Woodworm Prevention

Grem · Post by **Grem** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:08 pm

Now this may just be a silly question, but I was wondering what, if any, precautions/treatment people use for prevention against woodworm.
The aircraft I'm involved in restoring is 94 years old, so unlikely to have already been treated!

There may be an obvious solution that every homebuilder uses, but I've not really heard of anyone treating any of their wood.
I would (no pun intended!) assume that all modern aircraft wood bought today is pretreated, however there's bound to be bits and pieces bought 'off-the-shelf' (used for tertiary structures) that I assume haven't??

It's not really something that struck me until now, so any thoughts??
Many thanks.

Sandy Hutton LAA372 · Post by **Sandy Hutton LAA372** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 9:14 pm

Boiled Linseed Oil gets my vote every time. You can use Raw but it takes longer to dry, that's all. Apply with a brush or a rag, taking care to dispose of it carefully or you may end up with some spontaneous combustion.

You can use it on steel parts too and you'll find it creeps into crevices quite nicely. I'd say it would be quite in keeping with a restoration of that vintage.

Tom Sheppard · Post by **Tom Sheppard** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 9:33 pm

Linseed oil and lamp oil is much favoured by house restorers, 1:5 ratio but if it has lasted 94 years without treatment, the creepy crawlies don't like it anyway.

Grem · Post by **Grem** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:56 pm

Ah! I didn't know Linseed oil does the trick.
Is there any issue with using the commercial stuff that contains substances such as Permethrin?
I'm assuming if I went for the Linseed oil method, I would treat the wood first, as per usual, and then apply the Linseed oil?

Thanks again.

Grem · Post by **Grem** » Sat Jul 09, 2011 7:43 pm

Also, what about tung oil, or other such oils?

Any thoughts?

macconnacher · Post by **macconnacher** » Sat Jul 09, 2011 10:51 pm

What wood are we talking about.
I have the original root wing rib from the Shuttlworth Depudussin.

When I retrived it from the old sheds it was crawling with woodworm in the ply facing eating the glue binding and I was ordered to burn it or take it home. I did the latter and even though it had been badly stored for many years when i removed 3 mm ply there was only one small hole in the spruce rib and that looked as if the mite had gone in by accident did not like the taste and came out.
the rib now varnished hangs on my study wall.

aircraft structures that i have seen apart from that rib facing seen not to be effected by woodworm. Aircraft timb.er is not pretreated only varnished or in the old days shellaced

Grem · Post by **Grem** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:19 pm

Well the primary structures are aircraft wood, like Spruce and whatnot, however the tertiary structures are standard ply etc., which are affected.
I could give it a coat of linseed oil or shellac. Not sure which would be better.

Thanks.