If you don’t know me, I’m new to all of this so I decided to go with FMJ because of my limited amount of traps and the ease of the procedure.

With that being said, I was loaned 2 dozen traps which had a rather thick coating of wax on them. I have them boiling on my gas range on the 80,000 BTU Burner. I bring them to a rolling boil and let that go for about 10 minutes. I can see that a ton of wax has floated to the top. Next I added water until everything washed away and then I dump the water to retrieve my traps.

When taking the traps out I noticed that they’re still somewhat slick and somewhat slimy. They are leaving a crappy black residue on my gloves. My question is, if this is still some wax do I need to reboil the traps to remove the remaining wax or since I’m dipping in FMJ can I just roll with what I’ve got?

I'd get some lye or was removal stuff and boil again. FMJ won't hold like it should if there is still a soft surface (wax) still there.

What is lye, and other than trapping supply companies, where can I get it?

I wouldn't boil chemicals like lye in the house, pretty nasty fumes.

You can get it at hardware stores. Might have to ask at the counter as it is a restricted bitem these days thanks to the methheads.

Thanks guys. And thank you ADC. I don’t have a propane burner so I’m just boiling the wax off to dip. Maybe I’ll just boil them again to see if the rest will come off.

I have the second dozen on now. I think that I’ll let them boil for about 15-30 minutes to see if that does a better job

Lye is a very strong akali(opposite of acid) that is very caustic. Old days is was derived from leeching wood ashes.

I guess that I’ll just try to keep it simple and safe, something that I can actually handle. Although it’s not time efficient I’ll just continue boiling them until they come clean.

You can get Muriatic Acid at pool supply places. It will clean them right up with out boiling. Use it OUTSIDE! It does it quick too, like minutes.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Klean-Strip-G...13=&veh=sem

Really? Wow, how easy that’d be. I’ll have to look into how to do it, etc... Maybe due to the light layer which remains it’ll come off in no time at all

I've only used it once myself. It really cleaned up the traps fast. There are guys here with more experience with it that I'm sure can be of help in the how to dept.

I appreciate your input ADC

If the residue seems oily, I’d try a solvent like mineral spirits or gasoline. Or even a good dose of dish soap. If you use anything caustic (acid or alkaline) remember that you have to neutralize it and rinse very well or it will corrode your traps. FYI, muriatic acid is also available from building & concrete supply stores, as it’s used to clean and remove concrete.

Thanks Kid, I'll keep that in mind. Perhaps I'll wash with Dawn and then boil once again if needed. I left a dozen on the stove last night, it's still there. Maybe I'll skim the wax off of the top and just turn it on again to boil before I dump the water and take the traps out.

If I loaned you or anyone else traps that I had already waxed and you removed the wax to use a plastic coating or used acid or lye on my traps, there might be some pay back involved. physical compensation maybe.

Ask the trap owner what he/she wants done with them.!

Completely understood. We’d previously spoke about this to which was spoken that if the owner was unhappy with the end result I would trade these traps for 2 brand new dozen. Much like me, my friend is new and we’re both trying to find our way in the trapping game. FMJ just seems too easy for the amount of traps which we have and for the volume of our trapping.

I thank you for your advice. I would most certainly never do such a thing without permission.

The simplest solution is to rewax them.Done correctly,there will be no heavy coating.

I boiled them twice with the second time allowing them to boil for 30 minutes. When I pulled them out I thought that I’d had the problem licked. WRONG!!!! There’s still paint drops of wax here and there as well as all over the pan.

Is this normal? I thought that by boiling the traps that the wax would come off. That doesn’t seem to be the case.

Are you sure it's wax? I have cleaned and dyed and waxed some pretty nasty traps that were given to me and I boiled the most of the wax off then I soaked them in the purple power cleaner and it worked well and can be found most places.

It's normal.Some will tell you it will all rise to the top and you are done.That hasn't been my experience and I've waxed traps for a long time.Let them cool and spritz some water on them and you wil see it bead up.If you rewax them,you don't need to get it all off.

Hmm...I just reread your original post where you said,"crappy black residue", I have to wonder if they could of possibly been Speed Dipped. Do they have a petroleum smell to them?

Thanks Taximan, I have a feeling that is going to be the easiest thing to do.

No, they’re my buddy’s traps and this is only his second or third season, my first full season. He just dyed and waxed them. I just don’t want to deal with that since I don’t have a propane burner, I’m new, and it can be dangerous with inexperience. Plus I only have about 4 dozen traps.

You don't HAVE to have a burner if you have a boiling pot big enough you can set it on some bricks and build a fire under it a half barrel works great. Just an idea in case you hadn't thought of it.

I did think of that but I also thought about the time efficiency. I do have a big stock pot that I’ve been boiling a full dozen at a time in. It works well and somewhat fast on our new stove. Boils in about an hour to an hour and a half when I cover the pot with foil.

I’m thinking that if I go over every trap and scrape off the rather large paint drops of wax with a putty knife, that if I were to boil once again it might work. It’s been raining so much here daily that doing anything outside on a fire wouldn’t be possible.

I am just in amazement at how well that wax is holding on. My buddy did have it on there pretty thick. If it had a wick on it, it’d have burned for days

Muriatic acid will/may weaken the springs, do not use it. Sleepy creek packs a notice to that effect with all their traps. Don't think what you are trying to boil off is wax, probably left over dye or dip.

