Chains DIY buffered graphite chain lube - paraffin wax? Clearcoat?

Nate888

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I read about people using powdered graphite to lubricate their chains. what I hear is if you don't want to apply at every ride and want it to have some resistance to moisture, what you can do is melt candle wax and mix it with the graphite powder and then sort of wash the chain in the liquid wax + graphite or apply the stuff to the chain. The wax is supposed to keep the water away from the graphite so the graphite remains to provide lubricity

I've tried it and it seems to work okay, but I wasn't convinced it's any better than using bar chain and sprocket oil, motor oil, bike chain oil, let alone motorcycle chain oil.

What I'm wondering though is: since the wax doesn't actually provide any lubricity to speak of just water protection, couldn't we use something like clear coat and graphite and have similar or even better results? Does anyone think this is a worthwhile experiment to carry out? Your thoughts appreciated
 
Well I don't know where you got the idea that wax doesn't lubricate, when in fact it does, at high pressure (like between links, and high pressure areas are ideally the ones that need lubricant) wax will "melt" into its liquid form, which is more or less like grease lubricant at that point, and when the pressure drops off it turns right back into solid wax. Wax based lubes are actually a large part of the chain lube market.

I use a custom mix of paraffin and synthetic waxes used in jewelry craft for its extra stickiness at low Temps, paraffin is just to brittle alone at cold Temps. Anyway I also have Teflon powder mixed in but not graphite. No reason why other than I was satisfied with the mix as it was.

Ideally you would probably want to use wax regardless as the medium that transports the graphite since it flows well when heated. The idea is that hot wax will heat the metal chain as well and get the material all the way into the pins and rollers as it expands. Clear coat might not be sufficient at getting the graphite to penetrate into the places it's needed most (the outside of the chain is mostly protected from rust by oils, not so much in the terms of lubricating it against movement on a sprocket though it is also important to help extend the life of both against surface grinding)

Graphite in a custom mix would need to be small enough to actually get inside the internals, so if you want to experiment then make sure it's just really finely powdered.
 
Oh and motor oil is a bad idea if it's like for car engines, they contain detergents that really have a bad habit of attracting dirt and then the oil drops off leaving a pretty dry chain, as that oil is designed to be injected or sprayed onto its target and then fall off taking the grime with it to be later filtered out. If you had a system to retain all the oil and have a way for it to come in contact with the chain it would be really rather ideal for chain lube, otherwise it's just not as practical as it could be.
 
Thanks Frankenstein, that's super helpful info! I hadn't thought of the detergents effect there - I'll be sure not to use any modern motor oil formulations.

How about cleaning & inspecting the chain with a pencil & drippingsa little bar chain & sprocket oil? Would that be less durable or more durable do you think?
 
Thanks Frankenstein, that's super helpful info! I hadn't thought of the detergents effect there - I'll be sure not to use any modern motor oil formulations.

How about cleaning & inspecting the chain with a pencil & drippingsa little bar chain & sprocket oil? Would that be less durable or more durable do you think?
Could be a good idea but bar and chain is so so sticky... Like it just glues itself and everything like and dirt and other crap to it, it needs to be though since the chain spins like crazy. Mind you that the oil was designed to go on and stay even at very hot temperatures, if you've touched freshly buzzed wood you'll notice how hot it is even when it's snowing outside. I know it's almost like motor oil since they have lighter oils and heavier ones for summer or winter use. I don't know for sure about that oil but in an engine the idea is that once the oil is at running temps it takes on a certain consistency whether it's summer or winter type. The real idea is that the thickness is proper from a cold start, so that you don't get lack of proper lube flow while the engine is warming up. Again I don't know of that is the same idea behind bar oil but I still wouldn't do it simply because it's too sticky. The redemption on a chainsaw is it's virtually all tossed into the environment never to return, along with any drudge it picked up on the way...

That stuff might not come off easily from a chain on a bike, but then neither will dirt and even larger grit that would otherwise be too large to stick would stick with bar lube. I don't like the idea of sand just simply sticking to my chain at all..

I pick wax since it flakes off well and doesn't retain dirt. There is a thin coating still on the chain after it flakes off and the wax that gets inside the rollers never seems to disappear, I've broken down a link or 2 just to see and after months there's still a solid blip of wax in the open space in the roller.

I can also touch the chain and get absolutely nothing on myself or clothes. It is wax after all.

Graphite would be pretty ideal, it is very chemically stable. I think it would be on par with a wax based Teflon containing lube. I know that it's often used as lock lubrication since it's dry and doesn't react with metals easily if at all at normal outdoor temperatures. It won't gum up either. It's got the advantage of being found in pencils just about anywhere and is dirt cheap, a razor blade can make incredibly fine dust that would probably be small enough to make it into any chain and go further and work itself into the microscopic pores and help make a mirror like surface of graphite that would also be pretty durable at the surface against wear.

Now for my experience I once tried putting graphite dust in my skate bearings and it didn't seem to improve anything, it made it worse, but to be fair bearings operate nothing like chains and my skate bearings have much smaller clearances than any chain would reasonably have in its internals.

