Waxing your chain

[Sergeant Pluck]

I just use a retired lunchbox.

One thing to watch is that the temp of the wax doesn’t get too high. I think Silca recommend a lower max temp than some other waxes, I think they say too high a temp will damage the additives. Their website has lots of useful info. No need to go above the high 70s °C. And at the end of the process, once you have swizzled the chain around in the hot wax to your satisfaction, let it cool a little until a skin is just beginning to form, as that helps retain more wax when you slowly lift the chain out and hang it to cool above the slow cooker.

I also wax a quick link along with each chain.

I found prepping and waxing a new chain very straightforward and it’s a clean job. The time-consuming bit was getting the rest of the (not new) drivetrain completely oil-free. All the chain prepping will be a waste of time if the cassette and jockey wheels immediately contaminate it. You only need to do it once.

[Afasoas]

Thanks Mr. Sergeant Pluck.

The crock pot I've got on order cooks up to about 75-80 °C on the low setting. Guessing that's with the lid on. It's only rated at 120W (1.5l model) so it's probably not going to get that warm with the lid on.
Mr. ZFC recommends only doing the quick link the first time as the wax can build up around the base of the pins and make it difficult to snap on properly. (Also recons they are four or five times re-usable despite what the manufacturers say)
Fortunately the rest of the drive train hasn't been used yet, except in a bike stand so should clean up fairly easily.

[Sea of vapours]

The crock pot I've got on order cooks up to about 75-80 °C on the low setting. Guessing that's with the lid on. It's only rated at 120W (1.5l model) so it's probably not going to get that warm with the lid on.SNIP

That'll be with the lid OFF. ZFC says in a number of places that the lid should not be on or the wax will become too hot (on low, that is). I'm pretty sure Silca say that too. It's the wax itself which degrades if too hot, rather than the additives.

[sam]

Is this a euphemism?

That was my first reaction.

Belated acknowledgement of internet win of the day.

Bloody hell.

My reaction to doing anything to my chains that involves more than applying a bit of oil now and then.

[TheLurker]

I keep reading the thread title as "Waxing your chin" and wondering what's wrong with shaving.

[T42]

I keep reading the thread title as "Waxing your chin" and wondering what's wrong with shaving.

Chin's ok, it's the upper lip that's hell. Especially if you get it up your nose.

[Sergeant Pluck]

The crock pot I've got on order cooks up to about 75-80 °C on the low setting.

I use a kitchen thermometer. I don't use the lid. Put the chain on top of the unmelted wax before you switch on - then the chain heats up along with the wax which helps penetration.

[T42]

The crock pot I've got on order cooks up to about 75-80 °C on the low setting.

I use a kitchen thermometer. I don't use the lid. Put the chain on top of the unmelted wax before you switch on - then the chain heats up along with the wax which helps penetration.

A 20€ IR thermometer would save having to clean the thermometer, quoth the lazy man.

I used to put the chain on top of the wax but the PTFE powder sinks when it's cooling so nowadays I like to let it melt completely and give it a good stir before dunking the chain. My chain goes in warm anyway since the last stage of cleaning involves pouring a kettle of boiling water over it.

[AlexEaling]

Re Temperature for reference, I have burnt/ruined wax in my specific slow cooker by leaving it on too long on both 'high' and 'low' settings. 'Warm' seems to get to/hold at around 74 degrees, so may be a safer option. I have gone one step further than the IR thermometer and have one of these permanently in the pot set to between 84-88 degrees:

https://amzn.eu/d/6RQVPpg

Correspondence with MSW suggested getting the wax hot, but not beyond 93 degrees, so the above temperature range works with a margin for error.

Note that even 93 degrees is still under the boiling point for water, so putting chains in after rinsing without fully drying them could end up with a pool of water sitting under the wax (likely where you're swishing your chain around). Probably less of an issue if you're changing your wax regularly.

[T42]

Re Temperature for reference, I have burnt/ruined wax in my specific slow cooker by leaving it on too long on both 'high' and 'low' settings. 'Warm' seems to get to/hold at around 74 degrees, so may be a safer option. I have gone one step further than the IR thermometer and have one of these permanently in the pot set to between 84-88 degrees:

https://amzn.eu/d/6RQVPpg

Correspondence with MSW suggested getting the wax hot, but not beyond 93 degrees, so the above temperature range works with a margin for error.

Note that even 93 degrees is still under the boiling point for water, so putting chains in after rinsing without fully drying them could end up with a pool of water sitting under the wax (likely where you're swishing your chain around). Probably less of an issue if you're changing your wax regularly.

Could use that for a PID on my Europiccola.

Re 93° you're right, but it doesn't need to boil to evaporate, and it certainly gets encouraged to do that. I leave the chain in the wax for 2-3 hours, lifting it out occasionally to stir the pot.

