I love to tinker and weld on traps, but have to play devil's advocate here.....

Why not just either buy a new set of springs or toss/replace the trap? Seems that by the time you mess with cutting the pipe and tacking it in place you could just spend a few $ and replace the springs just as easy. OR, just replace the trap....at approx $20 for a new #3/4 DLS cat trap that might get you a several hundred dollar cat it seems like the better time investment is to not mess with weak springs.

That said, I will try the pipe strengthening method too...just to satisfy my curiousity. Great post...Thanks!

Trappers are cheap and we like to tinker. It's who we are.

New set of springs is between $11 and $12 per trap. Piece of pipe you have laying around is free. Takes about 5 minutes to cut short piece off and tack weld in place. Cheap. Easy. Fast.

No, no Beav and Grant, I getcha...believe me...seems like a good idea and I'll give it a try...I love tinkering. Again, I was playing devils advocate. BUT for the price of a good cat I'm not willing to do tooooo much experimentation. Proof of concept kinda deal.

If I felt the fix did not work well I certainly wouldn't waste my time. The trap I experimented on had incredibly weak springs and a very tweaked jaw. Now the springs are super strong and I was able to get the jaw pretty straight. Basically a trap that I did not feel was usable is now pretty good for almost no cost. If we were in the middle of trapping season and I needed more traps I would just buy new traps that were ready to go, but since trapping season is 7 months away I have time to fiddle with the old traps and see if they can go a few more years.

Grant will pit pans fit #4 jumps?

I don't own any jumps so I can't say. I would call the guy that makes them, Ed Medvetz 888-215-9249. I know he has a quite a few different kits to fit a lot of different traps.

Yes, i had some #4 jumps with pits

You shorten the DLS bracket. It makes the #3 jumps a good trap. Use a on #4 as is.

X2 I had a pipe fitter for the union teach me how weld, properly cut even angles on pipe, ect and he had so much info it was almost overwhelming haha.

This is an awesome idea though! I think this is definitely article worthy in a magazine. There are hundreds of longsprings just sitting around people sheds (including mine) because the springs were too weak.

TTT

Very Very nice.

You ruined those springs by welding on them. The heat transfer will take most if not all the hardness and "Memory" out of them. Notice I didn't say anything about Tempering.

If you read the whole thread you'll find that "ruined" was not what he ended up with.

great post I will try it if it works that good I have about 5 dozen to do

No not ruined, though they were before I started welding on them.

Those springs weren't ruined by welding on them. It's only a small tac with no real heat transfer to the spring It Isn't like you are running a cover pass over the spring. Us pipe fitter/ welders will understand this.
If your so scared of ruining the springs with heat just wrap a few turns of wire through the pipe and around the spring and your good to go.

Grant that's a great fix for all those weak long springs. Since you posted this I have used some cold roll and I have used sections of re bar. IT's a great fix for those weak springs.

Thanks for sharing.

I read this post a few days ago & did the same thing, works great, been having pull outs before, now I've had none, the critters there when I check, glad you posted this Grant!!

As to this memory thing. Big Bob Is correct to a point but once you add the piece of pipe or what ever you chose to use your creating a new memory to that spring.

TTT again for those that missed it, works like a charm, great post Grant!!