Homemade Creosote

[Crowderfarms]

Wondered if any of you ever make your own Creosote, or wood "Pickling" Wanted to see some "Recipes" beside my own creation.

 

[Dusty Britches]

There's a sawmill not too far from Navasota, Texas that will use a creosote or creosote replacement on any and all lumber you want. I'm not familar with homemade stuff.

 

[El_Putzo]

What's your recipe Crowder? We trimmed the white off a bunch of cedars for corner posts last year and I have been looking for a good recipe.

 

[jersey lilly]

Dusty Britches, are you talkin about Giles?

 

[Dusty Britches]

I think that's his name. A friend told me about him and I said when I was ready to get some, I'd ask him again for the name. He's close to Anderson.

 

[Crowderfarms]

What's your recipe Crowder? We trimmed the white off a bunch of cedars for corner posts last year and I have been looking for a good recipe.

I make up 15 gallons at a time. I have a Vat for dipping posts in, made from an old tank cut in two,8 feet long. Works great.Here's my recipe. 5 gallons of coal tar roofing or driveway sealer, 5 gallons of Diesel Fuel 5 gallons of burned Diesel oil,2 lbs of feed salt Stir well with an old shovel.
You can simply dip about 2 feet of your post in a bucket of this formula, or dip the entire post in the vat.Soak for a couple hours.For use on boards, simply get an old pump sprayer, or use a paint roller. Wear long sleeve clothing. On some board fencing, I've poured in a gallon of cheaper oil based black paint in the mixture to help it flow.Lasts for years.In some hot climates it may fade a little quicker. No liability written, expressed or implied. Check all local and State laws, before using. :shock:

 

[D.R. Cattle]

We've been buying a green copper emulsion from the hardware store for treating. Were only treating the part that goes in the ground with several coats. When the pens are complete, we'll use the same stuff but cut it down with diesel and burnt oil, and spray around the base of posts and all the boards. Old timers say it works good, but what were getting runs us $15/gallon. Hope to get it done with 5 gallons or less. Mostly fresh cut green heart pine for lumber.

 

[Crowderfarms]

We've been buying a green copper emulsion from the hardware store for treating. Were only treating the part that goes in the ground with several coats. When the pens are complete, we'll use the same stuff but cut it down with diesel and burnt oil, and spray around the base of posts and all the boards. Old timers say it works good, but what were getting runs us $15/gallon. Hope to get it done with 5 gallons or less. Mostly fresh cut green heart pine for lumber.

There are several brands of "Creosote Replacers" on the market. I've found them to be nothing more than Black paint.I've heard of the Copper Emulsion, it's kind of like a Zinc Chromate for wood.

 

[seraulu1]

thanks

 

[seraulu1]

thanks :banana:learn hypnosis

 

[tamarack]

up here in the north we use what is called bluestone buy it at farm supply depots use it for lots of things in dougouts for algae control around waterers for hoofrot mix with water as fence post preservitive think it is about the same as chrome stuff.

 

[TexasBred]

up here in the north we use what is called bluestone buy it at farm supply depots use it for lots of things in dougouts for algae control around waterers for hoofrot mix with water as fence post preservitive think it is about the same as chrome stuff.

Blue Stone = Copper Sulfate and does help with algae control and foot rot.

 

[pdfangus]

What's your recipe Crowder? We trimmed the white off a bunch of cedars for corner posts last year and I have been looking for a good recipe.

I make up 15 gallons at a time. I have a Vat for dipping posts in, made from an old tank cut in two,8 feet long. Works great.Here's my recipe. 5 gallons of coal tar roofing or driveway sealer, 5 gallons of Diesel Fuel 5 gallons of burned Diesel oil,2 lbs of feed salt Stir well with an old shovel.
You can simply dip about 2 feet of your post in a bucket of this formula, or dip the entire post in the vat.Soak for a couple hours.For use on boards, simply get an old pump sprayer, or use a paint roller. Wear long sleeve clothing. On some board fencing, I've poured in a gallon of cheaper oil based black paint in the mixture to help it flow.Lasts for years.In some hot climates it may fade a little quicker. No liability written, expressed or implied. Check all local and State laws, before using. :shock:

going to step out on a limb here and expose my ignorance yet again. this recipe sounds very good to me except that I do not know what is meant by burned diesel oil.

Is this used oil like from the tractor oil changes? If not what is it?

 

[kenojoe]

I think he means used oil. I made a big batch of this and soaked some white cedar posts out of Canada. I sealed off the bottom of 2 9' sections of 6" pipe and stood them upright in the barn. I rigged a pulley and put the posts in the pipes and kept 6" of this mix over the tops of the posts. I had to force the posts down in the pipe as they wanted to float up out of the pipe. I soaked them in pairs for 6 days at a time and put in new ones until all 120 posts were done. They sure did look good when done. I left them in the barn all winter and put my fence up last year. What a disappointment. When I topped some of the posts off I noticed that the "creosote" had penetrated less than 1/16" into the posts. Maybe it was the white cedar, I don't know. As the summer went on, the side of the posts that face south got lighter and lighter. It may offer some protection in the ground but is pretty useless above ground. I would be interested to know if anyone else has tried this mix and how it worked for them.

