I been doing a little bit of trapping with my old man the past two years, but this year wanted to try and trap some on my own.

I'm wanting to use berkshire cables on my 1.5cs, and was wondering what's the best way to attach the cable to the trap chain. Should I simply replace the chain swivel with a two-sided swivel?

I'm also wondering if using an old kitchen crockpot is suffice for melting wax and keeping it at a good temperature. When dying, the traps have to be boiled, and surely there's another way to keep off the wive's glass top stove. What else can be used to complete this process, say, out in the garage??

Thanks in advance for the advice, much appreciated. I've done quite a bit of surfing the past couple weeks on the archives and such, but if somehow I've missed the good stuff, by all means please point me in the right direction.

I don't use the cables, but did buy some Northwood 1.5 offset traps that had some on them and they where connected with the
in-line swivels. I use a Propane Trukey Fryer to boil, wax and dye my traps. I have a old pressure cooker pot for waxing so when I'm done I just put the lid on and twist and lock it when the wax is cooled for next time. I have have another big pot for boiling and dying. I use the logwood dye and it work real good. You can mix the logwood dye in water and let your traps set for a few days or so without boiling from what I've read before I think it was hear in the archives. Maybe someone will chime in about this. Hope this helps, but there is some excellent info in the archives on dying/waxing traps.

I leave a swivel on the end of the trap chain. Then since I make my own berkshire cables I just run the cable through that swivel and then smash a ferral on the end of the cable. This just saves me a j hook on the swivel. I used to use a hot plate and small pot for waxing but since I now run a lot more traps I do the same as okiecathunter and use a turkey fryer ouside. Be careful doing it in the garage as wax is very flamable if splashed on the fryer or spilled. Hope this helps. Good luck!

If you have a couple days time. You can die just by leaving them in a cold mix. I have done this before. Or look in e-bay gor a propane single burner to use on garage floor or out back somewhere. Cold mix won't remove any oil from new traps if needed.
I usually collect walnuts in a plastic bucket about 2/3 way full. Leave outside for 3-4 weeks, rain fills bucket , water leachs stain out , set traps in bucket , stained in couple days . Wax as needed.
Not sure if best way but cuts manual labor way down.

I used an OLD crock pot this year to wax. There are faster ways to do it, but it worked fine. The trap will need to be in the wax longer than if you had it over a turkey fryer, but it is safer as there isn't an open flame.

Do you have an area to build a fire outside? a few concrete blocks and a steel container. Build up a stand for the container with the blocks and build a fire under it.

find a big old pot at a yard sale or somewhere and just build a fire let it burn down then put the pot on top of the coals