Woodworm?

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StevieB

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SWMBO has been donated a piece of furniture from a friend, an old hall stand. Fairly old and knackered, in need of some TLC. I have had a look and started taking it apart and it seems to be a standard frame of oak, with oak faced ply as a panel on the back rest. Attached to this is a circular mirror on some inch thick ply as a mount, both screwed to the thin ply back panel. On taking the mirror and support off the back panel it becomes clear that the thin backing ply is full of holes where the mirror was, and the inch thick ply mount has 25-30 bore holes in it. It looks like something has bored through the mount and out through the back of the hallstand. None of the oak frame has bore holes, so it appears that the eggs were laid in the mirror mount before it was used as a mount, then the worms ate through it and the ply backing sheet before dispersing. So my questions are:

Should I be worried about new insects eating their way out now and affecting other timber in the house? It has been indoors in my house for approx 10 days now.

Any recommendations on tratment of infected furniture? A search of the forum only has a couple of threads on woodworm but they relate to unfinished timber, not a finished piece of furniture.

The house the piece came from shows no evidence of worm and it had been indoors there for over a year, but that doesnt mean there are no live worms in the piece, just that nobody has seen them.

I havent seen any fresh dust around the piece, but then you wouldnt expect that much from munching through a thin piece of ply anyway.

Any thoughts welcomed. I am tempted to ditch the thing but SWMBO is keen on it being restored and kept :roll:

Cheers,

Steve.
 
Hi Steve
Don't talk to me about wodworm, I have it in my WORKBENCH, and I think I am going to have to remake it from scratch. It is less than ten years old. I had an attack a few years ago, and thought I had treated it, but this year there are more holes. The trouble is, I know where it came from. My brother in law brought a garden ash tree to convert, and
A) Knackered up my planer bed by feeding a tree trunk through it, and
B) Leaving behind a load of waste, which turned out to have the dreaded beetle in it.
I still haven't forgiven him.

OK. So how old is this piece? Are the holes new (sharp crisp edges)? Are the holes just in the top layer of veneer (in which case they could be from the the before the veneer was cut).
If the outbreak is not current, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Otherwwie it's not worth the trouble.
Cheers
Steve
 
Well I have just gone back to the box of woodies I bought some time ago and found found this:
Dscn3087s.jpg

Dscn3088s.jpg


The one I had fettled a bit and used has live worm in it. :x

What should I do, is it worth trying to save or should it go into the wood burner :cry: how about the rest of the planes? :?
 
Dave,
It should be easy enough to treat with Cuprinol or something similar. I would try that before sacrificing the planes(s). They are relatively small objects and a good squeeze into the obvious holes plus a "painting" all over, should do the trick.
 
Chris, I'm open to correction but is it wise to use Cuprinol on something that is going to be in constant contact with hands, skin etc? Things may have changed recently but don't most preservatives contain Hexylene and other nasties?

Noel
 
You can buy a woodworm killer but it only kills the worms and the eggs that are laid in the wood survive then hatch and the cycle continues.
Brushing the killer into the holes ensures that the newly hatched worms get poisoned.
A repeat treatment a month or so later should do the trick.
 
I live in woodworm heaven, I have longhorn beetle too; now they can really destroy wood :( .

Ronseal do an aerosol can of treatment so you can sqirt it in, it's amazing how far these holes go, so wear a full face mask or rig something up to protect your face as it has a nasty habit of sqirting out back at you.

If I am restoring I would usually replace any small parts full of worm and thoroughly treat all the rest of the piece, especially around any joints or cracks.

Keith
 
There are some way to deal with woodworms without poison:
Heat (for example sauna)
CO2
In germay are professionals who offer to put the infected pieces in chambers, which are either filled with heat or with the gas.

In the German forum were posst about treating the pieces with high graded Alcohol and wrap the pieces for a few days.

