JohnDThompson 

Indeed. I have a peg on a south-facing wall where I can hang the chain to dry. On a sunny day it doesn't take long at all.

melloveloyellow

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highlighter1

Can you share some more details on this process? Had never heard of this before - but I am very curious. What sized wire mesh screen did you use? Something you may see in a kitchen like a splash guard, or a more industrial woven wire cloth - something like the plain weave wire mesh seen and made by these guys - Custom Wire Cloth - Belleville Wire Cloth Co - Cedar Grove, NJ - Can you possible measure the opening size of the wire mesh? Looking to give this a shot - very excited to hear that this works!

ThermionicScott 

At the risk of spoiling your excitement, I don't think building your own vapor degreaser would work well for cleaning chains. HillRider's description makes it sound as if it continually rains down solvent on the parts to be cleaned in order to do its job, but chains require more agitation to loosen and flush the grit out. A Bell jar, shaken in your hands, does that job pretty well without being a science project.

GeneO 

I don't use a filter. I have a two jar system, one for dirty oms after I have cleaned, and one for clean oms. All the crud settles to the bottom of the dirty jar. Next time I clean I fill the clean jar from the top clean oms in the dirty jar. When I am done I pour the dirty oms back into the dirty jar for the crud to settle out to the bottom.

WizardOfBoz

These things were eerie,but worked the bomb. Imagine a 4x4x4 foot bin with heating coils in the bottom, and a big basket that just lined the thing (that is 3'10" square). Put the parts in the basket, turn the heater on, and this weird vapor "soup" would rise from the trichloroethylene pool ion the bottom. It would get to the top, but appropriate heat transfer would prevent overflow. As the cloud in the tank came up and condensed, so it would "rain" on the parts, washing them very effectively. Very weird looking into the tank, watching parts dissapear into the cloud.

Effective as hell. But I think that, for a chain, shaking the chain in a liter pop bottle 1/3 full of min spirits would work as well.

ArmChairRider

To totally 'ruin' a chain get a small aluminum pie plate (with no breather holes at the bottom).
Place the chain in the pie pan and pour some PB penetrant on top of it. (Do this outside because it'll stink up everything). (it'll probably eat O-ringed chains up, I wouldn't use PB on one.)
You'll probably have to wear a HazMat suit or something.

Swish the chain around in the PB every 5 minutes for 15 minutes.
Then take the chain out and whip the chain in a circle so most of the PB will come out.
(Don't let it get on plastic or paint)
Then submerge the chain in some kerosene. (This is your holding status until you get your lube ready to apply plus now it is its first contact with a paraffin based solution)

I've seen PB turn black with grunge after soaking a chain in kerosene thoroughly while agitating every 5 minutes for 30 minutes, taking it out, and then on a whim I dropped it in some PB. Shocked. It's expensive though.

WizardOfBoz

To go back to the op's question, you can re-use mineral spirits, but the efficacy is limited. As others have stated, you have to get rid of the dirt by settling or filtration. Depending upon the method, you still may have very small particles of grit in the mix, though.

As you continue to use the mineral spirits, it removes the oil and grease from the chain. So your mineral spirits will have more and more non-volatile lubricants, and less of the actual mineral spirits. This will limit its efficiency as a solvent. Its why in commercial use of parts washers, used mineral spirits are carted off to be refined. Interestingly, this means that the non-volatile lubricants are recovered and reused. A "green" solution. With aqueous-based systems, the oil and grease are complexed with the soap in little particles (micelles), and end up in the sewer system. This seems to me to be very environmentally unsound. But the purveyors of aqueous systems make claims that there approach is better for the environment. The mineral spirits-based systems do release some solvent into the air, though. But I wonder if a proper analysis has been done to compare the two.

Anyway, filter (or let dirt settle) your mineral spirits, and re-use until the stuff doesn't seem to work well anymore. Then take the worn-out solvent (clearly labeled as mineral spirits with oil, grease, and bicycle chain dirt) to a haz mat recovery center (or to one of the haz mat days that happen every so often).

Rubato

Settling seems to take forever. I assume the suggested filtering would help. Are there other ways to speed it up so I don't have so many containers in various stages of reclamation?

ThermionicScott 

You must be a Millennial. It takes a day or two for the grit to settle to the bottom, but it will never get crystal-clear again.

FullGas

or experienced enough to know that, under a lot of riding conditions, a simple wipe is more than adequate to ensure decent chain life.

Metaluna

Considering there are occasionally people in these threads who still advocate using gasoline as a degreaser, I think "bomb" would be an accurate description if you tried to use it in one of these!

etherhuffer 

I used to work in the chemical industry and I sold 1,1,1 Trichlor, Freon, Perchlor, etc. These are all great chlorinated degreasers. Many were sold in spray cans as auto brake degreasers. Their expense and care and handling make them poor choices for bicycles. Also, they can become acidic in some cases and actually start to etch aluminum. And some will strip paint, or weaken it.


Mineral spirits is best because it does a decent job, won't harm paint, and is relatively low flammability. And it leaves a thin film that puts off rust.


I would venture that a combination of mineral spirits and/or an ultrasonic cleaner work best. The sonic cleaners really dig the grit out of the cracks.

ThermionicScott 

Works well for me. I won't deny that it's probably overkill for bike chains, but there's a satisfaction in how clean they get.

Andy_K 

Poor Millennials! Everybody's always picking on them.

etherhuffer 

There is just something about watching the grit and grime come out of an old derailleur that is so good....

2lo8

Did you really have to rub it in? The fact that millennials are poor I mean.

ThermionicScott 

Youthful impatience isn't all bad -- a sense of urgency is key for getting important things done. But it does make for easy targets, too.

Wheever

For me, it's less about chain life than about the pleasure of a quiet, smooth, drivetrain. In pursuit of that, a wipe-down simply does not compare. I've been doing the OMS shake every couple weeks now, and the difference is astonishing and totally worth the minimal effort involved.

WizardOfBoz

Everyone except Millenials without a sense of humor might enjoy the following. At first I loved it. Then I realized that every generation has its issues. Hell, some guys in my generation had mullets (!).

Rubato

This original assumed "millennial" got his first bike in the mid "50's! Nice to be considered so young.

On another note, this weekend I poured off some of the clear OMS from my settled container and heard something rattle in the black gunge that remained in the pan. I used a small magnetic to fish out a quick link and a large glob of, I assume, metallic particles. I swished the magnet several times and continued to pull up gunk. There was so much of it that it's hard to believe it could all be the worn particles of chains and cogsets? There was BUNCH of it!
I'm going to run a test to see if swiping with a magnet will accelerate clarifying used solvent.

Northwestrider

I'm convinced , I'm going to give this M spirits a try when cleaning my chain next time. Who says old dogs can't learn new tricks .

ThermionicScott 

Now you've got me wondering if I should try dropping a cow magnet into the jar next time I clean stuff.

GravelMN

I was using a coffee filter in a funnel. Filtering dirty mineral spirts was slow and the filter plugged rapidly in an area about the size of an American quarter dollar. I found this at WalMart a few days ago.



It is a fine mesh basket intended to replace paper filters in a drip coffee maker. It just fits inside the top of a quart plastic paint mixing container (also from WalMart).



I use a paper coffee filter with it and can filter a pint of mineral spirits in about 15 seconds. The paper filter lasts a long time as you are using the entire surface. It also makes a great small parts soaking basket (no more fishing around the bottom of a quart jar).

SylvainG

Reviving an old thread but has anyone tried this to siphon the crude from the bottom of a dirty OMS container instead of pouring from the top?