My question isn’t about how to but on the wax itself. I was in hobby lobby today and started to check out with two 10 pound packages of paraffin wax when I read the label. It said 180 degree melting point. Way too high. I went back and found some beaded paraffin and the melting temp said 135 degrees. I bought the two 3 pound bags they had.

My question is flaking the wax going to lower the melting point? The 10 pound packages were 20 half pound blocks. I have an old quiesenart that will shred it nicely. But didn’t want to buy it if the melt point is still 180 after shredding. Your thoughts?

Don't know the answer,when I make my waxed dirt/sand I dont want it to go above 139, hotter than that it might scorch and have that burnt wax smell which is not good.I would think the melting point would be the same????

I make wax sand annually and use the block paraffin wax from hobby lobby. I use a spade bit in a drill to shave it to usable pieces. I use a cement mixer to keep my material moving and a laser thermometer thing to closely monitor the temperature. When it gets to 130 I watch it really close to be sure it doesn't exceed 140. I will adjust my flame when it's around 138 and try and hold it at them temp for a period of time because the wax doesn't melt immediately upon one part of the material reaching the melting point.... it's a little bit of a chore, but I love doing it this way. Once you've pre-dried the bulk of your sand, this is easy and fast

Not in grand scheme of things. Paraffin is manufactured as a petroleum by product to various melt points that are needed by various end users.

Good stuff there.^^^

Good info here. But what does a person use for wax if you are making waxed dirt in the sun?

Why not just melt the block and add as a liquid? Seems like shaving it is a lot of work. I have used melted wax several times with no issues. I'm using a cement mixer, probably wouldn't work with the solar method.

I ended up making several batches of waxed sand this season and tried wax from the trap supply dealers, Hobby Lobby beaded wax and their block wax. My quiesenart bit the bullet flaking the block wax so I got a thrift store double boiler and melted it and then added it to the warm sand in the cement mixer. The flake wax or beaded wax works the best for me in the cement mixer. I run the sand temp up to around 150-160 and shut the heat off. It's clean play sand with no organics. After the wax is added, I run the mixer until the sand gets back down to 70° and have to keep an eye on it so it doesn't build up on the sides of the mixer. If it does I wipe it off with a gloved hand and let it continue to mix. The melted wax seemed to be considerably more prone to this than the flake or beaded wax. The Hobby Lobby beaded wax seems to be the best option for me, cost and convenience wise. It comes in a three pound bag which is perfect for my mixture. I use three pounds of wax to two 50 pound bags of play sand. That held up to some pretty cold weather. The only time I had traps inoperable was when we had snow, thaw, rain, freeze and ended up with a thick ice crust over the set. The sand was still loose but the frozen snow was the culprit. Once it was removed, the sets continued to work.

I'll be making a lot of it before next season. I should have started with it from day one. I missed a fair number of coyotes early due to frozen traps.

The first moisture/freeze event always seems to bite me also! I also think it would be better to just start setting with freeze prevention. Maybe start ‘next year’? I know, Hard headed!

I heat the sand and wax in smaller batches in the small red, HF cement mixer. then transfer to the larger orange HF mixer to let it cool while mixing; thus, allowing minimal down time between batches...

rinse and repeat. the small red one doesn't get cool until I'm done.

edit: learned that from others (LDW or Bob Jameson, if I recall correctly)

There’s plenty of other stuff for me to be doing while the mixer runs to cool down. I’m usually dying and waxing traps, welding on traps or projects while it runs.