I don't think that I'll go the acid route either. Again, they're not my traps and I wouldn't want to do such a thing to begin with.

I know what you're saying about this possibly not being wax, but it truly is. There are big wax tear drops still hanging onto the traps. When I boiled the one dozen once again the sliminess went away but what was left were many wax tear drops. I think I'm going to scrape those spots off with a small putty knife and then only boil a half dozen at a time. It seems that whichever way I have them laying in accordance with the bottom of the pot, it's the top side of the trap (opposite of the pot's bottom) that continues to hold the wax.

You may try boiling less traps at a time so the traps get more area to release the wax.

That's what I was thinking also.

When you boil these traps the wax floats to the top , if you pull the traps out of the still hot water you are reapplying the wax . It’s the only reason you would have drops of wax on them after boiling twice. Boil them again and let the water cool before removing the traps. Another option would be to pressure wash them with a steam Jenny!

I have put a hose into my pot and allowed everything to flow out of the pot as well as having allowed the pot to cool for 24 hours and peeled the hard crust of wax off of the top of the water.

Like I said,some of it stays on,regardless what people tell you.You don't need to get it all off to re-wax.Be very careful,waxing indoors.I would highly recommend getting it outside.

I understand, which is why I would rather try FMJ. I’ll figure it out somehow.

I'll tel you what I would do with them right now, I'd just set them in the ground and catch something. If they still have enough wax on them to bead water, they still have enough wax to repel water which is the intent of waxing traps.
Too much is made of prepping traps, imo, you boiled 'em clean (twice), they was already dyed and waxed before (I would have probably used them then); they is good to go. They will be covered while in use and the catch will shine them right up.
I expect from what you say that the residual wax is about the same protection that you will get from FMJ.

That purple stuff (Purple power-Super Clean) that gets talked about might just be what you want, wax is a heavy viscosity oil so a degreaser makes some sense and some forum members have had some good luck using it.

Other interest threads that might help:
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/6244276/Re:_Boiling_traps#Post6244276
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/6191430/Removing_FMJ
Acid>> https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1459836/1
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/5113801/1
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/6265818/Re:_Full_Metal_Jacket#Post6265818
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads....for#Post6144974
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/6253082/all/For_all_the_Speed_Dip_Haters

fwiw, the thick clunky coating of wax is because the wax and the traps were too cool when the traps were removed, often too many traps at once in the pot and sometimes just not long enough in the pot.

Paraffin wax has a flash/burn temperature of 284F-390F
Paraffin melts at about 130-160F
Water boils and turns to steam at 212F (notice there is no range, it always 212F for both boil and steam)

So, boiling water melts wax and wax will float off.
Wax at or near melting point does not turn water into steam, so water can be trapped inside the wax coating.
Heating the wax to ~230F (well above the steam point) would insure that any residual water turns to steam and is removed the from trap.(225-235F is well below the flash point, but keep a tight fitting pot lid handy just in case)

Most of my traps go straight from the tannin boil into the wax pot a few steps away so the majority of the water has steamed off-dried in the few seconds of transition (they look fully dried- don't drip water into hot wax, it reacts violently) and the traps are still relatively hot, The trap will always have some small bit of water trapped in the crevices (this is true even if the trap cools over night or a week prior to waxing) so there is a visible bunch of bubbles coming of the trap-wait til all that steam is out then using a wire rod turn the trap over and wait a moment to see if more steam bubbles rise- if not wait a moment or two more to insure the trap is wax-hot then remove the hot trap from the very hot wax: the wax should run off the trap like water. Hang the trap on a line to cool. The wax build up should then look like the trap is oiled not glazed.

Thank you TJM for your input. Lots of good information there

Gonna try and help the big1 out here. The traps he has are at the most 2 years old for one of the dozen. The other only 1 year old. They were boiled in purple power then set out and let to rust. They did not rust much. They were then dyed, set on a pallet until I had all dyed and then waxed. This was done in the same afternoon.

Some caught critters, grinners and trash pandas. Tho most just spent their time in the elements. Keeping an eye on this as I may go the dip route depending on how this goes. I have only boiled with purple power and it has removed more than enough for me to dye and wax. I did not think it would be this hard to remove ALL the wax so you could dip them. I guess that is showing the newbie in us.

Sorry if this is mumble jumbled, I was watching our girls little league softball championship game and spent the last two hours trying to post to this.

It was a great game. Our girls got out played on the offense. There were no errors in the game. Ohio just got a few better hits than we did. They played well, it was a great game.

Sat is the welcome home for them. Roads will be blocked off and it wont be for the flooding this time!

Sorry. Guess that got more involved than it needed to be.

It doesn't have to be bare metal each time you wax, the wax will dissolve itself and work fine. It doesn't have to be bare metal each time you dye with tannin, tannin only reacts with rust=no rust, no "dye"=good thing. The only reason I would strip to bare metal is to paint. I have never used dips, but, I consider them to be paint. To paint I would consider blasting or tumbling in a cement mixer.

Before the recent "pruning' there ~20-30 threads on 'how to remove this or that dip'; usually all the dips get called Speed Dip even if they aren't Andy Stoe's brand.

Lol I guess I’ve never really tried to remove wax , just re dye and re wax. From what I am reading here wax may be the best protection a guy could use if it’s that hard to remove !