One of the younger members was asking about trap mods and since I needed to work on some anyhow so I figured I put together a 101.....class I guess

So first things first : NO YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THESE MODS TO CATCH FUR
Just gonna go ahead and save alot of folks the time and breath

Anyhow gonna show just the basics. Also gonna put explain this for somone who may not weld much or metal work in general.

So as far as tools you don't need everything I got but a basic welding is reply all you need. A welder ,welding hood,a few pairs of vice grips a 4 1/2" angle grinder, flap disks ,a good round and flat file ( single cut is the best I found ) and I piece of flat steel, a knock out plate would be just fine.
As far as my welder,it's just a little ole harbor freight flux core wire welder. Not as good as a gas set up but for like $110 bucks it's only a 90amp so you can run it off of regular house socket. Also you don't need to run a shielding gas lots of splatter on the lower power setting though.



So where gonna be moding up a ole Duke 1.5. You can always buy these used pretty cheap so their a good place to start. If you mess one up you can always buy another off any muskrat trapper for a few bucks.
I prefer to do things in stages some I'm not hoping all over the place.
First where gonna measure for our laminations. A flexible tape makes it super easy. I like to come back about an 1/8" to 1/4 when I cut my lams to make sure I have clearance for leavers.



Now theirs alot of options for lamination material round stock and square stock being two of the most common. #9 anneled trapping wire is a pretty good place to start if you have it. Cheap easy to shape and weld. You don't have the same coverage ( diameter wise). But since we have such a small size trap a 20d nail will work just fine and with the tip and head cut off it almost the perfect measurement.

Now the problem with using a nail of this size on a round jaw trap is it's pretty hard to bent do shape on the trap. With a square jaw trap this isn't really a problem but qith a round jaw it is. So we're gonna to shape it into a lam. Now you can do this in a bunch of ways but I'm going to use my trappers bender tool.
Before we do that though we're going to go a head and get rid of the chain set up you can cut off the jhook or just bend it open and keep it. Dont throw away your old chains and swivels by the way,theirs always somome on the trap shed that will be happy to buy them.



Now let's get into our bending stage. Here where gonna make our base plates lams swivels and so on. Now I'm using a trappers bender tool. It's a wonderful lil tool to have and it's what I use to build my various mod parts. You can get them at almost every trapping supply house for like $25-$30. So to bend our lam your going to chunk it in the bender and do small bendsstarting at the middle and going to the right then flipping around and do the same. The pictures should be pretty self explanatory.








Making your lams like this your gonna get some crappy ones the first few times but it's fine,nails are cheap lol. I would also like to say you may want to add a little extra bit of bend on the ends .
You also want your lams to be as straight as possible,after you make a bunch you can check them by laying them on a anvil or table and checking them like so.


If it has a little hump in it or it's not pretty flat just take a hammer and give it a few wacks . The reason we're doing this is because if it's cockeyed or all warped your noting going to have a complete flush set up with the traps jaw face. Like it many be perfectly flush on the ends bust that cocked part has it backed off the jaw face 1/16th". So kinda makes having a lamination job pointless. So this is about that you want. Dosent have to perfect but you don't want what it looked like in the last pic



For round jaw traps,you want your lam raise up very slightly so when you come it down it's some what of a pressured fit.



Now if you just get some #9 anneled trapping wire it's super soft and you don't need to use the bender just cut them to length, clamp the middle then the sides and tack em up.

So where still in the bending stage so now where going to make our base plates and swivels.
There are really two reasons for a baseplated. The first one is to strengthen the bottom of the trap. Originally this was a mod the fox trappers in the east stared doing when the coyotes started moving into areas when it was only ever fox. These traps where mainly old Victors #2's and 1.5s . These where pretty light traps and the metal was pretty thin because they where mainly made for fox which arnt very powerful animals. Problem is when a coyote gets caught in somthing like that they where much more powerful and would actually bed the bease of the traps and snatch the jaws out. Now your left with a pretzel or a trap that's going to be a pain to put back together . Well welding on that base plate to the bottom of the trap reinforced the bottom so that's it's much much harder for that to happen. So Mr.Coyote may be able to yank the jaws out of the base and escape but putting jaws back in a straight base is much less of a pain then trying to restraighten your base.
The second reason is to change the pull direction of the trap. Usually trap chains are connected from the side of the trap. Well that puts the animals foot in a bind because its not a straight pull. How ever baseplating will give you the option of a center connection where the chain is connected directly under the trap so when the animal is caught it is a straight pull and in theroy ( and guys will argue day and night about this) cause less damage.

And even if you prefer a side pull like many water trappers we can still base plate. Now most of the newer traps are of a much better quality and you don't need to worry about frame /base bending as much but if your waning to turn some old muskrat traps into some fox traps in places where you have the chance of a coyote wandering into a set it's not a bad thing to do.

Now for our smaller traps a 20d nail will work just just fine. And here's how we're bending them. Again don't get discouraged if you mess a few up.









