Thread: What is the blue on H2 construction pine

It's finger jointed and laminated , no knots. Nine fingers

I assume you mean the blue stuff for termite treatment. This supposedly treatment amazes me as the stuff appears NOT to penetrate the timber and when the timber is cut as in roof construction there is no protection applied on the cut so the termites eventually will find their way to cut and its goodbye to the structural integrity of the roof.

Good question. One I've never had answered, apart from "don't worry about it."

Besides harm to health, machining it can harm your machines if you're not careful.

The blue paint is slightly abrasive, so should you run a few lengths straight through a thicknesser or planer without adding a bit of skew to the feed (ie., you're running them through 'dead straight') then it'll quickly dull the knives at point of contact and - worse - abrade very quickly at the two points where the sides are cutting until it almost looks like chip damage.

It's obvious when you see it... a pair of tram-lines spaced at the width of your studs (or whatever) running down the length of any wider boards you send through later.

Solution? Try to send the boards through with differing skews or stagger their placement on the table to spread the wear across the knives. DON'T just send them through all in a straight line like a train of carriages.

(This is good operating practice anyway, for jointing/thicknessing any timber! But this is the reason why.)

Thanks for the replies. But those answers are not what I asked.
Found some info. It is a termite treatment. But the interesting thing is that you need dust extraction, respirator and clean yourself up after machining operations.
But no info, eg msds that I can find.
Is it more or less carcinogenic than the wood dust???
Lyle

Safety Data Sheets | Hyne Timber
Installation Guides | Hyne Timber

Originally Posted by nine fingers

It's finger jointed and laminated , no knots. Nine fingers

Sorry but your answer is incorrect and misleading. The question relates to the envelope treatment of timber which is sized, strength graded (MGP). You are referring to engineered timber which has a totally different treatment regime.

Thank Ray. Excellent.
So it seems to be pretty benign.
I took precautions though just in case. Dusty, respirator and a good clean up after.
Thanks for your info.
Lyle

Bifenthrin, can't be too lethal, for I've never once seen a chippy wearing a mask.

I'd imaging the OH&S Nazis would be all over it if it were....

Bifenthrin - Wikipedia

Hi Lyle. I'm pretty sure that the "blue" is just a dye and that the treatment is applied through pressure and should penetrate most of the timber. Treated pine is now treated with a clear preservative and dyed green to distinguish it from plain radiata. The colours are about marketing and the last lot of H2 I used was yellow

Blue/red/yellow are surface treatments, not pressured treatments hence the timber is rated H2
Any H3 or better is pressure treated

Ray got me thinking so I did a little more research. This seemed a good place to start. Envelope treated timber should have an "E" after the brand. I will quiz my timber yard when I'm next there (hopefully this lockdown is only 7 days)

FAQ | Timber Preservers Association of Australia

Link to the chemical used

Bifenthrin General Fact Sheet

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Bifenthrin, can't be too lethal, for I've never once seen a chippy wearing a mask.

I'd imaging the OH&S Nazis would be all over it if it were....

Bifenthrin - Wikipedia

We didn't see to many stone masons cutting engineered stone using respiratory PPE either, now they are dropping like flies from silicosis.

Big difference between silicosis and a pyrethroid. Back in the 70's we used to cut fibro without protection