Well gee, I was a mechanic for 18 years and never had any one say melted wax would help loosen nuts and bolts! Not even the old timers.
One of the reasons I read this forum is to learn new stuff and today I did.
"My favorite trick for removing rusted NPT pipe plugs from cast iron is to heat the surrounding iron, then melt a candle on the threads. Paraffin will wick into the threads and act as a lubricant. Be sure to use a snug fitting, proper sized socket. In this example I used a special female square drive socket that fits the square on the pipe plug."
"Be sure to first clean off all the
penetrating oil and only use open flame in areas
safe to do so. ... iron is to heat the surrounding iron, then
melt a candle on the
threads.
Paraffin will wick into the threads and act as a lubricant."
Removing Rusted Bolts
The Art of Removing Stuck Nuts and Bolts - DSPORT Magazine
Who has bees wax in their tool box ? [Archive] - The Garage Journal Board
"Recently I retired from going to sea for 30 years. I sailed deep sea as an engineer. Every ship had blocks of bees wax in the machine shop. It is for sale in the Mariner's Catalog.
Steam engineers, even before the Cival War, melted wax on hot stubborn nuts and bolts. It would seep into any thread or frozen up tight space. This was used way before Blaster and Liquid Wrench was invented.
I often heat up things gently and then put the wax to it. Some poor guy on a different thread was fighting a sheared off water pump housing bolt. I would have heated the bolt head with a small flame and let the wax do all the work."
I am afraid this old trick is not used very much anymore except by seaman that I've worked with. I have found it in a few old hardware stores and also on the internet. Everyone that works with tools should buy a block.
FYI, the union I was in was formed in 1876. A lot of the ship and riverboat engineers were also train drivers. Anyway I hope this bees wax trick helps somebody out, preferably before they shear off a bolt or stud.