DIY Chainwax Recipe/Results

I have been messing with making some DIY bulk chainwax as I live in a very sandy area and oil turns to grinding paste ASAP. As of now I think I have hit pretty much the right mix:

Approx – 100ml parafin wax, 5ml extra high PTFE grease*, 15ml 15wt fully synthetic [damper oil, going spare].

This gives:
[/url]

Chain after waxing, two hours gritty riding and two days of rain after that.

This wax probably melts around 30c and is slightly buttery in use while still slowly shedding. As I have increased the percentage of oil, I have gone from a hard wax that allowed immediate rust to get a hold to the situation in the picture, where there is enough free oil residue to leave a waterproof coating on the chain.

[/url]

The wax is applied by dipping the entire chain into a large tin can of the stuff [maybe 400ml here], agitating a little, and then placing to cool on a cardboard surface. A magnet is suspended in the tin during cooling, and the oil agitated. After cooling, the dark metal/wax mix can be scraped off from the immediate vicinity of, and surrounding the, magnet. A second tin can be periodically used to pour the settled oil into to leave non-magnetic grit particles behind, or a coffee filter could be employed.

So there you go – my method, recipe and how I clean my DIY wax. It seems to work a treat on my hub and derailleur gears [11 speed is much narrower than 9 though…would it clog up?].

It seems to be possible to have a clean, lubed drivetrain this way and I prefer wax prep to oil unless it’s really clean riding. Are there any others doing similar?

*Lumpy’s Crack Wax, if anyone has ever heard of the stuff. Waaay higher in PTFE than normal grease in a tube.

B_U_M_P

That’s pretty cool.

Very nice work 😆

It’s obviously protecting the chain from dirt and water 8)

Are you tracking mileage and wear rate to understand the level of wear protection this mix provides?

All I can say is I’m running a PC1, Surley SS ring and a standard SS Rohloff sprocket and they were wearing extremely fast with Rohloff/other oil, and always the chain was slowly scaling up with black gritty crud, hence the DIY wax. I’ve always been a fan, it’s just the stuff usually washes off ASAP.

Now, I’m sure that a complete investigation, test rides and measuring would be interesting and probably allow a mix that out performs this, however I’m confident enough it’s better than the previous situation, even if only because it’s still there and still clean. Previously either I was running my chain very dry or letting the oil build up.

Oh, and I think the cost is like $5 half-litre meaning you can dip the chain all the time. I would imagine that a chain that is always coated in clean lube is going to last longer than one coated in posh lube that is 50% grit by weight.

How are you heating up the wax?

Very gently, on the gas ring. I probably should buy a charity shop pan.

You’re dead right of course – a cleaner chain will always last longer 🙂

I have to just add that it looks like a lot of work.

But I spend at least 15-20 minutes cleaning my drive train whenever I clean my bike so maybe it’s not an increase in overall time just a different method!

Where can we buy the ingredients if we wanted to have a go?

I just used a huge white pure wax candle, some high PTFE grease and 15wt oil. The Lumpy’s grease is discontinued, but just go hunting for the highest purity PTFE grease you can find on ebay….. or use basic PTFE grease, though you’ll likely need to swap that for some oil and use a bit more of it.

I would say it’s a bit of work, making your own mix and getting it right. At this point I just break the snap link, warm the wax for 5 mins, pop the chains in, agitate for a minute when it’s all melted then slowly lift out and drip the excess off, let it cool and refit. the magnet is on a clothes peg and a stick, and I suggest a non-magnetic pan to make that bit easier.

If the stuff lasts a couple of rides, then we’re down to maybe 5 minutes cleaning time per ride, or less if you do two chains at once.

This interests me because I’ve been dabbling with this ever since riding motorbikes years ago. At that time I used a boil-in-can chain lube, which made the bike chain quite stiff. I recently tried Waxoyle on the chain, thinking the wax deposited inside the links would act as a lubricant but the result was dismal, the chain ran dry very soon. I guess you can use white spirit or paraffin to dissolve almost any kind of grease or oil and then evaporate it off, leaving the lubricant in place.

TBH I’ve given up taking off the chain and cleaning it and adopted what Cycle Chat members call the “Mickle Method” (after the forum member who described it) of just wiping the chain off after washing the bike, allowing to dry and re-lubing. This seems to work just as well as removing and cleaning and is a lot less hassle.

wiping the chain off after washing the bike, allowing to dry and re-lubing

Now ya see I’d not be happy with that. It sounds like you’re leaving all the greasy dirty ‘stuff’ on the chain and just adding more lubricant 😥

My chain certainly wouldn’t come clean without degreasing – but I only clean the bike/chain once every 4-6 rides.

Interesting stuff, how do you know the recipe/performance is optimal? Comparing it to Putoline etc? I guess it’s about having enough wax to stick on tho the chain and enough oil/lube/grease to lube it?

