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Borax and bugs

Started by Beavertooth, February 07, 2017, 10:25:37 PM

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Don P

I think he was just like us, interested in stabilization, rot, insects. He seems to have experimented with various and many goals.

I think West System has papers on borate treated wood and their epoxies. I've used epoxy and it's fillers and thinners on wood after using a glycol borate mix and all I can say is it seemed to stick to punky wood I was rebuilding that probably would have been better replaced. That's more of a Bondo use than a glueline that needs to take some stress. I've glued and finished borated wood and it seemed to work. I'd say talk to the manufacturers 800 line and see if they have tested with borate or bora-care.

The only problem I've had with finishes is if a piece is very well treated, crystals have showed up under the finish at times. I've injected individual holes with a syringe and borate solution, that depends on which wood eating insect you have.

I wouldn't be surprised if ethylene glycol alone kills bugs when applied, beyond that and with the other claims, I'd like to see more research. I'd like for it to be so, but that doesn't necessarily make it so  :)

ozarkgem

Those big wood bees love my cedar. Pretty much ruined my older stacks. I plane some
and almost always on the last pass I uncover a channel in my wood and about 6 bees inside.
Mighty Mite Band Mill, Case Backhoe, 763 Bobcat, Ford 3400 w/FEL , 1962 Ford 4000, Int dump truck, Clark forklift, lots of trailers. Stihl 046 Magnum, 029 Stihl. complete machine shop to keep everything going.

Don P

Yup, they're tough. Since they are just nesting and not eating the wood borate doesn't bother them. They can't bite through a tough paint film and I do have some Drione dust I hit the holes with on my buildings but that just moves them over. They are kind of neat in one way, they bore in, turn 90 and head down the grain. Next year they go in that hole to the end, turn 90 and then head down the grain again, I've found some pretty long tunnels in fascia boards before.

I went over to the Forest Products Labs website and searched Ethylene Glycol and mostly got PEG hits. There was one paper that is over my head but in it they are talking about modifying wood with EG. From my take they were having an effect on mechanical properties. The S2 lamella they are talking about in sections is really where most mechanical properties come from. Start with the conclusions if you read this one;
https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf2009/fpl_2009_jakes002.pdf

Then just to be more of a bummer, I found a report from '69. They had dipped boards in PEG to try to control checking, it made it worse. PEG is not EG though. It sounds like the increase in checking had more to do with the slow diffusion of PEG than anything;
https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn0204.pdf

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