Hello all, hoping for a little help. I've boiled, dyed & waxed my mb650s. I scratched wax away at the pan notch/trigger connection. I adjusted pan tension to about 3.5 lbs. I remade sets one day after lots of rain & noticed it takes way over 4 pounds to fire the trap. I loosened the tensioner bolt & readjusted back to 3.5 pounds. I noticed even when the tension bolt was totally loose it still took a bit to fire the trap. Anyone else had this happen?

Sometimes the bolt gets bound up, which causes erratic tension.

Had the same issue. Had mine buried in peat. No dirt got to them. Weather turned colder and my pan tension went to 8lbs or more.

Possibly the wax was applied too cold (or applied to a cold trap) and stuck in a thick coating that is now binding on itself in the cold. Try using a torch on the pan bolt area for a couple seconds and see if melting the wax away changes the tension. Quite common for folks to cold wax and get a glazed look.

Thx for input. Traps were waxed hot and only left in the wax for a short time. They came out with a thin layer & no wax chunks. I will work on the pan bolt & see what happens.

For best results do NOT dip in hot wax for a short period of time ! Let your traps set in the wax until they reach the same temperature as the wax. I have found a thermometer will show a significant drop in temperature of the wax when introducing cold steel. Let them sit until the temperature of the wax comes back up .

Good luck !

I've noticed the same thing with my 650s even after doing Seldom's washer modification. When I pull them the pan tension is way higher than where I left them.