Now as you can see we actually have two base plates. The one on the left being a offset base plate and the one on the right being a centered. The off set base plate give more of a side pull affect but the main reason I use it is because if makes it easier to set across the knee or calf.

Looking forward to part two, thanks.

Man those old dukes are flimsy, like the 1970 victors

working on it right now amigo. Sorry it's just alot of typing and picture uploading lol

OK so the very last thing we're gonna bend up is the swivels. Now if you wanna just use some crunch proof swivels thats perfectly fine but since I love these sterling style swivels where gonna go ahead and show how we build them with the bender.

Now slight insight for those who my not know, swivels are one of the most important thing a trap should have. When an animal is caught they will fight the trap. this can and usually does involve large amounts of rolling . if their is no swiveling action the a bind will form in the chain and sooner or later the weakest connection between that caught animal and the trap stake is gonna break. this could be the chain if its poor quality or that animals body part, and we don't want that so thats why most trappers have at least two swivels / swivel points on each trap. Commonly one right at the trap then one at the end of the chain. alot of trappers have moved to the three swivel option how ever where a swivles is added about half way down the chain.

So to make these style of swivels ( know as nail or sterling style swivels) your going to need two 20D nail one with the head and tip cut off and one not cut. Your also found to need a 5/16th steel nut.

EDIT: something I didn't mention is with these type of swivels there is kind of a give and take. The give is unlike with a universal or crunch proof swivels that have two swivel points ( you have the swivle body with two holes and a jhook in each hole) with these you only have 1 But these self clean better than a standard swivel. Self cleaning meaning that there able to work grass dirt and mud out out and keep the swivling action. So something to consider.

First where going to make the body by bending the cut nail in a U



make sure to cut your U's points nice and even other wist thy could interfere with swiveling. Bend it so you nut fit really snug .



now where going to make our Jhook






Now trim your J hook off like so and you got your swivel ready. Gonna cover the actually assembly in the welding portion.





Sweet we got our parts made up so now we can start our prep work. Know how to weld honestly you can skip a lot of this , but we're making this up for some one who may not know how to .
so first off we need to clean of the area we will be welding to since most traps will have some rust or wax and dye or similar its a good idea to get good clean metal to weld to until your more comfortable welding . Learning to weld on dirty metal can be a pain lol. so you can use a grinding stone or flap disk but along with the rust or dirt they will also take away extra metal . A really good option is a wire wheel on angle grinder. a wire wheel will strip most stuff of pretty quick and easy without gouging in the metal.

Now a warning ,if you've never used one of these make sure you where some kind of eye protection ! When you first get them new alot of the loose wires will shoot off and their like little needs and can very easy blind you. buy the way my angle grinder is just a cheap $30 4 1/2" harbor freight grinder. sometimes they have a coupon and you can get one for like $10 .



so all were gonna do is lock or trap in the vice and clean up the ares where welding to,for use that going to be the jaws base and jaw tips.



now as you can see in the first picture i used i piece of soap stone ( is basically chalk for welders lol ) and marked on the jaws where the leavers are. for guys just starting out this is a good way to make sure your lames dont slide over to the lever or right too much.

So now where going to pop the springs off. Again doing this for someone whos very new at ,honestly if your good you dont need to ,if not the pressure from the spring along with too much heat could get you some warped jaws. so to take the spring off its stupid simple just get ya flat head screw driver and do as follows.





now where gonna need some kinda metal plate to use flush up the lamination to the jaw face. If your lamination isnt flush with the jaw face then its basically worthless. now you want your flush plate fairly thin so a knock out box plate will work would work, in this case where using a rafter tie plate.

so basically where going to slid this between the jaws and use two pairs of vice grips to close the jaws. again if your good a spot welds you can just skip taking the springs off and just let the trap close on the plate





now when get clamped we can set up our first lam, now on larger traps i prefer to use three sets of vice grips, one in the middle and one of either end but on these smaller traps thats just a a pain to work around so i use two . One stays clamped on the middle and the other is moved from side to side.

just shoing how those lines keep us from going to far from side to side





now in the picture above I've made some marks on either side of the vice grips. Thats going to be where we make our first welds now you can get away with one weld in the middle just fine but i like to do two just because. A good tip by the way is to start your bead on the addition piece and bring it down to the base work. this gives you a much better chance of now applying too much heat and warping the jaw.



now we have those two welds done we weld the tips down. i like to hole my bead on the tip a little longer so it bubbles and basically blunts the tip.




Now all we do we move our vice gripes to the other side and lock them down in the same position.



now all we do is take out clamps off give everything a quick brush off with a wire brush to knock off any extra BB's or slag do the same thing on the other side.

Wolfie, you are a class act, with a bit of time on your hands. I hate to think if'n you would have been able to hook up with Charlie Dobbins and Wayne Friebersyser (sp) a number of years back. Turn that trap from a Chevy to a Ferrari, as Wayne liked to say.
You are a good young man, keep it up buddy.

