Chain Wax Discussion thread

What are you guys using for degreaser? My local home depot only had this on the shelf, but not sure I'm going to use it. If I'm gonna go out of my way to get something that wont cause issues with the chain I'll probably just get the Simple Green aerospace stuff, but I'm not having much luck finding that locally either.

www.homedepot.com

ZEP 1 Gallon Heavy-Duty Citrus Degreaser ZUCIT128 - The Home Depot

Remove grease, dirt and oil from ceramic, plastic and painted surfaces with this ZEP Heavy Duty Citrus Degreaser. Easy to use.
www.homedepot.com

1682540461885.png
 
rlb said:
What are you guys using for degreaser? My local home depot only had this on the shelf, but not sure I'm going to use it. If I'm gonna go out of my way to get something that wont cause issues with the chain I'll probably just get the Simple Green aerospace stuff, but I'm not having much luck finding that locally either.

www.homedepot.com

ZEP 1 Gallon Heavy-Duty Citrus Degreaser ZUCIT128 - The Home Depot

Remove grease, dirt and oil from ceramic, plastic and painted surfaces with this ZEP Heavy Duty Citrus Degreaser. Easy to use.
www.homedepot.com

View attachment 212344
Click to expand...
I used that, worked fine
 
rlb said:
What are you guys using for degreaser? My local home depot only had this on the shelf, but not sure I'm going to use it. If I'm gonna go out of my way to get something that wont cause issues with the chain I'll probably just get the Simple Green aerospace stuff, but I'm not having much luck finding that locally either.

www.homedepot.com

ZEP 1 Gallon Heavy-Duty Citrus Degreaser ZUCIT128 - The Home Depot

Remove grease, dirt and oil from ceramic, plastic and painted surfaces with this ZEP Heavy Duty Citrus Degreaser. Easy to use.
www.homedepot.com

View attachment 212344
Click to expand...

I used mineral spirits and then denatured alcohol.
 
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I also ordered that flower power wax.

Flowerpower Wax LP

Some examples of exclusive products developed by Effetto Mariposa: bicycle torque wrenches (Giustaforza family), accessories for tubeless (Caffélatex family) or for tubular tyres (Carogna family), protective tapes (Shelter family) and… much more. Everything is specifically designed for cycling...
www.effettomariposa.eu www.effettomariposa.eu

I don’t think I need to clean the old wax off first though. I think I can just wait for the current stuff to wear off and then apply this.
 
rlb said:
Glad to hear it. I was on the fence, it's a new chain so it'll only be in for a few minutes. Think I have everything I need now, just have to finish cleaning the cassette.
Click to expand...
I did the soak in minerals spirits over night, the orange degreaser in a bottle or ultrasonic cleaner and then finish with acetone
 
jShort said:
I used mineral spirits and then denatured alcohol.
Click to expand...
stb222 said:
I did the soak in minerals spirits over night, the orange degreaser in a bottle or ultrasonic cleaner and then finish with acetone
Click to expand...

Doing a similar approach. I've had the chain soaking in mineral spirits a few days. I'm going to do a quick wash with degreaser then denatured alcohol, blowing it out in between.
 
How long does the wax usually take to cool to the point where you want to pull the chain out? 1 hour? 2? I'm ready to dip, I just want to make sure I find the right time window to get it done.
 
rlb said:
How long does the wax usually take to cool to the point where you want to pull the chain out? 1 hour? 2? I'm ready to dip, I just want to make sure I find the right time window to get it done.
Click to expand...
If you only heat it to whatever temp they say you need, then it cools quickly. But if you get it too hot it takes a while ... 35-45 minutes?
 
I'm waxed. Took quite a while to heat up, but I didn't want to overheat it so I started the crock pot on low w/o cover. Then I wound up switching to high and put the cover on because it was taking forever. No big deal cause I was doing other stuff while waiting. I think I'll skip right to high w/ the cover on next time and just keep a close eye on it.

Now I just need to finish putting it back together, waiting on some chainring bolts.
 
I’d be interested to see how wax holds up in todays weather?

I did a long brevet awhile back with a waxed chain where i got caught in the rain. The next day my chain was rusted out. I believe thats because i cleaned the living shit out of it with the ultrasonic and the wax just washed away. Perhaps I completely applied it on wrong? I gave up on it after that.

I like wax alot but this moved me away from it. Any suggestions?
 
The Kalmyk said:
I’d be interested to see how wax holds up in todays weather?

I did a long brevet awhile back with a waxed chain where i got caught in the rain. The next day my chain was rusted out. I believe thats because i cleaned the living shit out of it with the ultrasonic and the wax just washed away. Perhaps I completely applied it on wrong? I gave up on it after that.

I like wax alot but this moved me away from it. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Extended wet is the downside and you need to dry the chain after the ride because the wax won’t prevent rust like oil does. In a situation where you need to continue a ride the next day after rain, wax just isn’t the play. This is the reason I won’t be waxing my rain bike.

It has nothing to do with how to prepped the chain.
 
I did my mtb and road bike yesterday.
I started by cleaning my cassettes, chainrings and pulley wheels. I use gasoline for this as it works fast. I then sprayed simple green on them, let it soak for a minute or sow and hosed it off. I dunked them in acetone after that. This was the most time consuming IMO.

I went with new Red and XX1 chains. I used the other citrus degreaser from HD followed by acetone. I bought a used instant off fb and used SILCA wax. hooked the chain onsite bent spokes, melter the wax in the pot(10min or so) and put the chains in. I let them normalize the temp to the wax temp , swirled around a bunch of times, shut the pot off and waited for the light skim on top(20 min or so after taking the pot out and setting iron my bench).I hung the chains for about 10 minutes and they were ready. Chains are back on bikes and ready to go. It was an extra minute or so to seat the master links in the wax enough to get them clipped. Curious to try this out.
 
Waxed 2 chains today - 1 is a low-mile XTR chain off of my Mojo, and the other is a new XT chain for a new build I'm collecting parts for.

Took the chain and cassette off of the Mojo over the weekend; chain received 3 baths in mineral spirits (over 2 days) until it ran clean and left nothing on a rag when wiping it down between baths. Once clean, a quick rinse in denatured alcohol and hung to dry. The cassette came off and got cleaned with mineral spirits and a brush, same for the derailleur pulleys. Chain ring I left installed and cleaned with a rag.

I used the Silca secret chain wax in the sous vide bag, so didn't bother with a crock pot. Heated up in a pot of boiling water in about ~15 mins, then put the chains in, removed from heat and agitated them a bit in the wax. Probably another 10 or 15 mins until the wax started to skin over and the chains could come out of the bag and hang dry. Sealed up the bag and its ready for the next time I need to wax them.

waxed chains.jpg
 
I guess I'll have to try waiting to remove the chains until the wax is cooling enough to start solidifying. That hasn't been part of my process but I guess it makes sense.
 
I left my chain in the wax way too long and a crapload came off when I started running it, plus it was a major pita to thread into the derailleur.

Even better, this was a brand new chain on a drivetrain swap and I had not cut it yet (nor did I have a reference to go by). Lesson learned, I should have set it up dry to cut the chain to the proper length first. It's all broken in and flexible now that I've done a few spins around to block. I just about have this bike put back together to go for a proper ride.
 
I've been wrapping the chain around a section of PVC pipe to break up the wax right after application, but can imagine that it would be a giant pain if there were a ton on there.
 
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