I have made my first tentative steps into hot chain waxing and spoiler alert, I'm really hopeful.
This isn't really a tutorial more just the process I went with. The main thing is, you need to strip the chain really well, there are loads of good videos around on how to do this, unfortunately for me, a lot are American and the chemicals they use aren't available here. So...
First off I made up a new chain to length, 150links of 12speed KMC chain in this case.
Next I made two strip baths, one with a heavy duty degreaser (wear gloves and goggles with this stuff) and another with isopropyl alcohol. I think you're supposed to dilute the degreaser and leave over night, if you use the wrong stuff though you'll come back to a rusty chain so I decided to do 20min soaks in the degreaser, rinse with water, 20min in alcohol, rinse and repeat a few times.
This seemed to work really well, I finished off with the alcohol and left it to drip dry for over an hour.
I'm hanging the chain of some soldering wire btw, I couldn't find anything else.
Now for the fun part.
I bought a used slow cooker locally off of Facebook marketplace for £5. Apparently rice cookers work well to. If you're doing cargo bike chains I'd be wary of those fancy pants wax pots as I've heard something like a 170link GSD chain just won't fit.
I'm using this enigma black stuff, I hear REX is the best but I can't find it easily in the UK next day delivery and I'm both impatient and impulsive...
I followed the instructions which state to lay the chain on the top of the wax and allow it to heat to 120°c, the thermometer I have only gets to 110 but it's easy to guess from there.
This took forever! Seeing as I started this very late I had to abandon for the evening and start again in the morning.
It had dried into one lump over night and was this time much easier and quicker to melt.
Watching the convection currents in the hot wax is super trippy, ignore the resemblance to human brains...
Once up to temp I pulled the ceramic pot out of the cooker and left to start cooling, I gave the chain a good swish around in the pot to be sure wax had full soaked the chain.
I managed to rig a chain holder thing by looping soldering wire up into the extractor hood. I waited for the wax to cool to 60°c and gently pulled the chain, this is the point the wax gains a thin skin on the top so I was careful to poke any skin to the side as I pulled it out and hung the chain above the pot.
It seemed to take no time at all to dry but again I left it about an hour while I (once again) replaced my worn cassette and chain ring, as well as thoroughly cleaned the idler pulleys so as not to contaminate the wax with old lube. My daughter 'assisted' with the process by hiding each tool I was about to need.
Now to loosen the chain up enough to fit. Once hardened the chain I basically immoveable so I ran it over my shed door handle a few times to get some flexibility into it.
Now to fit the chain, its a little fiddly as a lot of the gaps between the rollers had filled with wax, I found massaging the chain into the chainring helped form the chain around the whole drivetrain.
I then used a new, degreased quick link to fix the chain, it is strongly advised not to wax the quick link as there's already loads of wax in that area, be careful also to get the quick link squeezed up enough that you aren't going to damage the delicate parts of the link.
And that's it, go enjoy you ride. The chain is stiff for a few Km but soon loosens up. My drivetrain feels amazing and it's super quiet.
Now let's see how it holds up to daily wet, muddy forest riding.
As always feel free to comment what I've gotten wrong, this is my first attempt so would be happy to hear any improvements, and don't hesitate to DM me if you want any specifics.
Here's a link to the trippy wax heating.
Feel free to follow me over there too.
This isn't really a tutorial more just the process I went with. The main thing is, you need to strip the chain really well, there are loads of good videos around on how to do this, unfortunately for me, a lot are American and the chemicals they use aren't available here. So...
First off I made up a new chain to length, 150links of 12speed KMC chain in this case.
Next I made two strip baths, one with a heavy duty degreaser (wear gloves and goggles with this stuff) and another with isopropyl alcohol. I think you're supposed to dilute the degreaser and leave over night, if you use the wrong stuff though you'll come back to a rusty chain so I decided to do 20min soaks in the degreaser, rinse with water, 20min in alcohol, rinse and repeat a few times.
This seemed to work really well, I finished off with the alcohol and left it to drip dry for over an hour.
I'm hanging the chain of some soldering wire btw, I couldn't find anything else.
Now for the fun part.
I bought a used slow cooker locally off of Facebook marketplace for £5. Apparently rice cookers work well to. If you're doing cargo bike chains I'd be wary of those fancy pants wax pots as I've heard something like a 170link GSD chain just won't fit.
I'm using this enigma black stuff, I hear REX is the best but I can't find it easily in the UK next day delivery and I'm both impatient and impulsive...
I followed the instructions which state to lay the chain on the top of the wax and allow it to heat to 120°c, the thermometer I have only gets to 110 but it's easy to guess from there.
This took forever! Seeing as I started this very late I had to abandon for the evening and start again in the morning.
It had dried into one lump over night and was this time much easier and quicker to melt.
Watching the convection currents in the hot wax is super trippy, ignore the resemblance to human brains...
Once up to temp I pulled the ceramic pot out of the cooker and left to start cooling, I gave the chain a good swish around in the pot to be sure wax had full soaked the chain.
I managed to rig a chain holder thing by looping soldering wire up into the extractor hood. I waited for the wax to cool to 60°c and gently pulled the chain, this is the point the wax gains a thin skin on the top so I was careful to poke any skin to the side as I pulled it out and hung the chain above the pot.
It seemed to take no time at all to dry but again I left it about an hour while I (once again) replaced my worn cassette and chain ring, as well as thoroughly cleaned the idler pulleys so as not to contaminate the wax with old lube. My daughter 'assisted' with the process by hiding each tool I was about to need.
Now to loosen the chain up enough to fit. Once hardened the chain I basically immoveable so I ran it over my shed door handle a few times to get some flexibility into it.
Now to fit the chain, its a little fiddly as a lot of the gaps between the rollers had filled with wax, I found massaging the chain into the chainring helped form the chain around the whole drivetrain.
I then used a new, degreased quick link to fix the chain, it is strongly advised not to wax the quick link as there's already loads of wax in that area, be careful also to get the quick link squeezed up enough that you aren't going to damage the delicate parts of the link.
And that's it, go enjoy you ride. The chain is stiff for a few Km but soon loosens up. My drivetrain feels amazing and it's super quiet.
Now let's see how it holds up to daily wet, muddy forest riding.
As always feel free to comment what I've gotten wrong, this is my first attempt so would be happy to hear any improvements, and don't hesitate to DM me if you want any specifics.
Here's a link to the trippy wax heating.
Feel free to follow me over there too.
