Man, you guys weren't kidding about using vinegar to get an old trap back to bare metal!! I got some #1 long springs from a couple of you guys on here, and some of them looked like they were with Noah on the ark! I soaked them in straight vinegar for 2 days as was recommended in another thread. Took them to the car wash, dumped them out on the ground, put power washer on "rinse", and went to town on them. SPOTLESS!!!! Well, almost. Maybe a small spot on a few of them, but to go from COVERED with hard rust, to bare metal, looking like new. I would have never expected this kind of result.

Pretty cool trick!!!

Now you need to dip or paint to protect. Otherwise, your back to square one.

Sarge

I use 30% vinegar to take zinc off of hardware. Works pretty good and makes for nice old looking hinges for furniture.

Yup!! Will be doing that this afternoon. I put them back in the bucket, covered with 50/50 vinegar and water till I can get to them. Will rinse and dry, then probably go with paint as these will be my water traps. Unless there is a dip that is made for water traps that lasts a long time. Someone mentioned Formula One, but it's a bit expensive. I guess ya get what ya pay for though.

For water traps paint is the way to go in my opinion

The vinegar bath is a great way to clean user traps. However - do NOT use it to clean collector traps. It will lower the value.

Collector traps should not be cleaned to bare metal! They are supposed to have a patina!

Just saying.

Vinegar works great to clean dirty traps! Just don’t leave them in for too too long, because vinegar will weaken the springs. I have personal experience with that!

How long is too long? I haven't noticed a problem

Dakota Line makes a dip

Muriatic acid does the same thing but in 4-5 minutes instead of 2 days.

Yeah, I would like to know the answer to this as well. I didn't notice ANY difference in the springs before and after the 3 day treatment. Just very impressed at how well it worked! Springs are still plenty strong for my purposes, but I'd like to know what the "safe" limit is. Just curious is all. There isn't much acid in vinegar - maybe 5% or a little more at most, I think. I can't imagine that would hurt metal for quite some time. Specially if diluted with water. This is interesting.

AJE- have you used that dip from Dakota Line? If so, what did ya think? I was thinking about just using paint, but is this dip better than paint? I'd be willing to try it if someone has good experience with it.

I agree with JP, and yes, this has been a topic with differences before. Vinegar although at 5% is acidic. A long term soak will weaken springs. As far as treating traps, I switched from walnut hulls to 50% acetone or mineral spirits and 50% rustoleum paint years ago. I'll never boil traps again. Nowadays I mainly run a groundhog line and will help out farmers who contact me with other critters and the traps hold up well. I've caught fox setting groundhog holes so they don't seem to mind it.

What about with new traps? Doesn't the oil / grease keep the paint from sticking?

I certainly didn't mean to stir up a hornets nest with this thread. I do a lot of handgun hunting, and one of the topics that was actually banned in our forum a few years ago was the discussion of magnum vs. normal primers. THAT was a heated topic.

If your Wife isn't home put them in the dishwasher, otherwise take them to the carwash, then treat'em.

I think he already took them to the car wash.

I am one of the lucky few in that I married my best friend. My wife doesn't care if I use the dishwasher or not. I just wondered when ya said ya skipped boiling them, if that meant ya skipped cleaning new traps at all and just went straight to paint. Thanks for the clarification. I'm going to try your method on the next set.

Yes, I already took these to the carwash cause I didn't know how easy / hard it would be to get the rust off. I now see that it would have come off just fine in the dishwasher after a soak in the vinegar. I'm learning as I go here, and this is pretty dang interesting!! My next set are new traps, so those will go straight to the dishwasher.

As my one Sister would say, dear Jesus, help me now lol. No man, don't put them in the dishwasher. Take your new traps to the carwash and wash the heck out of them. Then take them home to dry. Then make a 50-50 acetone rustoleum and dip them. Hang till dry, put'em in the shed and then go.

Nature does provide and tannins are awesome. However the 50 50 gets it done in short time. I love trapping groundhogs and it's been 4 year since I treated my traps and they're still good. Mileage will vary.

"How long is too long? I haven't noticed a problem"

I have used the vinegar method successfully to clean traps. It will even remove trap wax quite well.
The first time I used it, things did not go well.

