's benefits were to last for a day or two, it does discourage me as i feel lazy after commuting to spend time for chain maintenance.
If i follow your method, i would need two slow cookers, one for the dirty chain, one with clean wax, and two more chains, that's a lot of money to invest. Is it really worth it? i might consider it some day... the idea does look promising.

datlas 

I don't see what you did there.

yaw

I use a single pot with multiple chains. I just wipe them with a microfibre (dry or with a couple of sprays of isopropyl on the cloth) to remove surface dust before taking them off the bike. I then store them in a drawer until it is time to wax them all. Then they go on hangers (see pic above) and get swished together and hung up to cool above the pot. I then store the waxed chains and put them on the bike as needed. Even without doing the whole two pot method, the wax will stay good for many months of intense riding. I use 4 of the Molten Speedwax pucks but you can also use less and change more often but the extra fill level makes it easier to chuck a few chains in on top of each other.

If you are still concerned about contamination, you can put a little metal steam rack in to keep the chains off the bottom where all the particles would settle. Every now and then you could also let the wax solidify a bit and collect the top layer, then discard the bottom of the pot wax and put the top layer back in. In practice I can't see a reason for the two pot method unless one has or wants two pots with enough space to just leave them set up side by side on a dedicated wax station.

If you hit the odd wet weather situation, the extra step would be to put the chain in a container and pour some boiling water over it to flush it, then you can just wax it as usual. I flush and wax wet ride chains right away to prevent rust. If that is inconvenient, a hard drying wax lube like the Silca Super Secret or UFO drip will be suitable to coat it for protection until you can get to hot waxing.

As for the multiple chain thing, unless you plan on hanging up your bike shoes any time soon, you will buy these chains anyway. So if you buy them all now and rotate them, you will use them in parallel and make your other drivetrain components last even longer because worn chains are the number one thing eating away on chainrings and cogs. It would take a seriously long time, even with your kms, to get 2-3 waxed chains to the 0.5 replacement mark. In terms of investment, basic crockpots can be had for incredibly low prices but I do use a digital Philips all-in-one multi cooker on 'Slow Cook Low Temp' because it heats up much faster.

datlas 

This thread could be (a) sticky.