 

[Alberta farmer]

Bluestone works good if you do the posts when they are green. They last in the ground for years.

 

[MichaelLaBelle]

One thing to consider when "treating" wood anything. A commercial treatment plant takes kiln dried wood (posts, boards), puts it into a tank filled with a treating solution, and brings the entire content of the tank up to a predetermined pressure. The solution is forced into the wood and the pressure drops. The whole process is repeated until the pressure holds for a predetermined amount of time, thus indicating that the wood is saturated.

The only thing that would be the equivalent for a non-commercial operation is to allow the treatment solution to wick up the bottom of the post, thereby saturating at least the part that is in contact with the ground. There is no good way to completely saturate a board unless you allow it to soak long enough to "water log" it with your treatment solution.

Michael in Alabama

 

[jesse james]

best to use kerosene, burnt motor oil, and rock salt, so the smell want burn your eyes so much and take your breath and before treating with this mixture ,leave your post or wood out in the sun for a few hot days so the wood will open up alittle to soak up the treatment, :secret:

 

[jimships]

Here are two solutions worth looking at as both work well.

Option 1: Copper Sulfate is as good as it gets without using exotics. Best way to buy the CS is to buy it in bulk as granules or liquid. Or go to home depot and buy septic root killer in plumbing section, add some water to make a strong aquas solution that can be used as a dip, painted on or injected. It makes a good "dip" for poles, but the best way is to get the stuff into the wood, not just laying on top of the wood.

It paints like water so be prepared to be turned green. Old clothes, rubber gloves, etc.

For injection, (actually a fluid transfer using pressure differential), make a simple vacuum chamber out of a piece of 10" pipe with one end capped and the other threaded, or both threaded. Drill one end, the top end and thread in a 1/2" M.P.-1/2" F. flare fitting to a put a threaded vacuum hose on it you can have made up with a flare, swivel and reducer to 1/4". 1/2" works fine as it is easy to work with and allows no restrictions back to the pump where it should be reduced to pump inlet size/ If you want to be fancy, add a 2" ball valve drain to the vacuum pipe chamber at the bottom. You need a larger drain line to handle debris coming off the poles.

Load the pole in the pipe, add solution to cover and pull a vacuum on it for a few minutes with the poles in solution. (if you could see inside you would see a million tiny bubbles come out of the wood. Once the bubbles stop, about 5 minutes, then release the vacuum and let it sit at atmospheric pressure for about 10 minutes. You need to know that deep penetration into the wood is only possible under a differential pressure (high pressure or vacuum). Vacuum is far easier and simple to do than pressure, safer too. A 110 VAC vacuum pump from harbor freight works fine.

You can also do this with a vacuum bag technique, and I have done it, but it takes some skill to set it up, but you can do large batches in minutes. We used a 4 x 10 tank with a strong sealing lid and plastic inside. Worked well.

Option 2: If you let them dry out after dipping and are really concerned about rot, I use a paint called "coal tar epoxy." It fairly cheap stuff, made for the bottom of boats and ships and is easy to come by. Sherwin Williams is a good source, but they may need to order it in. It is a two part paint so get your poles all laid out in mass on 2x4's and be ready to roll the stuff on while rolling the poles to paint all surfaces. Coat the bottoms or the whole pole. Best stuff known to man for making a barrier from water, rain and insects. Mix in small batches and use only what you need at one time. Best to buy it in 5 gallon buckets. It comes with a catalyst, but store it in a frig to stay good for years.

CTE gets fairly hard and does not transfer easily once cured which takes about 2 hours or over night. Hotter the better in the barn and it can be sprayed by a 2 gallon spray rig.

You can do option 2 only and it will work for about 8 years. Doing both is about forever.

Good Luck

Jim

Have fun.

 

[lavacarancher]

I think he means used oil. I made a big batch of this and soaked some white cedar posts out of Canada. I sealed off the bottom of 2 9' sections of 6" pipe and stood them upright in the barn. I rigged a pulley and put the posts in the pipes and kept 6" of this mix over the tops of the posts. I had to force the posts down in the pipe as they wanted to float up out of the pipe. I soaked them in pairs for 6 days at a time and put in new ones until all 120 posts were done. They sure did look good when done. I left them in the barn all winter and put my fence up last year. What a disappointment. When I topped some of the posts off I noticed that the "creosote" had penetrated less than 1/16" into the posts. Maybe it was the white cedar, I don't know. As the summer went on, the side of the posts that face south got lighter and lighter. It may offer some protection in the ground but is pretty useless above ground. I would be interested to know if anyone else has tried this mix and how it worked for them.

Yes, penetration rate for just soaking the posts is practically nothing. Most of us don't have the where-with-all to vacuum tank the posts and that's what you really need to do. Still, anything is better than nothing at all IMO. Crowderfarms, are you the Crowder that used to post here all the time? Always enjoyed his posts, kept me laughing most of the day.

 

[M-5]

this thread is 10yrs old