It was the middle of the summer when I decided to clean up some traps with vinegar. I had way too many things going on. I was building a screened in porch, training dogs and taking care of all the home duties etc.

I put about four dozen of my canine traps (That was about all the canine traps I had that were operable. Back in the 70s and 80s I typically kept about 8 or 9 dozen canine traps ready for service) into five gallon pails of straight vinegar. Then I promptly forgot that I needed to watch the traps. Pretty dumb I must admit but like I said, I had too much going on.
The traps sit in the solution probably for a month before I stumbled on them.

The springs were worthless. I was mad at myself and was surprised that the vinegar did that. With all the work I needed to finish before fall I did not have time to put new springs on them, That was the year I first bought some MB500s as I figured they would not require much to get them ready.

Last summer I put 3 dozen forged jaw #3 Victors that were brand new into vinegar to get rid of the oil.
For over fifty year I have spent a lot of time boiling traps to clean them and to dye them. Seems the older I get the lest time I have. Probably just have got really slow.
I let the traps set in the vinegar for 3 days, poured off the top of the solution, hosed them off and let them soak in a baking power solution for about three days. One day would have probably been fine but once again I had a lot going on. The traps were clean as could be.

Hope this helps

Mac

I can’t remember exactly how long I left the traps in the vinegar, but it was probably 1-2 months. They were Duke 1 1/2’s and had cable attached to them for my stakes. The cable dissolved.

The springs weakened so bad the traps would only be good for muskrats.

Pics or it didn't happen lol.

The vinegar I get is only 5%, you can leave them in for weeks and it doesn’t weaken the springs. I do it every year. It even cleans all your dip and old wax off. I’m about to the point of doing this and setting then soak them again next year if needed. Haven’t found a critter yet that cares if he’s caught with a bare metal trap or one dipped or painted.

The dishwasher on the heat cycle is good for removing oil from new traps which would interfere with paint adhesion. Don't put acid treated traps in the dishwasher, any significant amount of rust particles will plug the dishwasher filters. Go after those with a pressure washer

For cleaning traps just buy a little kiddie pool from a DG and a bottle of Blue Dawn dish soap and throw’em in there. Leave’em a day or so and take out and rinse. Oil gone.

Rust is what weakens springs.
They wont last if you let them rust every year.

Lots of dinkin around. I still do um the old way. Boil um in lye water. Dye um w/walnuts and wax. No smell. Fast traps. Me retired. Lots of time.

I can tell you that vinegar will dissolve chunks out of Duke body grip springs. Just the springs. Had that happen to several. Kinda looked like maybe some pockets of impurities of the metal in different spots just fell out. This was after a week/10 days in a vinegar water mix. I had to replace the springs on all of them.

Dip em in the vinegar for 12 hrs pull em hit em with a wire brush and resoak for 12 gets back to bare metal for me

Also if it's desolving stuff you don't want it to you can soak in baking soda and water neutralizes the acid

Y’all are very helpful. This has been a great adventure for me, and learning how to clean traps. I didn’t put the rusty ones in the dishwasher. Just the ones that are brand new and have to get the oil off.

As for pictures of my learning curve- how do I post pictures?? I took some for sure. I have a bad memory due to an accident when I was in high school, so I take pictures of everything. How do I get them on here??

I bought it but haven't tried it yet. Steck's products are normally good.

I have tried it. Save your money. It appears to be just flat latex paint or primer. It rubs right off. Stick with the paint or Formula 1 is a very good coating for me.

Dakota line dip, you can see where I just rubbed it off with the flat of my thumb...


Formula 1 - 3 light coats, much togher and doesn't just rub off....

Maybe the Dakota Line dip is more for cable. I bought some cable restraints that were pre-dipped in it, & have been happy. But thanks for your post ADC on how it worked on your traps

ADC- how many critters have you caught with the formula one before it needs redone? What is your experience with it in water sets?

All the way

I see no reason to leave traps in vinegar that long

Another option is maybe you could try thinning the vinegar with some water

I’ve been leaving these traps in straight vinegar for 48 to 72 hours and have seen no difference in spring strength. The metal sure shines up though!!