4 ms·
So I had some experience similar to this with an awful substance called cosmoline. Russians used it to store old guns, and they did the same thing really by sw
by silisili 5y ago
So I had some experience similar to this with an awful substance called cosmoline. Russians used it to store old guns, and they did the same thing really by sweating some chemical every time they heat up.
After some reading and thinking, I decided just to bake the thing at 250. It sweated tons of that awful red jelly out, then never again.
Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not for polluting the groundwater, but seems it can be mitigated with proper heat treating prior.
- jacquesm 5y agoThat probably won't work for railroad ties because they are usually in/on the ground and without that tar the bugs would eat them in a few years.
- silisili 5y agoWell, the idea is to just heat them past any temperature they'd experience naturally such that they don't bleed anymore. The wood itself would still be saturated in awful chemicals. For railroad ties specifically, I imagine it would be deemed way too much cost. But for say, house framing lumber... guaranteed termite free forever, I think people would pay for it.
- iSnow 5y agoUsually, tar-like substances still sweat out a range of volatile aromatic compounds which aren't good for your health. Yes, heat-treating them would get rid of 99% or more, but that's not good enough for housing.