Zim

So working down now we're going to bubble the jaw tips. basically all this is is welding a bubble on the jaw tips so the jaws cannot be yanked out of the frame. not really nessecary but alot of guys like to do it. pretty easy to do just dont heat the tips up too much becuse you can melt them off



Now we're gonna weld on the base plate which is pretty simple , just clamp and weld, it is a good idea to make sure your weld a bead ner the arch to make sure your swivles dont get stuck.Now im using an offset base plate so my hook up point is more over to the side than a standard base plate.




so still welding its time for the swivels. now this is why i like to have that nut pretty snug. basically once its in there i can grab the jhook with my ground clamp while welding and keep the whole deal straight . all yout doing is welding the nut to the U dont weld the jhook to the nut lol




You can also weld we jhook with a quick tack weld to keep it from possibly opening up on larger animals.



I put three on mine the first two bing pretty close because as you can see i like loner chains lol

Thanks Wolf. I need to get a small welder and start working on some traps.

so now we can put up our welder and break our or files and grinder for our touch up work.

but before we do that where gonna a "Nite Latch" on it. honestly you really dont need a nite latch but its one of those things trappers find sexy so where gonna go ahead and show how to do it.
basically all a night latch is is a "step" cut into the pan notch or the end of the dog so when the pan lowers to a certain level your hear an audible click this can be helpful when setting your taps in low light.

so where just going to take a file ( a single cut works the best ) and file a notch about half way to a third from the end of the pan notch. The higher the notch the louder the click. Now the night latch does NOT give you any pan tension. That is a miles trigger which ill be more than happy to add to this if somone wants.




since thats done we can get to touching up our trap. now with nome made lame swhere almost always going to get a little of what could be called over or under bite. Also flux core throws alot of bbs so we need to take these off and make sure the jaws are flush. the best thing i have found to uses for this are whats called Flap Disks. Basically their individual piece of sand paper attached to a grinding wheel. they come in alot of different grits the lower grits like 36 are better if you have like really thick rust while a 120 is more of a light material take off . also kee your older whorn ones because they work amazing for small touch up jobs polishing jaws and putting a wikked edge on farm tools.




and just to show yall some of the BB's and a slightly unflushed jaw




so what where going to try and to here is flush everything up by grinding the jaw and lamination together. where also getting rid of any BB's because the small ones can cause cutting on a critters foot. now when where grinding on our jaws ,ive you've never done it before make one motions from one side of the jaw to the other until your more proficient. Alot of guys will try to sit their grinder in one spot and they end up take off too much metal. thats also why where not using a standard grinding stone, much eaiser to mess up.

now i took my soap stone and tried to color what there grinding. and i for got to mention where also going to give this trap a slight rock gap. basically all it is it a gap lower on the jaws that allow dirt to not keep the jaw open any more. not necessary but its an extra 30 seconds that could possibly get you a extra animal. so whe white is what where grinding eveything elese is lest alone.





and there we go nice and flush, or lams have some high spots so there are slight gaps between the jaw and lamination but honestly they will work just fine, comapred to an out of the box trap.
and here what the dirt gap looks like.


so very last thing where doing is smooting off the inside jaw edge. that grinding will tend to leave a little bur on the inside of the jaw that could cut. so just take a round file and knock that off . now since i do alot of traps and i want my stuff smooth (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) glass ( it becomes border line art for me lol ) i use one of these 1/2" belt sanders harbore freight has them for like $30 and i love mine. Not necessary ,a file will work just fine but this Little fella is awesome to have ! so where just gonna smooth off the pat with the white soap stone mark. you sould be able to run your finger arcoss it when done right, you you feel like it could nick or cut you keep smoothing it out.




And there you go ladies,gentlemen and various multi-cellar organisms you just turned some a $3 old muskrat trap into a fine little fox trap that should hold every yote ore cat that gets a good catch and still be good to someone deer dog if they find your set. all these methods can be scaled up and down and hopefully this gave yall new modders a good place to start






if theirs something else yall wanna see here just ask !

Thanks
God Bless !

Great tutorial wolfie,well done.

Fantastic job ! Very informative .

Would I lam a 1 1/2, no. But still, super cool presentation as always. Over the past few years I am astonished of how well your skills have improved, great job young man.

Wolfie, Great tutorial ! Thanks. I don't now if you have ever used the stuff, but they make a spray called anti spatter, you use it on the tip of the welder, where the wire comes out to keep it from sticking. It also works great for keeping most BB's from stinking by the weld, they brush off with just a couple of swipes with a wire brush.
Dennis

Thanks everyone! And duckhntr I've tried similar products with mixed results. Sometimes the worked sometimes they didn't just became something elese to buy ya know

Thank you for doing this for me, Wolfdog91!

You spray anti spatter on the material your welding. You dip the cone of your welder tip into tip dip. It's a gel like substance, which keeps your welder tip clean.

If you knock those boogers off with a small cold chisel it will look a little nicer.

O no your one of those guys that puts huge notches in your pans. Smh

What will happen if you don't remove the springs?