Australian Standards color marking and uses

[RedShirtGuy]

I'm a bit of a scavenger so I pick up heaps of scrap timber from some of the local frame and truss companies who leave big skips out the front of the factories for the public to take from, usually for firewood.

I would like to make kids toys (amongst other things) from some of these scraps and I'm wondering if it is safe to use for that purpose. (Paint and/or shellac coated for the final product)

There is some colored dye (usually green I think) on some of the pieces that from memory is supposed to indicate the Australian Standard the wood meets for construction purposes. I haven't been able to find a chart or somesuch that explains what the different colors mean and if the timber has had treatments applied to it that may be toxic.

Can anyone help out with some links, search topics or a straight yay or nay on my intentions?

Cheers.

[Sigidi]

Hey Red,

Weather it is treated or not is not defined by the colours on the timber, this will be a tag or a stamp on the timber somewhere. Obviously for CCA it is easy to tell, but for LOSP you can't readily tell with the naked eye.

For colours, what I have is defined by AS 1613;

F4 red
F5 Black
F7 Blue
F8 Green
F11 Purple
F14 Orange
F17 Yellow
F22 white

Hope it helps

[RedShirtGuy]

Thanks Sigidi :2tsup:

I might pop into the factories and ask them if the timber has been treated or not. I hadn't heard of the LOSP treatment before and obviously for what I want to do with the scraps it would be better to be safe than sorry.

[mic-d]

Thanks Sigidi :2tsup:

I might pop into the factories and ask them if the timber has been treated or not. I hadn't heard of the LOSP treatment before and obviously for what I want to do with the scraps it would be better to be safe than sorry.


If you cut LOSP timber, it has a distinctive 'petrochemical' smell.

Cheers
Michael