I would not use poisson which will leak for a long period out of the piece, espacially when it is in the living house
regards
Rolf
 
Dave,

I feel your pain. :cry: Quite a good thread on woodworm in woodies from The Porch here. If worst comes to worst and you have to ditch the bodies just look on it as an unrivalled opportunity to make your own planes with those spare irons. :wink:

Cheers, Alf
 
You have my sympathies Dave and Steve, not a nice find!

Steve, I would guess the piece is old, the nails look like copper and the hooks are all tarnished with age. I know hall stands were popular in the 1920's but couldnt say whether this is as old as that. It certainly is not made within the last 5-10 years judging by the wear on the coat hooks and the seat.

The holes all go right through the backing ply. Cannot tell whether they go through to the other side of the mirror mount as the mirror is in the way - given a few woodworm a nasty headache boring into that I should think! Since there are no holes on the solid oak frame I think I will strip out the affected backing piece, strip and treat the frame then replace the backing sheet with new timber and keep a close eye on it for a while. There is certainly not anywhere near the amount of dust on the piece that shows in Daves planes.

Cheers for the advice,

Steve.
 
So Alf,

Do you think that a hypodermic needle and diesel fuel is a good way to go? I drive a diesel and have a small diesel generator in the corner of the workshop for when the electrickery stops working. :shock: So I have a ready source of the oil, just need a syringe then. :?
Diesel sounds less harmful than many of the other things the US guys were talking about. :shock:

I will of course use gloves and face protection, probably working outside so not to contaminate the workbench or shop floor. :)
 
Alf,
That thread is rather depressing in terms of providing sure fire answers! And Noel, you are quite right, I had not thought of any health risk when recommending Cuprinol.

I guess after reading the thread Alf provided that I would (if I had Dave's problem) put my planes in a plastic bag, pull a vacuum on them with my vacuum pump and then bleed ammonia or hydrogen sulphide into the plastic bag and wait a day or so.
 
I did try microwaving some wood once, when I found it full of worm, it probably killed the worm but it also ruined the timber :roll: .

If the wood is soaked in a wood hardener or dilute varnish or shelac this will also kill the worm and it prevents any worm still alive in the wood being able to eat the treated wood.

Keith
 
DaveL":1e0xx79v said:
So Alf, Do you think that a hypodermic needle and diesel fuel is a good way to go?
<goes off to actually read the thread instead of just skimming it :oops: >
Well apart from the "is diesel the same in the UK as the US?" query, it's worth a shot I s'pose. Like Chris, I quite liked the vacuum idea. I wonder if one of those bags used for storing clothes and such, as mentioned a little while ago in connection with veneering, would work? One thing though; I ain't of a scientific turn of mind, but if it's a vacuum, is there any point in putting in noxious extras? Surely they won't go anywhere? Or am I totally confused again? In which case I place all the blame on having a physics teacher who was actually a chemist. :roll:

Cheers, Alf
 
Alf,

I am sure that diesel is the same both sides of the pond, Ford diesels run on the same fuel here as in the states. :p

I like the idea of the vacuum system, just I don't have any of the right kit. :x
In answer to your comment about the vacuum, a bag press rig cannot produce a true vacuum, but the idea of adding the gas is that is will be pulled back into the timber as the vacuum is released. Same sort of thing as the creosote treatment the old telegraph poles had. (The creosote used to go in 1/3 of the diameter.) 8)

So now to acquire a suitable syringe and needle. :eek:

Just wander OT for a mo, I remember Joey Dunlop using diesel to stop the effect of sea water on his bike, spares and tools after they took a dip in the Irish sea. :roll:
 
I remember that Dave, when the little fishing boat sank. Joey was one of the better people to emerge from this part of the world.
Don't remember the diesel on salt thing but no doubt it worked.
Hope you get the worm sorted.

Noel
 
Cuprinol does what it says on the tin and comes with the little squirty tube as well. It's a product that's been around for donkeys years and I've never heard of it permanently affecting anyones health. Riskwise, I'm sure cutting MDF is far more hazardous.
 
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