We had a tree fall in my neighbors yard with a 3 inch vine up the tree with runners every where and since he doesnt get it he cut it up. So now its full of chips and im sure it has poison ivy oil splattered in the clutch cover . He blew it off with air and i want to wash it down with something to get the oil off but not sure what to use? I thought simple green and hose it off, then air . What have you guys and gals used? thanks.
what to use to wash off poison ivy on the saw?
- Thread starter sgrizz
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
o8f150
Tree Freak
if you are concerned about it i would use very hot water and dawn with a good scrub brush,, just blowing the dust off is about all i would do,, i have been in that situation many times,, i just blow the dust off with compressed air
jeepyfz450
Addicted to ArboristSite
I would think any type of simple green or anything like that wiped off would be fine. I have used my saws to cut poison ivy lots of time and just wiped it down afterwards with no problems.
jus2fat
Two Harley Fatboys
I would use Gunk foaming spray engine cleaner - warm water rinse
Then some Dawn dish-wash mix - then a warm water rinse.
If you're gonna clean it - might as well do it right..!!!
J2F
Then some Dawn dish-wash mix - then a warm water rinse.
If you're gonna clean it - might as well do it right..!!!
J2F
You're looking at a full de-grease job if you're sensitive to PI, like me. I'd hit it with Simple Green or another detergent to get most of the material off, first. Then, I'd hit it with a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol and rinse it really well, then the detergent one last time, rinse, and re-lube. The alcohol helps remove the oil in a different way than the detergent, as I understand it.. This is from a guy that has PI almost year round, though.
Chris-PA
Where the Wild Things Are
I cut and burned so much poison ivy the last two days! I'm not sensitive to it, but I can get it a little sometimes. I guess I'm going to see just how much. I just blew the saws off with compressed air. I would think that any kind of soap would take the oils off - dish soap would be fine.
Winchester356
ArboristSite Operative
I took my chain and bar off last time I cut into poison ivy and soaked them in gas and cleaned the rest with carb cleaner.
diesel/kerosene then dish detergent
Thanks for the replys . I get poison ivy bad so i want to make sure i kill the oil on the saw. The saw is a ms180 so if the plastic get faded from the chemicals i dont care. I am going to take the bar n chain off monday and use some brake clean on it and hose it off with hot water. The saw itself will get some kind of detergant mixed with water and blow dry with a airhose.
JRepairsK70e
been there ...done that
i disagree with the advice of blowing off the saw with compressed air before any degreasing will be done ,all those little chips will be loaded with the urusiol and if you are sensitive the airborn chips and dust could land on you ,and i know i have felt some of the blow back on my skin and face [ face is usually the most tender skin to be infected ] any soap/detergent that will cut oil should be utilized first 'then blow off with air ,still no guarantees you wont rash up [i think im itchy just typing this ] technu pi wash is designed to remove the oils from skin and i keep it on my truck when i work with pi . good luck jk
procarbine2k1
Addicted to ArboristSite
Brake cleaner or carb cleaner if it were me. I am super sensitive to the stuff, and although I dont necessarily recommend this... If I have been around it cutting, or in a patch I will spray myself down with brake cleaner or carb cleaner. May be a bit hard on my skin, but not as hard as the ivy will be if I leave it go.
JRepairsK70e
been there ...done that
do not repeat do not !!! spray brakleen directly on your skin , it will be absorbed into your system and can /will damage alot of vital organs [read the cautions on the can or the msds sheets . i am speaking from personal expierence ,that stuff made me really sick after degreasing my hands with it out on a road call , vomited 2x on the 15 min drive home then was sick as heck and shakey for 2 days couldnt figure it out untill i read the can [lucky to be alive ] its nitrile gloves from then on when using those kinds of chemicals . trust me you dont want to put yourself in that kind of misery , get some technu wash for pi cleanup cheers jk
Poison Ivy oil is very resilient. I just finished cutting up a log that had leaves the size of lilly pads all the way around and up the tree. I'm very sensitive to it also. I wiped down the saw with a mixture of dawn dish liquid and warm water, then blew it out with compressed air and repeated the process 2 more times. I then spray some wd40 on a rag and wipe down the metal on the saw to prevent rusting. I have to get into the shower within 1 hour after to wash my skin completely to minimize my exposure. I still end up with a couple small patches here and there on my forearms and hands but it could have been much worse.
Saws don't get poison ivy. People do.
I get it, I can feel it on my hands etc. I wash down with Dawn or other brand dish liquid after cutting.
I don't do anything to the saw or cutter for they don't get poison ivy.
If you blow it off, you better go wash again.
