On Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at 10:26:57 AM UTC-7, sms wrote:
On 4/29/2018 8:19 AM, wrote:

Another thing that is puzzling is that while you are recommending this
remarkable foaming stuff and don't actually say so your language seems
to hint that without foam it just won't penetrate into the chain links
yet I have worked on chain driven equipment with chains that were ten
or more years old. Still perfectly usable and no foam at all. Just a
SAE 40 oil bath.

It is easy to penetrate a chain. The lube just has to have a low enough viscosity that is all. Thats why wax based lubes have some volatile component. The cheapest is iso propanol. Oil has a low enough viscosity of his own.

So the question is, is foam really necessary?

Of course not.

The advantage of using a foaming chain lubricant is that, unlike an oil
bath, you don't have to remove the chain and soak it.

With an oil bath, it does help to heat the oil slightly if you want to
speed up the process.

I have tried doing an "oil bath" with one of those chain cleaning tools
filled with non-detergent oil instead of solvent. It works, but it's
messy and probably no faster than removing the chain, since you need to
move the chain through the oil pretty slowly.

With the new thinner chains, you want to minimize removing them unless
they have a connecting link and don't require a rivet extractor.

My goal is to minimize the time and expense of chain maintenance. A
chain cleaning tool used with kerosene or diesel fuel as a solvent, and
a can of non-O-ring foaming chain lubricant gets the time down to just a
few minutes. I have no interest in recreational chain maintenance.

Bad news -- most 11sp quick-links are designated single use. https://www.sram.com/sram/mountain/p...ector-11-speed

Probably to sell them in bulk. Goin' to Joergville for those: https://www.amazon.com/JooFn-Silver-...ter+link&psc=1


Personally, I use Sheldon Brown's chain cleaning system. It's the best: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html


-- Jay Beattie