Chain lubricants

[stevec1975]

Is this crockpot suitable/big enough to do a chain (or a few at a time)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crock-Pot-Remo ... 938&sr=8-6

[TobinHatesYou]

Is this crockpot suitable/big enough to do a chain (or a few at a time)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crock-Pot-Remo ... 938&sr=8-6

If that’s equivalent to a 2qt crockpot, then yes it should be able to do at least 3 chains at once, possibly 4.

[Roadbiker10]

I am finaly at the point of crossing over to wac. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the chain completely clean, as I've struggled with it in the past.

I had it in degreaser(force bike degreaser) 3-4 times and each time I left it in there for a day. That still didn't do it. Then I bought a small cheaper ultrasonic cleaner(55w 850ml). Ran it in there 4x10min with boiling water and a bit of dish soap. That didn't strip it completely either. So I got a tip to leave it in mineral spirits(white spirits), for a day. That's where I'm at right now, I'm waiting for it until tomorrow.

Do I have to use alcohol after? If so, what kind of alcohol? Is it isopropyl alcohol?

I had an idea. Would it be useful to blast it with air from a compressor? To dry it. Otherwise how long does it need to fully dry? Maybe the blast from the compressor will just lift dust from the floor and make it worse.

[Mocs123]

I just waxed my first two chains and I followed Molten Speed Wax's directions and was super pleased with how clean I was able to get the new Dura Ace chains. Cliff Notes version:
Mineral Spirits Bath #1 - shake vigorously for a couple of minutes
Mineral Spirits Bath #2 - shake for one minute - leave chain submerged in bath for 24 hours, shake again for one minute the following day.
Wipe down with clean lint free cloth
Mineral Spirits Bath #3 - shake vigorously for a couple of minutes - this one should be really clean.
Wipe down with clean lint free cloth - if dirty do another mineral spirits bath
Denatured Alcohol Bath #1 - Shake for a couple of minutes (this is to remove the mineral spirits residue)
Wipe down with a clean lint free cloth ( a differnt one than used for the mineral spirits)
Denatured Alcohol Bath #2 - Shake for a couple of minites
Remove chain and let dry before waxing

Note - it's OK to leave the chain in Mineral Spirits overnight but not Denatured Alcohol as DA has some water content.

Cleaning the chain was a process but it really worked. I cleaned my chain before breaking it for size (not recomeneded) so I have seven links that I cleaned that were left over. I took them apart with a chain breaker just to check them and no signs of oil in between any of the pins or rollers. Super Clean.

[tleo]

Do I have to use alcohol after? If so, what kind of alcohol? Is it isopropyl alcohol?

Probably don't have to but it gets rid of any spirits left over from the mineral spirits. Ethanol of isopropyl will both work fine. I use 91% isopropyl because I always have a few bottle of it around and it's cheap.

[Roadbiker10]

I just waxed my first two chains and I followed Molten Speed Wax's directions and was super pleased with how clean I was able to get the new Dura Ace chains. Cliff Notes version:
Mineral Spirits Bath #1 - shake vigorously for a couple of minutes
Mineral Spirits Bath #2 - shake for one minute - leave chain submerged in bath for 24 hours, shake again for one minute the following day.
Wipe down with clean lint free cloth
Mineral Spirits Bath #3 - shake vigorously for a couple of minutes - this one should be really clean.
Wipe down with clean lint free cloth - if dirty do another mineral spirits bath
Denatured Alcohol Bath #1 - Shake for a couple of minutes (this is to remove the mineral spirits residue)
Wipe down with a clean lint free cloth ( a differnt one than used for the mineral spirits)
Denatured Alcohol Bath #2 - Shake for a couple of minites
Remove chain and let dry before waxing

Note - it's OK to leave the chain in Mineral Spirits overnight but not Denatured Alcohol as DA has some water content.

Cleaning the chain was a process but it really worked. I cleaned my chain before breaking it for size (not recomeneded) so I have seven links that I cleaned that were left over. I took them apart with a chain breaker just to check them and no signs of oil in between any of the pins or rollers. Super Clean.

Thanks. I ptobably won't need to do it so many times because I did basically the same as you but with degreaser.

So I take it that you shouldn't use water at any time? I rinsed mine if with water after the degreaser and used boiling water in the ultrasound cleaner. Is there a potential issue with using water? I planned on rinsing mine with water after the mineral spirits. Is that a strict no no?

I'll see then if I can get the alcohol.

I have this. This is for disinfecting surfaces. Is there a chance this could be used?

[Mocs123]

My experiance with degreaser is that it leaves some sort of film, so the alcohol bath should get rid of that.

