[SallyintNorth]

Ok, so I've been lumbered (sic) with an old spinning wheel with some woodworm.

Am I right in thinking that the worms hatch in the summer, so will be quiesscent now - and hence not a worry if I bring the wheel into the house for a week or two?  (It's still in the car for now.  Not taking the risk till I know a bit more.)

If I am right about that, how can I tell if the worm is still active in the wood? 

And if it is still active, or I can't tell so have to play safe, what's the best way to treat it?  Is there anything I can do that would make it 100% safe?  (Cos if not, I'm burning the thing.  Sorry, but I'm not having it infect all the other lovely wheels it will otherwise come into contact with!)

Even if I can make it safe, this wheel needs a lot of work to be spinning for real again; a broken rung (off the treadle plate) and a broken peg (to hold the mother of all in place), and the metalwork at the back of the hub worn so thin it'd need replacing.  (Can't now remember if that was the top of the conrod or a leg and am not going out to look in the boot of the car to check right now!)

So I think it's not financially viable, at least not for me.  If anyone out there does wood turning and metalwork, can handle the woodworm and wants an old wheel to rescue, just shout up!   

If the woodworm isn't a risk at the mo, then I may, softie that I am, just botch it to get it to spin a few metres of yarn to take a pic to show its previous owner before I quietly cremate it. 

Now, if Disney had bought up a hundred wheels like this one, none of us would've minded! 

[jaykay]

Noooo, don't bring it indoors. The heat of a fire can have them flying!

You can tell if they're still active if you see tiny amounts of sawdust underneath the wheel or near the holes. Yes, there are some very poisonous Cuprinol type things you can drench the wood with, that kill them as they burrow out. They do work, the extremely active woodworms in my living room shutters ceased and desisted after many applications of this stuff.

That said, I don't spend much time in contact with the shutters and nor are they in a room I spend a lot of time in. Not sure if I'd want to be spinning on a wheel treated with such nasties.

Anyway, the trouble with woodworm is not the holes, but the network of passages they've left, which can render an apparently solid piece of wood, a paper exterior stretched over crumbling sawdust.

Can you tell I've had plenty of experience of the little b¥@@€£$!

Personally, I'd take it to the middle of a field and give it a good send off.