Anyone using this on a commuter?

I had always thought when coating your chain that allowing it to heat up fully would allow it to solidify slowly and drip excessive wax back off.

Now ya see I’d not be happy with that. It sounds like you’re leaving all the greasy dirty ‘stuff’ on the chain and just adding more lubricant

I felt the same about it; for years I’ve removed the chain and messed around with trays and jars of paraffin. But I kept reading about the famous “Mickle Method” on CC and tried it and… it seems to work. As long as you pull the chain through a fluffy towel or microfibre cloth to remove surface grime and re-lube it every couple of rides I don’t think it will last any less time than with full cleaning. It horrifies me to hear the grit in the chain when I twist it especially after a wet dirty ride but TBH I think that grit soon gets ground down into a sort of black goo, most of which seems to end up stuck to the jockey wheels.

I’m running a PC1, Surley SS ring

From my experience the PC1 stretch really fast; leading to wearing the chainring/ cog.

KMC 610hx last much better for not a lot more (certainly save you money on the chainring)

It horrifies me to hear the grit in the chain when I twist it especially after a wet dirty ride but TBH I think that grit soon gets ground down into a sort of black goo, most of which seems to end up stuck to the jockey wheels.

Impossible to know – if there is hard material in there it will be grinding down the steel in the chain.

This is my road/gravel bike today after 12 days commuting over 3 weeks (12-14 miles/day), and a very wet, muddy 70 mile on/off road ride last weekend.

It’s still running smoothy and quite quietly, but it’s probably approaching the time it needs doing again, as there are the beginnings of rust spots on the edges of the link plates. (I hosed the bike down after the long ride, but otherwise it hasn’t been cleaned in that time – can you tell? 🙂 )

The brew:

I wrote down what the mixture was, but can’t find the bit of paper! 🙁

From memory, it’s 5 parts paraffin wax, 1 part beeswax, 1 part EP Gear oil, and two big dollops of molybdenum disulphide paste.

The moly settles out as the wax cools, but stays in suspension when the wax is molten with the occasional stir (the moly makes the wax a pearlescent silver colour when it’s molten.)

No idea if this is the optimum mixture, but I do know that the previous one I used (which had about half the oil and moly paste in) was much more prone to flaking off, and the chain got quite noisy after two weeks’ commuting.

I’ve only done the chain twice – I heated the wax on a camping stove and once it had melted, dropped the chain into it. I left it a few minutes with an occasional poke/stir until the bubbles stopped, then fished it out, hung it up for 10 mins to let the surplus drip off, then put it back on the bike. The chain was quite stiff to start with, so didn’t back-pedal well, for example, but after a few miles it behaved itself.

It’s very early days, but so far, it is easier and cleaner and lasts longer than than the C3 wet lube that I used previously.

(FWIW, This cost me nothing to try, but if you were going to buy the ingredients, you might as well just buy the Putoline.)

(FWIW, This cost me nothing to try, but if you were going to buy the ingredients, you might as well just buy the Putoline.)

I was about to say!

Although Putoline melts at much higher temps, it’s not ‘buttery’ more like candle wax.

I suspect based on the smell it’s a high sulphur content, either an additive or just a high sulphur paraffin wax. It smells just like EP90, I don’t think there molybdenum in there, it’s definitely not shiny like yours although that makes a lot of sense as an additive.

This is fun 🙂 Good to see more results and mixes.

I’m pretty sure that Putoline has graphite in it (but I had the moly and the EP oil knocking around the shed).

I would guess that mine melts at 50-60 degrees C. The chain is just about too hot to hold when it comes out. The bulk stuff feels soapy rather than waxy, but I think it’s the oil that does that – the first mix (with less oil) felt more like candle wax.

It’s an amusement, rather than a serious mission, but I’ve been mildly impressed by the tenacity of the current mix.

This thread’s awesome. I wish I had something useful to add but can only encourage more home brew methods. Love this sort of thing.

I am impressed by this. Never occurred to me… 🙂

ace thread if a bit late for me as gone down the Putoline road .
but as an add to it
I got one of those mini fat fryers from aldi and can report it is brilliant for the job

OMG! I’ve cooked motorcycle chains but never seen this done in a chip fryer!

Seems to me there’s enough material here for a PhD engineering student. I do think the standard chain lubes are a gigantic rip off; the raw materials must be so cheap yet they sell for many pounds for a tiny bottle.

The high cost of small bottles of chain lub that don’t last one ride was the purpose of my thread enquiring about Bulk Chain oil.

I may have a dig through my vast quantities of oils, grease etc on the garage shelf to see what I can cook up.

One issue I have is the being arsed to take your chain off to do the dunking.

