how much wax will i need to dip 2-3 dozen 1 1/2s? also, when finished i understand that i can keep it in a metal bucket with a lid. walked through lowes today looking for something i could use, but came up empty. any suggestions for storage? thanks from the rook.........

You wax will have to be deep enough in whatever you heat it in to fully submerge the trap. When you get through dipping your traps just leave the wax in what ever you are heating it in. After the pot cools may want to put something over top of it to keep everything out of your dried wax. Hope this helps.

gets me going larry. gander mt. here sells slabs of wax, but not sure how many i should buy. can i use a galvanized bucket to melt and dip?

start off with about 10 pounds in a cooking pot with a lid which you can buy about anywhere, like larry said when you are done just put the lid on it and save it til next time and maybe just add another pound of wax

hoo, that gets me closer. i have seen pots a kmart that will do the trick. will pick up my gear this week. i do plan on doing this on a coleman stove. any reasons why this would not work?

as long as the coleman puts out enough heat to melt the wax and you can control the heat as to not overheat the wax it should work fine... i use the burner for my turkey fryer

hoo, i think it will work. i used a maple syrup bucket to dye my traps in. was able to bring the water to a boil for quite some time. does have a regulator knob on it so i can adjust temp.

If you had a old electric deep fryer, they work pretty good too. Got to have one with temp control on it .

I use a canner to wax my traps. One good way to tell how much wax you will need is to fill the container with water to the level you'll need . Then weight it .That should be the amount of wax you need. Don't put wax on top of water. Solid wax ! Bill Kasten

I always use the double boiler method when waxing. Safer, less chance of a fire, wax won't smoke, but gets plenty hot.

Put a shallow pan of water on the fire. 3 or 4 nuts in the bottom of the pan. Pot of wax on the nuts. Water will stay exactly 212 degrees and will heat your wax to 212.

buck, not sure i understand the physics of this. does the water jacket prevent the temp. from rising over boiling point? does the water in the pan have to be replenished as it boils away? like the safety aspect of it most of all. to all who added input, thank you.

Rapman, once water reaches the boiling point at whatever pressure (altitude) you are at, the temperature cannot increase any further. Once water is at the boiling point, all additional heat energy is released as steam due to the latent heat of vaporization. At sea level that is 212. Since the water can't get any hotter, and the pot of wax is sitting in the water (make sure it is sitting on those nuts), the wax can't get hotter than 212.

Yes, you do have to replenish the water as it steams off, but if you use a deep enough pan, you don't have to do it very often.

The shape of your wax container is going to determine how much wax you need. It has to be big enough to get any trap you have into, but the taller and skinnier the better. That's if you are waxing one at a time. Of course, if you are waxing more than one at a time, you'll need a wider container and more wax.

Make sure you put a nail between the jaws of your trap before waxing, so it can get to all surfaces.

Let the trap stay in the wax for about 5 minutes so the trap metal gets as hot as the wax. If it doesn't, the wax will flake off easier. Lift the trap up and let the wax drip back into the pot. Hang it up by the chain so the wax doesn't rub off while drying.

excellent instructions buck, thanks. one more question: can i do a few traps at a time or will the trappings bumping against each other prevent wax adherence? understand that i am a bit new at this, so the questions may be elemtary. again, thanks.

You can do a few at a time. When you lift them out of the pot, the wax will adhere to the surfaces that were touching other traps. The only reason they have to stay in there for a little while isn't so the wax coats them, but so the metal of the trap gets as hot as the wax. So, you can put as many as your wax can cover. It just takes more wax for a larger pot to cover all the trap.

If you have a good will around you check them out for old canning pots. I have picked up several for boiling traps and one for waxing and one for canning most under $10

BuckNE,
Why do you want wax between the jaws? With the nail between the jaws, are you not waxing the surface of the trap that will hold the foot?

Mind already have the nail in there before it goes in the dye pot. I just leave it in until I'm ready to use the trap. I guess it really doesn't make a difference in the waxing process.

Buck are you doing multiple traps at a time that it takes 5 minutes in the wax pot? I do mine on the electric stove in a pot just big enough to fit a #5 coil or a #4 double long and it takes less then 60 seconds to get the steel up to temp doing one trap at a time. Just wondering if it's the double boiler set up or the number of traps and pot size that make the difference.

Pot's: Dollar stores
Wax: most hobby shops carry candle making crap ie: wax in 10 lb blocks, around $12

well since i have a small ammt of traps i was just gonna use a crock pot this year... but i was reading my was block.. and it said to dip the traps in for 15 secons... but i know that the trap wont heat up that quick.....

but how do u know when the trap is heated up?

Thanks... Jeff