No worries. There are many good contributors on these forums, but I am happy if my input helped.
I thought I needed to wax the cassette as well as the chain...ugh.. I know it's a little embarrassing...
We all do similar mistakes, I don't see anything to be embarrassed. The exposed parts are not waxed, just clean them and makes sure that no oil/gunk from the previous lube is left. Once clean you can run your fingers on the cassette and you feel just the bare metal nothing else.
I had thought/ hoped they would do the Hot melt wax thing. It turned out to be the drip wax
Unfortunately drip lubes, though they may contain wax, are not the equivalent of waxing. I believe I have pointed out a thread that I have started
ebike lubes. You will find my experiences somewhat in detail there.
Have you done the hot wax or drip wax. If you did the hot wax how did you do it? What brand/ recipe?
I do hot waxing. A different animal but amazing results. I am using the %10 PTFE %90 paraffin wax (food grade wax, not candles which contain some oil). You also have several off the shelf offerings like
Silca Hot Wax WS2 which paraffin with WS2 instead of PTFE,
Molten Speed Wax which is paraffin with PTFE and Molybdenum disulfide.
All of these have similar reviews and work similarly. The additives seem to improve longevity of each application otherwise even pure paraffin will work (but will need re-waxing after 60-70 miles while the mix I use usually lasts 150-200miles).
So far I have waxed 5 different chains. First preparation is the time consuming part, re-waxing is very easy and clean. Cleaning is more or less the same procedure this is a good guide:
Cleaning the chain.
Since I live in an apartment I use citrus based degreaser(you need a strong one, I used finish line then pure orange oil with success), rinse it with soapy water then soak in ipa.
The process is slightly different new and used chains. Used chains take multiple shakes in degreaser then soap to clean (until no gunk comes out) but it is easier to get rid of all the previous lube. Brand new, unused, chains don't have gunk that needs cleaning. However to get rid of the factory lube inside they need to be soaked in a strong degreaser for a prolonged amount of time. I degreased a brand new chain by soaking it in for 5-7 hours in orange based turpentine (followed by soapy rinse and pure ipa soak) seems to be working nicely. The other four chains were used. I wouldn't use an old chain since the remaining life may not be worth the effort. A chain that was ridden for a couple hundred miles seems to be the sweet spot.
A warning, If you are going to soak the chain don't use a corrosive degreaser(For example regular simple green is corrosive, the HD and aircraft versions seem fine). Also turpentine was far more effective than off the shelf degreasers for brand new chains.
Did you use an ultrasonic cleaner etc...
Unfortunately I don't have one(Really would like to get one but I have limited space), it makes the job much easier however not necessary. After the initial clean you don't need it anyways, you run the chain under boiling water then into the pot so re-waxing is a breeze.
If you don't have a strong degreaser to soak a brand new chain in, then just ride the new chain for 100-200 miles, after that use a "shake in a bottle method" like this one
. The accumulated gunk will not be too much (it may still be a lot, you will be amazed how much gunk comes out of a clean looking chain), It is fast since you will not do prolonged soaks, it seems to be doing a good enough job when followed with a soapy rinse and alcohol soak and it is quite simple.
Good luck.