If your chain is pretty clean and only has a little lube left, a standard snap-link should open up easily 🙂

The ones that say “Single Use ONLY” on them 😉

I don’t know which ones they are, sorry. I use SRAM 50/50 and circlip QL’s and never thrown one away. Is this a 10/11 speed thing?

this is interesting stuff. I was thinking of trying some DIY lube but was planning on dissolving the wax in a solvent so i didn’t have to mess around with heating up paraffin wax.

Anyone tried that approach?

Pretty interesting, it looks like the softer wax is giving better corrosion protection than putoline. Might be at the expense of durability, I suppose, but who knows? If it weren’t for the fact that a can of putoline is going to last me a decade, I’d try this next just for the lolz. Cheers for sharing!

tomaso – Member

The ones that say “Single Use ONLY” on them

I’ve reused those a lot, they seem fine- fiddlier to fit but that’s all afaic

supersessions9-2 – Member

this is interesting stuff. I was thinking of trying some DIY lube but was planning on dissolving the wax in a solvent so i didn’t have to mess around with heating up paraffin wax.

I suppose the issue there is just going to be how fast and how well it flashes off- if it’s too thin or too slow to solidify it might run out of the links. Temperature’s basically a really good way to do it, it’s not that much of a faff. And the volume thing, you’d need your solvented version to be stable in the tin for a good long time.

I re-use them too, but if it is weekly chain dunking then that is quite a bit of on-off for one wee split link in a chains 5-6 month life.

I bought a sonic cleaner off eBay for £10… clean the chains with degreaser in the sonic, then rinse clear in a jar with water a few times. Then place chain on a metal baking tray with chunks of candle wax and put on the hob and heat gently. Chain dries out, wax melts, chain sucks up molten wax (chain has to get hot else wax stays on outside) then lift chain up with wire hook/pliers etc and run off excess wax, wipe excess off outside of chain with old microfibre cloth, and hang outside to cool. Just pure wax first time. Next time I added some tungsten disulphide powder to the wax, only a little turned it grey… not used this chain yet but the first pure wax only one is silent and smooth and works well.

This guy is worth a watch

There is also a video of his where he compares the effectiveness of chain cleaning methods, petrol v ultrasonic v brush chain cleaner widget….

Yes oz cycle is the best bike tips channel I have found so far on YouTube.

Funny watched that oz cycle video earlier

KMC magic links/split links are reusable whereas SRAM aren’t – something to do with a KMC patent

I’ve used solvents before… but you only get a slight amount of lube in place. The solvent evaporates from the outside first so first use will likely push out the lube. Using liquid wax solidifies quickly and is pure lube rather than some percentage of the applied volume. Hence it’s so much more effective. “Imho”

I thought I was the only person using a chip fryer.

I’m a big fan of the bottle clean. One 2L milk bottle and a filter funnel with coffee papers lets you clean the chain and reuse the turps substitute. I quick dry on the radiator and into the chip fryer it goes.

I reckon my mix is good for about 12 hours riding time offroad.

can report my first big shitty ride with the chain wax was a resounding success
31 miles in terrible lakes weather saw my chain out of the three riders the only one not sounding graunchy and squeaky .
I did refry the chain on sunday but I dont think it was needed .
well impressed cannot see me going back to oily stuff

Yes me neither. I even have a bulk bottle of pro-gold there. Wax looking to be cleaner and longest lasting ATM.

Update.

I’ve been tinkering with home-brew lubes for a few months.

Initially tried paraffin wax (well ikea tea-lights – we have thousands of them!) in a xylene suspension. It was ok. But Xylene is nasty stuff, stinks and I needed way more by volume than i expected to keep the lube fluid. So i ditched it in favour of the hot dip approach. I also did some wax research and now use a combination of paraffin wax (about 60%) beeswax – this is stickier to add adhesion, and carnauba wax – harder to improve longevity and wear. plus i put a bit of gear oil to aid rust protection and some graphite powder for friction reduction. the lube is grey.

The last batch did 2 months of british summer riding (once or twice a week in leicestershire mud) Last ride was a bit squeaky so stuck it in again.

The side plates on my chain still have a thin coating of wax from previous application. It is very good and quiet in use and drivetrain is so much cleaner. Simple brush the mud off when it’s dry, I hate that gunk build up with wet lubes.

I’ve been melting it in a jam jar in boiling water then dropping chain in and boiling for a bit longer. Whilst my wife huffs and puffs and rolls her eyes at the other end of the kitchen.

thinking of getting a slow cooker for dedicated use in the garage. If i spill hot wax on the stove i am in serious shit.

View this post on Instagram

Lube time. Faff but effective. #kitchenmaintenance #homebrewlube

A post shared by Michael Thomas (@mr_evilgoat) on Aug 15, 2017 at 1:39pm PDT