Thread: woodworkers extraordinaire

Originally Posted by Buzzard

You're kidding? I would have thought that Obama would have waved his mighty hand and got rid of them!

Buzz

We sent all our termites out to Oz.

Originally Posted by pitbull

We sent all our termites out to Oz.

Yeah! Fair swap though... we got your termites, you got Rolf Harris!

Buzz

Ain't no termites in Tasmania. No white ants either.

Cheers

Graeme

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Ain't no termites in Tasmania. No white ants either.

Cheers

Graeme

Yeah, but what have you Tasmaniacs got? Apart from Australia's SECOND best beer (Boags) after Tooheys Old made in glorious NSW?

Buzz

.... and here I was thinking I was the ONLY old drinker (as in drinker of old beer!) left!

lessons so far...

• they will eat ANY timber or cellulose material but will choose the tastiest immediately near them. In some places they have hit hardwood and turned to continue with the treated pine wheras in other places, when they ran out of treated pine, they continued straight into the hardwood. So far I have found no attack on books papers or photos even though they have been beside them
• they eat melamine covered particleboard!
• if you find them, LEAVE THEM ALONE because they are much easier to destroy from a working site.
• when they are disturbed they can evacuate very quickly back to a nest that may be hundreds of metres away and not come back for months and this limits the ability to poison them
• built in furniture is a danger, they can do a lot of damage before you know it
• they need moisture to digest the timber so they either go for moist timber OR have moisture nearby such as a wet patch of ground outside of their workings.
• they are clever........

Fletty

PS, can't wait until Friday to go to the SWWW to forget all of this for a while

Friends of mine around here had them in a steel framed house. They hooked into the architraves and skirtings, and even paper covering of the Gyprock!!


Good luck Fletty.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Ain't no termites in Tasmania. No white ants either.

Cheers

Graeme

I suppose you have to have some compensations

Originally Posted by jimbur

I suppose you have to have some compensations

Beauty Graeme! Imagine how bloody cold it must be down there at the moment!

Buzz

The desk repair is coming along. Today I mated all of the retained and new components of the right hand drawer cabinet and extendable writing top. I have been able to keep all but one of the existing panels but resawed a replacement for the other. I'll trim a few of the tenons before glue up but so far I'm happy with the result.
It's the first time I've worked with American white oak and it is MUCH easier to work than our beloved hardwoods being 'crispy' rather than our 'tough'.
I'm also taking the opportunity to redo a couple of awful earlier repairs that have been there for many years

fletty

The little munchers did a fair bit of damage

Timber looks real nice Allan

Is that a hint you need your clamps if so we can drop them over.

Termites are bastards of creatures in the wrong place.

so far I have been fortunate because I have been diligent.

Repairs are coming along well Fletty.

How did the termite treatment go??

thanks Artme,
So far the pestman has placed 30 lures/traps at roughly 2 metre intervals around the house and these stay forever, there are another 5 containers of the bait/poison placed over live workings inside the house and these are removed one "a sufficient ammount" has been taken back to the little b@stard's nest,
The frustrating thing is that I can't do anything to disturb them in the meantime!
I am hopeful that this Friday I can get the all clear to get the builder to lift roof tiles to see how bad it is. If they are in the roof it probably means moving out. If they are downstairs only then I seal off the stairwell and lower money through a trapdoor weekly.

hi Ray,
No, no need to return the clamps yet, I'm down to my last 20 or 30 so no rush

fletty

A Termite walked into a pub and asked,





"Where's the bar tender?