How is the coating holding up for all of you running these traps? Also, how do you retreat the traps if they need it?

Thanks,

Mudcat

Here is a picture of a couple dozen 1.5’s I bought in 2015 and never set. I never changed the springs on this 2 dozen, but I did change them on the other 3 dozen and used that 3 dozen. That was a bad year for me - set 3 dozen on the first day of my planned 2 week local mink line, next morning every trap had one broken spring. Took over a week for new springs to arrive, changed them on the 3 dozen I originally set, but by then my 2 weeks was basically over and I had other obligations. The two dozen in the picture have hung ever since, maybe I will get around to changing the springs and using them someday, but they are useless as they hang. You can see a bit of rust in places after hanging 9 years.

The paint does wear off in use, of course. And it is a type of paint, but it is applied through a process called “e-coat”. You can look up e-coat, but basically paint is suspended in water, and electricity is run through the system causing the paint to be deposited in a controlled and very even thickness. It has the advantage that anyplace water can access will have paint deposited, and the thickness can be controlled by adjusting the parameters of the process. After the electrical deposition of the paint, it is baked on to cure. One of the main applications is as undercoat in auto body parts. Nothing is forever, but e-coat is hard to beat for coverage in crevasses and tough to reach spots because if water can get there, the paint will also. It is not a process that can be done at home or at small shops, takes an industrial setup with chemical recycling and specialized equipment. There is “e-coat touchup” spray paint available, but I have no experience with using it.

I appreciate the information. I was not familiar with the e-coat process.

Thanks,

Mudcat

Is there an explanation for why all had a broken spring? Was it something the manufacturer eventually recognized as an issue?

Explanation was a bad batch of springs.

He had replacement springs shipped to me from Schmitt, no charge. In the end, after I waited for springs to arrive, then spent hours changing springs - not to mention pulling the whole line and resetting some of them with the couple days I had left in my 2 weeks, my year of minking was about a complete loss. Been 9 years, I’m over it, but I was not real happy at the time. The traps have worked great with the replacement springs, and the difference in rust on the replacement springs that were not coated and the coated traps I put them on leaves no doubt that the coating works well!

I’ve used them fresh out of the box for a couple years. All were on drowners for coon. No issues with the coating or springs. Good heavy-built traps. No need to retreat since they drowned quickly

The k-9 extremes have held up to a few wolverine remarkably well, for me.

Thanks for the input guys.

Mudcat

The ecoat process takes 350-400 degrees F to cure. The curing process very well could have weakened the original springs on those smaller traps. I have Jr.s and have had good luck with those.

I run an ecoat plant and have ecoated some of my MBs. Ecoat is very good for corrosion protection but is poor for UV protection. Ecoat is used more as a primer. I ended up powder coating mine now and had awesome success with that.

Interesting MNEric. Are there different ecoat paints that hold up better overall to UV than others as a stand alone coating? When I was looking into it, I found what appeared to be a few different “paints” or compounds sold for the ecoat process.
One thing I should say - my statement that the NoBS coating is an ecoat comes from taking a coated trap to an industrial coating specialist and asking “what is this?”. He immediately said it was ecoat. And ecoat basically lines up with “water based dip that is baked on…” as I think it states (used to anyway) on the NoBS website. I mean, perhaps there is something out there not even the specialists know about and the guy I asked was wrong, but he basically said after looking at the trap closely that he was sure it was an ecoat.

depending on the steel, 400 degrees could very well over temper it..depending on the steel and starting hardness.. Its actually very easy to mess up heat treatment.. Ramp the kiln up too fast and it can overshoot the target temp by several hundred degrees before it settles down to the target temp

Springs are often “stress relieved” after forming at temperatures of 400° or more so I would not expect 350° to be a problem especially if the spring is not compressed during the heating.
Kendall actually told me he had a bad batch of springs, but did not tell me what caused it. It may have even just been one pallet or something like that, I don't know. I don't think it was a recurring problem to my knowledge.

The ecoat place I was looking at said they bake at 375° for 20 minutes. They said they do torsion springs regularly without issues, but I would be interested to know what you think as someone who runs an ecoat plant.

No it would not unless the heat treat was bad to start with.Most spring steels are tempered higher than 400 degrees anyway. Often up to 500-600 degrees. to get 1080 down to 46-50 rc it takes almost 650 degrees when I make gun springs from it

The paint we use is poor for UV protection, because the intent is it to be a primer or used on the under side of equipment. There is most likely other formulas that do give you that protection, I am just not aware of them.

We have a decent sized e-coat process where I work. Like mentioned above, ours is strictly for corrosion. We put a 2 part epoxy paint over it for UV protection. I know of no touch up for e-coat. If we need to touch up a tank, we use powder coat.

Run electrical current through what you want coated or ground it (cannot remember), submerge in the bath of solids and they adhere to the product, that is how it was explained to me.

We run some big springs as well. Our springs are about 20” long and 5” in diameter. The actual coil is 3/4”. That we cure at 400 for 40 minutes. We have to run at 350 for metals such as zinc

UV may not be much of a problem in the case of traps because land traps are typically under dirt and even water traps often have a little silt on them. UV does apparently go through water fairly well, but even at that traps are not out all year in most cases.

Her is one I found with google search:
https://www.nationaltoolwarehouse.c...UctwGDYdplhT1rdDoHrlV_wd0HRoCz34QAvD_BwE