The ony issue with useing water is any time is rust. After you strip the factory oil/grease off there is nothing to keep the chain from rusting. If you are waxing immediately after cleaning it probably isn't an issue but if you wait a day or two you'll likely have surface rust if you use water.

[Roadbiker10]

My experiance with degreaser is that it leaves some sort of film, so the alcohol bath should get rid of that.

The ony issue with useing water is any time is rust. After you strip the factory oil/grease off there is nothing to keep the chain from rusting. If you are waxing immediately after cleaning it probably isn't an issue but if you wait a day or two you'll likely have surface rust if you use water.

My chain also needs to be shortened. So I will be putting the Silca wax on before I leave it in the shop for them to shorten the chain and other stuff that needs to be done on the bike.

I actually always had issues with rust both on my chain and DA cassette last year. The cassette had rust on the last few gears already a couple of months after I got it new. Now I'm thinking it was because water was left after washing.

[usr]

I'd call that overthinking. Just do an 80% job and deal with slightly increased gunk buildup during the first few applications. If you insist on immersion waxing which I suspect is much less tolerant of trace grease because it doesn't come in what might be called a "vector solvent" that helps displacing traces, start with drip, then switch to immersion once a few rounds of drip wax have taken the traces with them.

[Roadbiker10]

I'd call that overthinking. Just do an 80% job and deal with slightly increased gunk buildup during the first few applications. If you insist on immersion waxing which I suspect is much less tolerant of trace grease because it doesn't come in what might be called a "vector solvent" that helps displacing traces, start with drip, then switch to immersion once a few rounds of drip wax have taken the traces with them.

I don't intend to do any immersion if you're talking about my post. I will only be using Silca dripwax. I'm not going that far, at least not for this year. So I gather you mean with only dripwax, it's less important to get it superclean. That's good to hear.

[usr]

I do think so, yes. I'm assuming that the "carrier fluid" that drip wax are using to their payload inside the chain wouldn't be an *entirely* bad choice for cleaning out the grease and of you don't do a perfect job you still get a reasonable result, just not quite as good as pretty it might be. Massive improvement over untreated for the first minutes spent with a degreaser but then diminishing returns. (I imagine that immersion could me much closer to a threshold situation)

[Eterna7m]

If you're doing multiple rounds of solvents, what do y'all do with the leftovers?
I have one big jar with some leftover that I sometimes Filtrate and use as a first round but that's one of the reasons I usually immerse only once and then use drip because I don't wanna deal with the solvents again.

[warthog101]

We have a slow combustion wood fire.
I just tip it out on the stack of firewood.

[joshatsilca]

I'd call that overthinking. Just do an 80% job and deal with slightly increased gunk buildup during the first few applications. If you insist on immersion waxing which I suspect is much less tolerant of trace grease because it doesn't come in what might be called a "vector solvent" that helps displacing traces, start with drip, then switch to immersion once a few rounds of drip wax have taken the traces with them.

I don't intend to do any immersion if you're talking about my post. I will only be using Silca dripwax. I'm not going that far, at least not for this year. So I gather you mean with only dripwax, it's less important to get it superclean. That's good to hear.

The cleaner the chain is initially, the better the results will be, but it's definitely diminishing returns, and over time, the chain will 'layer up' all the same with the drip wax and you will be fine. I do 2 bottles of mineral spirits and 1 final shake in acetone for both hot wax and drip wax and even in our lab, you can't really see a difference between that and a full 4-5 stage ultrasonic cleaning in terms of performance or initial longevity of the lube application. And remember, it's better to leave a bit of residual factory grease in the chain than to leave solvent residue behind that could attack the wax or prevent adhesion.

Also, as noted, drip waxes all have an evaporative carrier, most use water, ours uses water with a bit of alcohol to speed drying. Because of this, we recommend 2 applications over 24 hours for the first application, in the case of SILCA, the wax is about 30% carrier (some brands are as much as 50% carrier) so after the carrier evaporates, the chain is only 70% full of the lube. Doing a second application will fill the voids left by the carrier taking the chain to more like 90% full of the lube after the carrier of the second application evaporates. From here, you can just wipe the chain after each ride to remove surface contaminates and wax that is being squeezed out of the chain, and then add more wax every 250-300km or so.

Lastly, you can filter mineral spirits and acetone through coffee filters to remove the oils and particulates left behind. Doing so, you can get pretty remarkable life out of these chemicals, for home use, you should be able to get years of use from a single gallon of mineral spirits and acetone.

[mrlobber]

Lastly, you can filter mineral spirits and acetone through coffee filters to remove the oils and particulates left behind. Doing so, you can get pretty remarkable life out of these chemicals, for home use, you should be able to get years of use from a single gallon of mineral spirits and acetone.

Good idea, how didn't I think about this before