My two chains have nearly 15,000 km between them, and still less that 0.5% stretch each.

[wooger]

- do you find that the UFO is just as good for chains that have had proper immersive waxing + maybe a top up or two with drip wax?

Hope I've understood correctly, but you don't need to apply any solvents or cleaning products to a chain you've previously immersion waxed and/or topped up with drip wax. Just maybe give it a wipe, pour boiling water over it to wash off any surface crap and then straight in a wax pot. That's one of the big wins vs oil.

What containers are people using for chain cleaning? I used to shake them up with detergent/degreaser in a 2 litre plastic milk bottle, but since we have milk delivered now, we don't get those anymore.
Thanks.

I find protein shaker bottles are pretty good, solid, cheap, and helpfully allow things like pouring off the liquid through the spout without losing the chain.

Don't use glass, I managed to break a mason jar shaking a chain.

Oh, and detergent / degreaser is rather poor vs. white spirit then meths/isopropyl alcohol. Thought the Silca and UFO chain strippers may work out less hassle and expense in the long run.

Also, Silca bought this out today which if it works as magically as it seems may make this a non-issue.
https://silca.cc/products/strip-chip

[pumpkin]

watched the Silca method on YT. Seems quite good. you get the vessel/wax and I think the degreaser and off you go.

[Afasoas]

I did do my first 'waxing' session. It was a bit messy.


I dug out two squash bottles from the recyling. Thoroughly rinsed them. Set them aside to dry.
Cut off the long piece of a wire coat hanger, fashioned one end into a hook and made another 90 degree bend in it else where. I figured I'd use that for fishing chains out of bottles and dropping the chains into the wax.

I put 100ml of UFO chain clean into each squash bottle.
I popped each chain in bottle 1, gave it a good shake and after three minutes fished them out.
I popped each chain in bottle 2, gave it a good shake and after three minutes fished them out.
I then rinsed all four chains well with water, dried them off with paper towels and finished them with the heat gun on a lowish to moderate setting to get them completely dry.

The Silca Secret Blend Chain wax went into the small Swan slow cooker, which was put on the slow setting. First chain placed on top.
I found I couldn't really fit anything through the chain to neatly drop it into and fish it out of the slow cooker - it really was just a little bit too small for that. I found myself fishing the chain out with the hook end of the makeshift tool.
And then I waited. It took a long time for the wax to melt. I periodically checked the wax temperature with an infrared thermometer. What I found was, that that the slow cooker did not distribute the heat very evenly.

When the wax melted, but before the temperature exceed 70 degrees, I removed the lid.
I went to fish the chain out, and found not all the wax had melted. All of the wax on top had melted, but the chain was immersed in a solid lump of molten wax.
So I left things longer still.

Eventually, the chain was no longer immersed in molten wax. I lifted the chain out with the makeshift tool. Ooops. Should let the makeshift tool get warm first otherwise I pull a load of wax out with it!
Hooked the chain about half way along it's length and held it up above the slow cooker whilst the excess wax dripped off. Wound up with solidify wax globules at either end of the chain.

When chain had cooled significantly, placed it down on top of some paper towel, mainly to make it look like I was trying to take some care, doing this in the kitchen.

Rinsed and repeated for the other three chains.
Put some of the chains down to soon and they stuck to the kitchen towel. It seemed to separate fairly easily though.

Unfortunately, the wax did get quite warm at one stage - north of 85 degrees C. I think some of it may have touched 90 degrees C at one point, but as I said, temperature wasn't evenlty distributed. Still, considerably more than stated in the slow cookers manual.

I seemed to wind up with a lot of wax on the chains - even without allowing for the wax to cool slightly before removing the chains. The plates seemed to be well covered.

Wiggled each link in one of the chains free. Re-installed it on the bike. With the bike and the stand, popped the bike into small-small and big-big, running the chain through a few times. Lots of small wax flakes everywhere.
Popped the others in sealed sandwhich bags for safe keeping.

All in all, not too bad. Took longer than expected.
Perhaps should not have cheaped out so much on the slow cooker.


Net cost of doing this:

• 3 x Ultegra 12 speed chains, found for £30 each; total £90^[1]
• 1 x Silca Secret Blend Hot Melt Wax - £44
• 1 x  CeramicSpeed UFO Eco-friendly Bike Drivetrain Cleaner 500ml - £22.99
• 1 x SWAN SF17010N 1.5 Litre Round Stainless Steel Slow Cooker - £14.99
• 1 x IR digital thermometer - loaned FoC

Total: 171.98

Haven't decided yet when I tend to cycle chains. I'm thinking ~200km - 300km.
Wondering if I should carry some of the drip wax in case I'm ever caught short ... but I understand that needs to be applied some time before the bike is ridden, so maybe not that useful.

[1]: from eBay; seem and look legit; usual RRP £50; 4th chain already on the, as yet unridden, bike