I figured if I searched with Google I could find more about Graphite lubes but it would seem you need to have a very clean surface for actual results to be apparent. I think you should research the idea further if you want to pursue it as the conclusions on other sites aren't very... Conclusive?

Only other downside of Graphite is its very messy, it gets on anything and everything and cleaning it off can get really frustrating. Teflon as been used and I would assume proven to work when used with a wax or oil lube on chains. It's also not nearly as bad a stain to clean and that's if you can even see it. It's also pliable so as a lubricant it forms to the surface, Graphite must crush to the surface as it isn't all that flexible, just brittle and crunchy.

Just my thoughts I guess.. I can't say that it certainly won't work, but I know what does or has worked for me.
 
Could be a good idea but bar and chain is so so sticky... Like it just glues itself and everything like and dirt and other crap to it, it needs to be though since the chain spins like crazy. Mind you that the oil was designed to go on and stay even at very hot temperatures, if you've touched freshly buzzed wood you'll notice how hot it is even when it's snowing outside. I know it's almost like motor oil since they have lighter oils and heavier ones for summer or winter use. I don't know for sure about that oil but in an engine the idea is that once the oil is at running temps it takes on a certain consistency whether it's summer or winter type. The real idea is that the thickness is proper from a cold start, so that you don't get lack of proper lube flow while the engine is warming up. Again I don't know of that is the same idea behind bar oil but I still wouldn't do it simply because it's too sticky. The redemption on a chainsaw is it's virtually all tossed into the environment never to return, along with any drudge it picked up on the way...

That stuff might not come off easily from a chain on a bike, but then neither will dirt and even larger grit that would otherwise be too large to stick would stick with bar lube. I don't like the idea of sand just simply sticking to my chain at all..

I pick wax since it flakes off well and doesn't retain dirt. There is a thin coating still on the chain after it flakes off and the wax that gets inside the rollers never seems to disappear, I've broken down a link or 2 just to see and after months there's still a solid blip of wax in the open space in the roller.

I can also touch the chain and get absolutely nothing on myself or clothes. It is wax after all.

Graphite would be pretty ideal, it is very chemically stable. I think it would be on par with a wax based Teflon containing lube. I know that it's often used as lock lubrication since it's dry and doesn't react with metals easily if at all at normal outdoor temperatures. It won't gum up either. It's got the advantage of being found in pencils just about anywhere and is dirt cheap, a razor blade can make incredibly fine dust that would probably be small enough to make it into any chain and go further and work itself into the microscopic pores and help make a mirror like surface of graphite that would also be pretty durable at the surface against wear.

Now for my experience I once tried putting graphite dust in my skate bearings and it didn't seem to improve anything, it made it worse, but to be fair bearings operate nothing like chains and my skate bearings have much smaller clearances than any chain would reasonably have in its internals.

I figured if I searched with Google I could find more about Graphite lubes but it would seem you need to have a very clean surface for actual results to be apparent. I think you should research the idea further if you want to pursue it as the conclusions on other sites aren't very... Conclusive?

Only other downside of Graphite is its very messy, it gets on anything and everything and cleaning it off can get really frustrating. Teflon as been used and I would assume proven to work when used with a wax or oil lube on chains. It's also not nearly as bad a stain to clean and that's if you can even see it. It's also pliable so as a lubricant it forms to the surface, Graphite must crush to the surface as it isn't all that flexible, just brittle and crunchy.

Just my thoughts I guess.. I can't say that it certainly won't work, but I know what does or has worked for me.
Thank you, interesting stuff. It's funny I guess, you seem to have a pretty good handle on this stuff and you saying that Teflon works really well although I've heard a lot of mixed stuff about Teflon one. The web. But then again I think those people were saying that wax doesn't lubricate either, and I'm sure it must lubricate at least as well as WD-40. So maybe they're going by a pretty high standard of lubricity under extreme pressure that may only matter in heavy gear boxes and machinery or something.

I know what you mean about graphite getting everywhere though. I have a jacket that used to be yellow and look really nice, now it permanently looks just horribly bedraggled from graphite ever gotten into it experimenting with this stuff.

If I'm lazy and want to use an angle grinder to powder my graphite, do you think I would be shooting myself in the foot by introducing particulates from the grinding disc into the graphite mix? Or can i safely hope & assume it's negligible?

With your skateboard bearing experiment, did you wash out the bearings with clean gas till they were all the way dry of oil and grease before you put the graphite or did you just add it to existing lube? I like graphite for cleaning & lubricating in one step with a tool that costs about 4¢ - ie. a pencil
 
Thank you, interesting stuff. It's funny I guess, you seem to have a pretty good handle on this stuff and you saying that Teflon works really well although I've heard a lot of mixed stuff about Teflon one. The web. But then again I think those people were saying that wax doesn't lubricate either, and I'm sure it must lubricate at least as well as WD-40. So maybe they're going by a pretty high standard of lubricity under extreme pressure that may only matter in heavy gear boxes and machinery or something.

