Budget Chain Waxing

[@dawn_rider]

If your going to heat wax in a pan , it's probably best to place it in a water bath ( pan within a pan , bain-marie style ) . This limits the temperature to 100°C . Just be careful not to splash water in the wax ! One of your viewers does use simple green ( bike shop and one of your viewers ! ) . He does have to warm it to 50°C. You can read my comment on his video kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmfbimZ6rp6ge9E .

[@vitalbikechains]

Is it okay if I screenshot your comment to use in another video?

[@dawn_rider]

@@vitalbikechains I trust you so yes .

[@larryt.atcycleitalia5786]

Back-in-the-day wax-cult'rs set their garage, house or shop on fire with melting wax. We'd hear about it all the time. Years later I was accosted by another cult member...a guy who burnt down his shed not too long after. I keep waiting for someone to come up with a TRUE comparison - cost of all the equipment + time faffing around vs simply dripping some oil on the chain when it's noisy or dry. Amazing claims of chain life are great - but at what cost?

[@vitalbikechains]

Great point, thanks for posting your comment. I once let the wax get super-heated just to see what would happen, and yes, it caught on fire. I'll work on a video regarding safety issues with the waxing process. Thanks again!

[@ElRealista.]

I am using paraffin... Very good results. If you want you can apply liquid wax between waxes.

[@markifi]

any experiments with paraffin wax? i've read on zero friction's comment section you're about to do some. i'm against supporting boutique bike brands like silca/molten/rex. we should find an alternative, but not just inadequate descriptions like "candle" or "gulf canning" or "food grade", rather specific products from e.g. dunawax, kerawax, or others. that way it's repeatable between people, like top wax lubricants are, instead of the difference between it working for one person and not working for the other being the difference of the actual kind of wax they could get hold of.

[@vitalbikechains]

I actually did a test with Gulf wax and I was surprised how well it did. The only problem is finding a dry drip-on that will match up and not just make a gunky mess. If you buy a $40 Silca bag (or similar) you’ll probably get 30-40 waxings out of it depending on your pot size.

[@markifi]

@@vitalbikechains i don't doubt it's still economical enough, but i don't like the idea of a 2000% (yes) larger markup for 30% (?) better performance. but it has to be consistent. there are brand name pure paraffin waxes for cosmetics/confectionery where we could just find out which one works and tell everyone: "don't buy that stuff, that's silly, kerawax 407 (i'm making this up here as an example) gets you 90% there".

[@markifi]

​@@vitalbikechainsbetween paraffin waxes that melts at 54-56 °C and another that melts at 60-62 °C (130-133 °F, 140-144 °F respectively), which one would you choose? the only thing i can find a melting point is silca, and that melts at 72 °C (162 °F) according to the zero friction blog

[@vitalbikechains]

@@markifi melting point is definitely something the chain wax suppliers consider in there formulations. My bike sits out in the Florida sun, trunk of the car, even our garage is boiling hot. When I heat up Silca wax, it melts at 148F. I would go with the higher MP version. Keep me posted. I’d like to do a video on your findings.

[@veganpotterthevegan]

​@markifi there will always be diminishing returns and it costs companies more to get those diminishing returns too. Just look at wholesale bearings. An absolute junk bearing for your hubs can cost under $1, a decent one will cost $3-4, a very good one will cost $15 and the very best may cost $50. It's significantly harder to machine things to tighter and tighter tolerances. This is also true for getting more pure metrics for wax and getting finer tungsten carbide for wax which Silca does. That said, Silca's cheapest wax isn't terribly expensive. You can skip wax altogether and go with Silca Synergetic and you have a lube that will last you many years without the hassle of waxing and getting a lot of the benefits

[@gearhead366]

"Budget" chain waxing... and you didn't use paraffin? That would take the most expensive item from your material list from $25 to $10, and that would for a pound of wax... a lifetime supply.

[@vitalbikechains]

Right on! I didn't enter the DIY realm at this point. Do you have a recommended brand of paraffin to use? I did a test with Gulf wax a while back but was told that wasn't adequate.

[@gearhead366]

@@vitalbikechains Zero Friction Cycling, an organization that has done a ton of testing on bicycle chain lubes, has shown that immersive wax treatments (including plain paraffin) are better than drip wax, wet lubes, and greases. As far as I know, paraffin is paraffin, and Gulf wax is paraffin, so it should be as good as any. ZFC showed some other waxes as better than paraffin, but at a much higher cost. For a budget solution, I think paraffin would be the right answer.