Originally Posted by DaveSSS

I fill an old water bottle about 2/3 full of solvent, drop the chain in, put the lid on and shake for 1-2 minutes. At that point, you've got a chain swimming in dirty solvent, so more cleaning is still needed. You could exchange the solvent for a clean batch, but I prefer to pour it out, saving it for reuse in another water bottle. I then use hot soapy water in the bottle to finish cleaning, followed by a rinse in hot water and a wipe dry. My regular home brew lube will displace any remaining water and relube the chain, if applied liberally. WD-40 will also work, but most people would later apply their regular lube in addition to the WD-40. Since WD-40 contains about 30% oil, applying another lube will result in a mixed lube for awhile. Someone will undoubtedly scream about rust, but I've never got a speck of rust with this process. If worried about rust, then just do a second cleaning withfreash mineral spirits, but always save the solvent for reuse.