I know what you mean about graphite getting everywhere though. I have a jacket that used to be yellow and look really nice, now it permanently looks just horribly bedraggled from graphite ever gotten into it experimenting with this stuff.

If I'm lazy and want to use an angle grinder to powder my graphite, do you think I would be shooting myself in the foot by introducing particulates from the grinding disc into the graphite mix? Or can i safely hope & assume it's negligible?

With your skateboard bearing experiment, did you wash out the bearings with clean gas till they were all the way dry of oil and grease before you put the graphite or did you just add it to existing lube? I like graphite for cleaning & lubricating in one step with a tool that costs about 4¢ - ie. a pencil
I added Graphite to the bearing oil I normally use in rollerskates. As in I put oil in the bearing and a bit of graphite. I tested it on relatively new cheapo bearings that I use outdoors. It felt like grains in my skate wheels. If I remember correctly one of those locked up unusually fast for what I did to them and I ended up tossing all 16 in the garbage since I didn't want them to end up with any good ones in the cleaning bin.

I might have used too large a graphite powder for all I know. I do know that my speed cream (yeah that's what they call it) doesn't feel grainy and does the job exactly like it should and always had, I just use that now that I don't want to experiment in that area anymore.

Angle grinder on a pencil will probably introduce pencil and angle grinder into your items to be lubed, and I know neither have been featured in (reliable) web articles as good forms of lubrication...

On the terms of lube, wax might not fall into the norm mainly because people have difficulty imagining a solid as acting like a liquid would. Air is also a lubricant though it has pretty limited use in that area. Basically all a lubricant does is protect 2 surfaces from directly touching eachother while also not causing damage to the surfaces (sand makes for a bad bearing lube in this instance.)

The sheer forces press it to a liquid, or that's the idea, maybe we (wax believers) are all wrong and sinful but in that case the Teflon takes up the ball and solves my problem. I mean let's not look at how wax is used to keep skateboards from tearing up (or being torn up) on cement curbs and handrails or how skiers put it on their skis to make them slide faster. Definitely don't mention it being used as a component of bullet lubrication for guns or anything else that wax is used for as a lubricant because just don't.

At least it flows into the chain and delivers the Teflon (but don't worry about it used as a lubricant either) to where it needs to be.

I think the idea is that it's a solid and it gets pressed out of the place it lubes and doesn't flow back, but to be fair grease doesn't have that magical property either. But wd40 sure does yet everyone seems to scream their heads off at the idea of that being used to lube a chain. I do too.

Must be something not related to a liquid flowing back into place... Magic I guess.

Eh, I use wax, it worked, works, and probably will work tomorrow.

I like to use pencils for writing mostly but sometimes I use them to clean my ears out if I'm out of q-tips and feeling desperate.
 
Good stuff Frank.
Graphite forms microscopic scales that slide over each other and works better dry than when mixed with an oil or grease. Pencil graphite is a mixture of pure graphite and a clay to bind it, or it would be too soft to hold a point. The harder the pencil (ie: 2B-HB-2H) the more clay in the mix. Clay and grinding wheel grit are abrasives, not something you want in a lube. Use your pencils for writing.

Wax is a more extreme pressure lubricant than oil due to its long chain molecules I am told. I've never seen them. That is why wax is used as a bullet lube and a press lube for stamping metal. Besides candle wax an paraffin, there is bees wax and a great hardware store source of a soft wax in toilet seal rings. One of the best high pressure waxes is Alox bullet wax. Available at gunshops with reloading supplies.

I used to mix Alox with toilet seal wax to wax my MX bike chain 40 years ago. I had 2 steel paint cans, one half full with kerosene (diesel, paint thinner, varsol,or mineral spirits will work) to wash the chain. Drop it in and slosh it around. I'd hang it up to drip dry overnight. Then I'd drop the dry chain in the other paint can half full of melted wax. I'd melt it on Mom's kitchen stove when she wasn't home. If you don't get it too hot or spill it, it won't stink. Then I'd leave it sit for a few minutes, fish the chain out and let it drip dry and cool. Put it on the bike and you are ready for the races. Dang I love modern "O"ring chains!

This system actually worked pretty good and my chains lasted much better than using spray on chain lube. I also used chainsaw Bar Oil before I discovered the wax and it worked very good as well. As Frank mentioned, motor oil (my first go to) was a messy waste of time. Chain would be squeaking and loose by the end of the weekend.

I still use this system to wash my single speed chain, but I have been using bicycle chain lubes to lube them.
You have me thinking to use the Alox and soft wax again.

I never tried teflon back then (probably didn't exist!), but industrial research seems to back up that teflon (PTFE) actually works (to a small degree) in oils and greases.

The goal of the wax is to:
1) actually get in the rollers and pins. This it does when heated.
2) resist water and rust, which it does.
3) prevent metal to metal wear, which it is good for
4) not get squeezed, washed or flung out. Wax is quite tenatious.
 
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