Post by whistlerwhittler on Jul 28, 2014 7:51:38 GMT -5
I've been boiling my traps for a few years now, followed up with dye and wax. I've tried different things and am still not happy with how well it removes the old wax. Yesterday I tried out my new "turkey fryer" type burner (way easier than the wood fires I had been using). I heated up water in a 30 gal. drum that had a thin layer of clean #2 stone on the bottom. I use the stone because I'm afraid to leave the traps in contact with the very hot bottom of the drum. Once it boiled I added two bottles of "the Works", my first time using this product as well. I then added the traps; some new traps that had already gone through the dishwasher and some old dyed/waxed traps that I had just rinsed off with the garden hose. In the past I've only dishwashed new traps, but they just seem to take forever to rust up enough to absorb dye.
I then let the traps simmer for 45 minutes while I did an oil change on my wife's car. After the 45 minutes I shut off the burner and ran water into the drum to float off the scum until the water in the drum was nice and clear (also my first time trying this method, in the passt I've just skimmed the crud off). Then I removed the new traps and some other old but non-waxed items (drags). These looked good and have started to develop a nice film of rust throughout the day. However when I removed the old traps, they were splattered with hardened wax droplets. The cold water I added did harden these droplets up faster, but this splattered appearance is the same thing I've gotten in the past when I just skimmed the crud off of the surface of the hot water before removing the traps. In the end it's probably not a big deal since I'm just going to dye and wax again, but I'd like to be able to get them cleaner.
What should I do different? Do I need to agitate the traps in the boiling water to get the wax droplets to float off?
I then let the traps simmer for 45 minutes while I did an oil change on my wife's car. After the 45 minutes I shut off the burner and ran water into the drum to float off the scum until the water in the drum was nice and clear (also my first time trying this method, in the passt I've just skimmed the crud off). Then I removed the new traps and some other old but non-waxed items (drags). These looked good and have started to develop a nice film of rust throughout the day. However when I removed the old traps, they were splattered with hardened wax droplets. The cold water I added did harden these droplets up faster, but this splattered appearance is the same thing I've gotten in the past when I just skimmed the crud off of the surface of the hot water before removing the traps. In the end it's probably not a big deal since I'm just going to dye and wax again, but I'd like to be able to get them cleaner.
What should I do different? Do I need to agitate the traps in the boiling water to get the wax droplets to float off?