I recently dyed and waxed app my traps. I used a turkey boiling pot lr whatever there called got a good dozen of traps in there. Looked black so that was good. That's the only bag I had of the dye so I decided to use maple leaves because coon creek outdoors made a video on it. Water was very black after and hour of the traps being in there I pulled them out. They were not dyed at all.

Will the coyotes smell my traps after the leaf boil?

Ok so then I waxed them, first I followed the directions witch is dip for 15 seconds and that was way to thick. So I did like a quick dip, and I got them hanging to dry and ALL my traps are like white with wax because it's so thick. When I set a trap all the wax flakes off.

I have a feeling ik gonna have to redo ALL my traps.

Also those leaf boil traps seem to keep getting bustier so will a coyote smell that? To help that out I put them all in a clean container with maple leaves and pine needles. It smells like strong pine needles in the bin.

The purpose of dye is to slow rust. If they didnt take dye its not a problem. Your wax is to thick cause the wax is not hot enough. Get the wax hotter and leave your traps in long enough they get hot too.

They don't need to be black, you're fine there.

On the waxing, you have to leave them in longer, they're not warm enough and the wax is to thick on them by the sounds of it. I watch the chain...when the wax starts creeping up the chain that isn't in the wax, they're warm enough.

Ha, Danny beat me to it,

Steel should be the same temp as wax…..hot. 15 seconds sounds waaay too short. I prep my traps a different way after I used up my die & wax.

NTO, what prep work did you do prior to dyeing? Did you boil / degrease / or soak in vinegar?

As the others said, you’re not getting the traps up to temp. Wax should be fully melted / clear. When you first put your trap in, it will be kinda white or cloudy looking on the steel. When the metal gets hot enough on the steel, you shouldn’t see that anymore. Pull the trap up and let it drip for a min or so. Wax should drip off like water, leaving a very fine film of protection.

Ok thanks guys

As stated above. You don't want the wax so hot that it starts smoking but hot enough to be clear and not cloudy. When it first melts it will still be cloudy so keep heating until clear, then add traps and let them come up to wax temp. You still need to be heating the wax some because adding traps will cool it back down. Excess wax should run off them like water when you take them out. After cooling I would use a screw driver or knife blade to scrape wax off the dog and pan notch contact points.

It would have been nice to have gotten the dye to stick but it won't keep those traps from catching critters, especially in land sets where they are out of sight anyway.

I put my prepared traps in tubs with dry grass or leaves common to the general locations where the traps would be set. I wouldn't put pine needles in unless setting where there were pine needles on the ground because of their strong smell.

Boiling wax can be a dangerous deal and it can happen quickly. Be prepared. Make sure your boil pot is extremely secure. Wear long pants, sleeves and gloves. Go slow. Have a board or lid handy to cover pot if it happens to ignite. Boil outside and away from structures you care about.

Let traps get to the temp of the wax b4 you remove them.

Good luck out there!

A temperature controlled crock pot is a safer way for waxing. IMO

make sure you have a responsible adult with you...One who understands the dangers and can respond appropriately to an "incident".

You might want to consider a double boiler type setup for the wax. A large tub of water with a smaller wax tub suspended in it. That way the wax tub isn’t directly in contact with the flame. A wax fire is nothing to mess with!

X2 to all the caution about wax fires. It’s tricky cause you have to keep it hot enough to make a thin layer of wax on the traps. Yesterday my flame went out and my wax started to get thicker and it made a bulky ugly layer on a couple of traps so I lit the flame again and did them over. But you don’t want it to get all smoky and catch fire. I’ve done this a couple times over the years so I’m extra cautious but As White Marlin said, you should have someone to help you at least keep an eye on things.

You don't have to re-dye your traps but you will need to re-wax them. The ones that didn't take the dye will be fine as they are.
After re-waxing I'd not put them in pine needles though unless you'll ONLY be trapping forests of pine.

Sucks that you'll have to re-wax them, especially since there's literally 24 posts about how to wax traps properly in the archives. Hopefully the fact that you created more work for yourself will learn you that it's better to slow down and figure things out before forging ahead like a bull in a china shop.

… yep… traps didn’t get hot enough to absorb the wax

Savell,
You learned me something. I didn't know heated steel would absorb wax.

… it opens the pores a little.. you know that Swamp

Am I the only one that sets all my traps before waxing? I just hate scraping wax off the pan and dogs.

The older type of hot plates get hot enough to wax traps on. They will actually boil it a bit but a lot safer than a wood fire. Most new hot plates are too junky to get that hot.