Homemade waxoyl

Discussion in 'Mech Tech' started by Zebedee, Jan 7, 2014.

  1. Found this on another forum. Sounds interesting.

    Introduction – This describes how to make your own Wax oil, it’s a home brew that I think works better than the shop stuff, you know the type, black or clear sold in Halfords and the like;
    £20 for 5 litres. My stuff can be made from common or garden ingredients, can be easily sprayed with a 99p leaf sprayer from garden centres and will set into a gel.
    When the weather is about 10 –15 °C is the best temperature to spray it and will form a runny jelly like covering that eeks it’s way into gaps, when things get hotter about 25°C it will go softer and continue to creep in to all the places you want it to and finally in the winter it will go quite ridged and resist all that horrible stuff winter can throw up. The commercial stuff; I’ve found, sprays on and sets after a year and is quite thick, doesn’t creep into the gaps and cracks when it gets old.
    The Ingredients – You will need: -
    • An old oil container to store it in.
    • 2 Kg of the cheapest candles you can get (Wilko or Lidls etc)
    • 2 Litres of White sprit
    • 0.5 Litres of paraffin oil (the stuff that goes into these little ornamental oil lamps). Very
    cheap engine oil can be used, the cheaper the better as it will have less additives in it.
    The Recipe - Break the candles up into the smallest bits you can and then tip them into the white sprit, put the cap on and put it in the airing cupboard, or somewhere where the temperature will stay around 25°C. These will slowly dissolve over a period of about 2 weeks and it helps to give the mix a good shake every day or so.
    After two weeks most of the candles will have gone into the white spirit and will leave it a thicker milky colour. Now tip the paraffin oil (or engine oil) into your container followed by the liquid part of the white spirit/candle mix; keep the solids out or it will block your sprayer when you use it.
    That’s it, just spray away and it should cost you about £2 for 5 litres, to make more just adjust the volumes, but keep the ratios the same.
    The Application - Warm up the mix so any wax that came out of solution will re-dissolve,
    then direct the sprayer into the gaps, voids or surfaces. It will form a gel when it hits the
    bodywork but it will creep and once the temperature rises a little this will run and creep
    everywhere. It is especially good in panels like bonnets, doors and boots, you can see the stuff running along and filling the seams.
    The Theory - The white sprit has leeching properties, in other words it will creep over any surface it touches, it will not bead like water on a ducks back. The white sprit will creep into gaps and seams and carry the dissolved wax and oil with it, over about a week the white sprit will evaporate leaving behind the wax which will now be solidifying, it will not harden back into candle form because the paraffin oil (engine oil) will keep it liquid, although a thick liquid. If the mix is damaged by say a stone thrown up, then the mix will continue to creep and cover up the hole left by the stone impact.
  2. sANDYbAY

    sANDYbAY On benefits-won't sponsor!

    That sounds like a good idea, especially if it continues to creep for a few months. Are you going to give it a go?
  3. I haven't dared waxoyl my camper yet as i keep finding stuff to weld every year and i'm frightened i'll set it on fire. It needs doing though.

    Theres now a bus outline in rust on my new concrete garage slab.:(
    Purple and PSG like this.
  4. It's not as flammable as you'd think, it only really burns when the metal in close proximity is red hot, and it goes out quite quickly. Obviously, if the van was on fire it would add to the conflagration, but is easily manageable in isolated areas.
    The biggest problem is if you plan to paint the van after you've waxoyled.
  5. Plus wax oil has rustihabiter in :thinking:which would mean it kills any rust you have ;)
    brothernumberone likes this.
  6. Birdy

    Birdy Not Child Friendly

    Are you kidding me??

    For what it costs and the fact you make waxoyl go 4 times further by mixing it with extra white spirit and oil, this seems like a lot of effort for absolutely nothing other than having my airing cupboard smell like an engine shop.

    And don't forget that waxoyl has rust prevention properties (apparently) added. The key to good waxoyl is thin coats and making sure it stays as moist as possible. By all means add engine oil but not used. That contains corrosive properties due to what it has been through in your engine.

    Anyway, l know it's not from your mouth to the forum but another but keep us posted if ever you do try this homebrew.
  7. I should use this more in my daily life.

    My vocabulary ain't what it wonce was
    89Rallye and brothernumberone like this.
  8. sANDYbAY

    sANDYbAY On benefits-won't sponsor!

    I'm not very experienced at using waxoyl. I've only used it once and I had no end of trouble trying to get it to spray properly.
    I wound up crouched in the engine bay with a kettle of boiling water and the waxoyl tin stood in hot water, pumping the top of the can like a maniac to get enough pressure. Sometimes it spurted out like a fire hose, sometimes it begrudgingly dribbled out and collected on the tip of the lance and never really gave the the spray pattern I expected.
    I appreciate that I had the cheap tins with the cheap pump on top but even so I expected to be able to do a half decent job.
    Obviously the engine oil in the op's post would be unused oil but if the finished product can be spayed in a mist out of a little spray bottle then it sounds a good deal more user friendly than commercial waxoyl.
    I would be interesting to know if it would work.
  9. You need 60-80lbs pressure to spray it and you can't get more than about 2 lbs from those rubbish Hammerite pump things. I too once bought one. What you need is a pressure pot schultz gun and a compressor.And a mask.
    Waxoyl is cheap anyway, I wouldn't thin it, it sprays just fine even in the winter if you have the right equipment.
    89Rallye and womball like this.
  10. sANDYbAY

    sANDYbAY On benefits-won't sponsor!

    And if I buy a compressor, air line, pressure pot, Shultz gun and mask to waxoyl my van the waxoyling becomes a very expensive exercise.
    It's like buying all the skiing equipment and clothing just to get down a snowy mountain once.
    The op's recipe seems to offer a cheap and simple way to do an acceptable job without all the proper kit.
  11. It's not something you should have to keep doing and it's not a great deal of fun. If I didn't do what I do, it would be on the "pay someone else" list.
    PSG likes this.
  12. As zed said, the problem with the hammerite pump is that it does'nt vapourise the waxoyl, so you don't get everything inside a cavity covered, just the area directly squirted. It's still better than nothing though.
  13. Don't have an airing cupboard in the house so nowhere to make the stuff anyway.
    Is ankor wax similar stuff to waxoyl? Its a helluva lot cheaper at my local motorfactors.:confused:
  14. Read the small print and it says that it is only good for 18 month's out side[​IMG] not that good then :thinking:
  15. sANDYbAY

    sANDYbAY On benefits-won't sponsor!

  16. But when its sprayed inside box section its inside
  17. Its a bit thinner to begin with
    Any cavity wax needs a proper gun and compressor to get it to atomise properly
  18. sANDYbAY

    sANDYbAY On benefits-won't sponsor!

    Pooh! I'm looking for something I can use without all the spray gubbins. Like I'm going to be refitting my headliner soon and want to put some rustproofing into the crevices beforehand. Each time I expose a bit of the bus I'd like to be able to get some stuff into the area before I cover it up again.
  19. Look on ebay they do spray tins of it and they come with long flexible hoses[​IMG] there ideal for getting in then bits between the roof and just put them in hot water first an the will be really runny:thumbsup:

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