Somehow I messed it up lol ! Boiled the traps and power washed them clean. Let dry and dipped in formula 1 and let dry x4. A week later all the traps have rust bubbles popping up and you can scratch off the coating with your fingernail! What the heck did I do wrong?

I went ahead and put them in the ground and will boil clean after season and dip in Rustoleum like I did my other k9 traps.

I have also had rust form under the F1 coating. Not sure why this happens.

If you boiled them in logwood - which is dilute tannic acid, the power wash may not have got minute amounts of the acid off before you dipped. If you did not use any logwood or such to boil them first, then I can't wager a guess. .................. the mike

Right after I dipped them we had a misty fog that kept them from drying till the next day when the sun came out. I’m guessing that the traps sweated somehow under the coating and I sealed that moisture in. My best guess anyways. I have 3dz done that are an absolute mess and need to be redone.

You’re not messed up beyond all recognition. Borrow a cement mixer. Put in a couple gallons of pea rock or 1/2 to 3/4 inch gravel and 6 traps at a time. Let them spin for 5-10 minutes and do the next batch. This should remove all dye, wax and everything else.

When I was canine trapping, I spray painted my traps, let them dry for a couple days, then full metal jacket coated them twice. The coyotes and fox were fine with it and there was no rust.

That’s exactly what I normally like to do but I like to dip mine. I like to let them dry and air out for two weeks before the fmj. I was short on time I needed them ready in 5 days so I gave formula1 a shot. Not impressed but I hear from some f1 is the best thing out there but I’m done lol !

How clean does the cement mixer get them ? I was thinking about buying a small mixer. Should I take the blades out you think? Have you tried a wet tumble with pea gravel ?

The cement mixer available to us is old, loud and free. The blades help lift and drop the rocks and traps thus cleaning them pretty fast. The mixer, run dry, did an incredible job of removing everything. I suppose I could have just dipped them in full metal jacket, or formula one, let them dry over night and done a second coat. But I like a dark color even though they’ll be under dirt. Or in my case, under dried grass. Note, when I trap canines, I’ve graduated to the pipe dream set almost exclusively. Under a dark screen, even an undarkened trap still catches them.