Cycle Repairing and Adjusting
With a Chapter on building a Bicycle from a Set of Parts

26 CYCLE REPAIRING The best method is to melt some russian tallow in a shallow tin dish, just sufficient to cover the chain, which may be coiled. Stand the tin on a stove or in a warm oven for an hour or so. Then hang up the chain to drain off super- fluous tallow whilst warm, and wipe the chain with a cloth. This will thoroughly lubricate the chain in every link and rivet, and will last for a considerable time. The outside of the chain may be brushed over with graphite or black- lead, if the machine is nöt fitted with a metal gear-case. Should an oil-bath gear-case be fitted, the old oil should be emptied out, the gear-case cleaned out with paraffin, and fresh oil put in. Instead of the russian tallow, mutton suet, cut up fine, may be used. The chain, having been cleaned in paraffin as before, is placed in an old tin and covered with about 2 lb. of the cut-up suet. Then place the tin in an oven sufficiently hot to melt the suet. Let the chain lie in this for three or four hours, then wipe carefully and replace it on the machine, finally giving the chain a dusting of graphite well brushed in. Making Stick Lubricant.—A suitable lubricant for cycle chains is blacklead and tallow. Melt the latter (russian tallow for preference), and thoroughly stir in the powdered graphite until the mixture is of the desired con- sistency, when it should be poured into moulds to set. Pieces of steel cycle tube, cut to the desired length, may be used as moulds ; the mixture should afterwards be pushed out, when set, with a stick the size of the inside diameter of the tube. This, whilst making an excellent lubricant for the outside of the chain, is not of much use