Motor Oil As Chain Lube: Any Tricks?

On 4/6/2011 1:28 PM, Tosspot aka Frank Leake wrote:
On 04/04/2011 03:46 AM, kolldata wrote:
On Apr 3, 10:08 am, wrote:
YEAH ONE prob new trick is heating chain and lube together. slow cook.
Over time I've absorbed the idea chain and lube generally don't get
along, both resist attaraction with chain surface getting a spotty and
uneven coat of lube. Prob a significant amount of oil research went
into developing attractive forces. Two chains, at least an overnight
dry time for the newly lubed chain.
Using heat, bringing both sets of molecules to a higher movement
state, thinning lube bringing the flow potential into the chain
surface whgich isnot polished. Chain surface prob looks like the
badlands. getting a real thin active lube down into the arroyo and
canyons gives a more even surface, a lube reservoir, and prob a
cleaner chain with active lube getting the last bits out and diluted.
Picture roller moving along side plate-roller moves lube like a boat
on the water. With the canyons filled with lube, surface pressure
against roller increases, the roller continues rolling on lube.
Use the double boiler, your mother will love it.

Right, WARM THE CHAIN AND LUBE for MAX efficiency !
So, wander off and find tongs, large pliers, a heat or sun lamp, a
meat thermometer, a double boiler, a bottle of Valvo Synthetic Gear
Lube, an apron, maybe goggles.
The heat lamp focused on chain held in a AL foil faced box pre-warms
the chain to HOT so when the lube warms up to say 140-160 degrees.
Where to get a lamp ? Buy an infared bulb-heat is very handy esp if
urine Michigan or Portland. Try HD or Lowes. Any suntanned young women
in your nab ? Ask if there’s a lamp. Ask her if she’d like to see your
pecker.
The double boiler is in your Mom’s pot cubby. The Valvo is at NAPA
where the chop shop people hang out. Use your Mom’s apron and meat
thermometer. Wire the thermometer so it hangs from a stick across the
pot top.
Can you do two things at once ? Heat the CLEAN AND DRY chain and warm
the Valvo in the double boilers top pot with water NOT GASOLINE in the
lower pot. LOWER hot chain using tong/pliers into Hot valvo. Get a
grip here LOWER don’t drop it in splashing hot Valvo all over the
kitchen floor.
ALLOW TO SIMMER maybe 10 minutes. STIR OCCASIONALY !
Turn off heat. Take the Valvo/chain pot to the turkey baster pan-the
one Mom uses on Thanksgiving-placing it on the turkey pan. Grab chain
with pliers/tongs, place on turkey pan.
Now what you need here is a way to hang the chain above the turkey
pan, letting chain drip dry.
When done dripping, decant now cool Valvo in a container where you’ve
already poured the pot Valvo.
Let chain dry for 48 hours then mount.
ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMm
Pack a lunch.

I've never been a fan of kolldata's posts, but now I am converted :-)

"place on turkey pan", that did it for me.


GENE IS A GENIUS!

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

that's buried .......

seriously, what's the scoop from Ye Olde ?

Boilem Owl !

I've hot waxed my chains for around 30 years. Unbelievable chain life.
Maybe paraffin is a lubricant, maybe it is not. Many have speculated
that it primarily works by keeping the chain clean and excluding
contaminants. Oily lubricants certainly attracts dirt and adding dirt
to oil makes an excellent grinding paste that lowers chain life
dramatically unless the owner is obsessive about frequent cleaning/
lubing.

Metal to metal contact is not necessarily a bad thing. While not a
perfect analogy, a train's metal wheels to metal rails has the lowest
rolling resistance around.

Nope, no double boiler for me. Small can, put rolled up chain directly
on unmelted wax, place on burner on low, and wait until fully melted
and a bit more. Take it outside, stir with screwdriver to move links
and help remove grit and fully remove air (preventing full paraffin
application), remove and cool. Easy! Typically, I reuse the same wax
for several years. Grit goes to the bottom of the can, what there is
of it.

I've played around with adding oil to wax, but have always gone back
to straight paraffin because anything else ends up dirty. If I lived
in the NW, I might have to go back to oil derivatives. I can go
thousands of miles without rewaxing, until a couple of hours of rain
brings the squeaking. No routine waxing, I just wait until the chain
starts making noise.

Yes, shifting does change immediately after a hot wax, presumably due
to increased lateral stiffness. Didn't matter before index shifting,
and only requires a few clicks of cable adjustment to fix a sensitive
indexing system.

Over the years, I've played with solvent based paraffins like White
Lightning, hoping for better convenience. The problem with them is
that they cannot come close to delivering as much paraffin inside the
rollers as hot wax, no matter what the sales guy says at Interbike. In
my experience, they cannot last even 100 miles. Too much work for me!

I remember one wax/oil product was sold in a glass jar. You were
supposed to microwave it until hot, and then dip the chain in it. Only
tried it once. What a mess! Both the application, and then the chain
quickly became dirty. Perhaps in some ways that was safer than heating
paraffin on a stove, but paraffin is pretty darned safe, you would
really have to try hard to cause an injury.