I haven't really had any issues with woodworm, I don't think that they exist in my area of the world. I have run across insect damage but it was caused by some sort of beetle, just to make sure I sprayed the inside of the cabinet with pesticide. I don't think you would have to use microwaves to kill woodworm or other pests, chemicals, pesticide, or heat will probably kill them. Brake cleaner, wd40, varsol, paint stripper, lacquer thinner, all of those are deadly to insects, so is boric acid.
Regards
Arran
I once brought something from Haiti, caribbean cruise, that had a woodworm in it. The tell tell sign was a pinhole and sawdust under it.
I put the whole thing into my freezer chest. Cured it after one night.
The only evidence of wood worms I have seen was in a Japanese radio I once bought.... it was full of old worm holes. Just to be safe I encased it in a heavy duty black plastic bag, sprayed in some bug killer, and kept it quarantined until I was sure there were no live worms or eggs capable of hatching.
I agree that a microwave might be a little overkill and would lean toward the freezer or chemical solutions if that was a problem I ran into very often. Around here we have hard freezes during the winter that could substitute for a chest freezer or for a large cabinet.
John KK4ZLF
Lexington, KY
"illegitimis non carborundum"
(This post was last modified: 10-21-2014, 06:45 AM by Eliot Ness.)
Aw come on guys.
These horrible critters are a serious pest. Forums are full of gloom over them and full of the same answers to the problem. Freeze, chemical treatment etc I even know of a guy "myself" who placed an infested woody into a diving decompression chamber and dropped it to 600 ft to see if the partial pressure increase of the gas would do for them. eh. NO.
I know of restorers who now seriously avoid woddies in favour of Bakelite because of them.
Chemical treatment has a limited success record and freezing does NOT kill the eggs. I have proof of it in my own collection.
I have a Philco which I am very much excited about restoring. It is full of these things. I want totally rid of them and their offspring.
We are fortunate here in the USA (Canada, too, I think) in that we do not have the problem with woodworms that you folks in the UK and Ireland seem to have. I've been collecting antique radios for 40 years and I don't think I've ever come across this sort of damage over here.
Besides the fact that it would take a very large microwave to accept a radio cabinet as large as I suspect that Philco is...I would think the microwaving would be worse for the wood than for the possible critters inside?
This is one of those questions where, having no experience with this sort of thing, I have to say that I honestly do not have an answer. Sorry.
Now you've made me nervous - I have two UK Philco sets I had sent over here from England a couple years ago. On the other hand, neither set shows any signs of woodworms.
Where are you located Hotwire? Like Ron I have seen thousands of old radios over the years and the only one I saw with worm holes was that set from Japan, and I suspect that damage was done long before I bought it.
John KK4ZLF
Lexington, KY
"illegitimis non carborundum"
Ron you should be ok providing there was not infestation before restoration.
The eggs are very resilient. I have had them emerge even two years after full treatment including freezing and chemical.
Surely there are parts of the US where these things are also a problem. ?
It should work and wouldn't be to hard to build. However, it does have the potential of being quite dangerous and is considered a transmitter so there might be some licsencing issues. You don't want to do something like cook yourself or blank the radar at your local airport. I would think that slowly raising the tempeture in a conventional oven to about 300 degrees F would kill about anything. That wouldn't flame the wood but it might be hard on the finish.
Perhaps the cabinet could be fumigated, like inside a tent, this is how they kill termites. But I think that baking it in the oven would probably work, at not too high of a temperature of course. I would not try making a device using bits from old microwave ovens, those are tuned to boil water and have whatever you are heating rotate in front of them, using a magnetron on a stationary wood cabinet may leave you with a burn mark in one side.
Regards
Arran
P.S I didn't realize that woodworm was actually a form of beetle, maybe those a relative of a powder post beetle? Mind you powder post beetles eat wood in adult form. In any event they are not that common over here, the only set I had that anything like that in the cabinet was a Rogers that was improperly stored in a shed or something since the veneer laminations are lifting in places. Nothing was alive in it when I got it, and after I cleaned the cabinet I sprayed it with pesticide, and have not noted any new activity since.
(This post was last modified: 10-22-2014, 01:45 AM by Arran.)
Look at this.
On the other hand, neither set shows any signs of woodworms.
