I threw in some old segments of chain that had been trimmed off of some new chains when I was testing (many of these tests were done years ago). When I opened up these segments, the mineral oil mix appeared to put more material inside the links than plain wax. I used a 10x printer's loupe to look at the links.
I believe that the addition of the mineral oil reduced the viscosity of the wax just enough to improve flow into the inner surfaces of the links.
Excess wax shedding is a pain in the a$$ plus it can get on rim braking surfaces and contaminate the brake pads if you are running rim brakes.
I don't believe I characterized plain wax chain performance as "bad". The mineral oil mix was/is quieter than plain wax.
The other variable I didn't test was the wax. I use Gulf canning wax. Other brands or types of paraffin wax may perform differently. Some folks use a paraffin-beeswax mix with good results. I use Gulf because it is cheap and readily available.
The other reason I like mineral oil verses the other lubricant additives is that it is less toxic and can be safely consumed by humans in small amounts. Can't really say that about motor oil, ATF, and silicone. Castor oil is relatively non-toxic, but didn't seem to preform as well as mineral oil.
Last edited by Keefusb; 10-02-23 at 06:11 AM.