I get it, I can feel it on my hands etc. I wash down with Dawn or other brand dish liquid after cutting.
I don't do anything to the saw or cutter for they don't get poison ivy.
If you blow it off, you better go wash again.
dingeryote
Blueberry Baron
Ether/starting fluid. Works like a champ on equipment, and wont fade most saws. At least mine havn't faded more than usual.
Before I even start fingering the truck, quad or whatever, everything gets spritzed.
Then the gear gets spritzed again back in the barn. Inside of clutch cover and filter gets spritzed untill dripping.
Never have used Brakeclean cuz it's so dadgum expensive, and as noted, the new stuff is dangerous. Ether is cheap, but let the saw cool before you spritz it.
It's that time of year again, and I gotta start thinking about cutting all the fricken Ivy out of the fields.
I HATE that ####!
Stay safe!
Dingeryote
Before I even start fingering the truck, quad or whatever, everything gets spritzed.
Then the gear gets spritzed again back in the barn. Inside of clutch cover and filter gets spritzed untill dripping.
Never have used Brakeclean cuz it's so dadgum expensive, and as noted, the new stuff is dangerous. Ether is cheap, but let the saw cool before you spritz it.
It's that time of year again, and I gotta start thinking about cutting all the fricken Ivy out of the fields.
I HATE that ####!
Stay safe!
Dingeryote
Log Hogger
ArboristSite Operative
I get poison ivy easily and badly, and most of the trees I cut on my property have 2-3" vines, so I can tell you what I do. I'll give the whole method for cutting and cleaning in case it will help someone else.
First, I assume that no matter how careful I am, I'll get some poison ivy, so I see my doctor to replenish my stock of steroidal skin cream (triamcinolone acetonide 0.1%). Forget the OTC poison ivy creams, they're worthless. I also pick up some <a href="http://www.ivyblock.com/">Ivy Block,</a> the active ingredient of which is <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a607074.html">bentoquatum.</a> Slather bentoquatum cream on exposed skin before poison ivy exposure, and it will block a mild exposure or lessen a bad exposure.
Dress appropriately. Obviously it's better to get poison ivy on your clothes than your skin. Pay special attention to places that will catch wood dust and chips, like glove cuffs and collars. Once wood chips get inside a sweaty glove, all bets are off. The offending compound of poison ivy is <a href="http://nac.tamu.edu/x075bb/caddo/poison.html">urushiol,</a> which is actually a mixture of several oily compounds. These oils aren't like engine oil, they have some water solubility, so they can diffuse through sweat. Get the oils on sweat soaked jeans, and they diffuse right to your skin - another reason to wear chaps.
Keep your chain razor sharp so it's throwing chips instead of dust. Sometimes I'll sharpen a chain two or three times on one tank of gas when working on poison ivy infested trees. Work quickly. Saw enough to remove the ivy affected parts of the tree, or the worst parts. Once exposed, you have half an hour at the most to wash off the urushiol. the hotter and sweatier you are, the less time you have, so work around poison ivy in the winter if possible.
Cleaning the saw isn't so bad if you maintained a razor sharp chain. Keep your cutting gear on and wear a face shield and breathing mask. Blow out all areas of the saw with compressed air, outside and at arm's length. Then dampen a rag or paper towel with a solvent like kerosene or WD-40 and wipe down the saw, turning the rag frequently. That's it, the saw is clean.
Phase one is complete, clean the saw, which moves us on to phase two, clean yourself.
First, off with the chaps, these stay in the garage and are always handled as if they are contaminated. The clothes come off and go straight in the washer, which you left open before going out, without touching the floor. Everything goes in, leather gloves, hats, boot laces. Try to use an extra pair of boots so you don't have to clean them up, too. Start up the washer after a shower, no need to contaminate the lid or knobs.
The expensive poison ivy designer soaps are snake oil. Urushiol covalently binds to skin cell membrane proteins within half an hour of exposure, after which no soap can possibly remove it. Soap will only wash away unbound urushiol. It is important to use a "stringent" soap, i.e., one that leaves your skin uncomfortably dry. Bath soap, even without moisturizing lotion, is ineffective, it is designed to be used daily and is not stringent. A good, cheap soap to use is grease cutting dishwashing detergent without lotion, Fels Naptha Soap is also a good stringent soap. For the hair, shampoo can be used, but make sure it's the "deep cleaning" stuff - no 2 in 1 conditioner bullsh!t. This next part sucks: we want to keep the skin pores closed so they don't let in more urushiol. That means a cold shower. Step in and buck up. Wash parts known to be exposed first, rinse out the washcloth, then hit the rest. Don't do anything stupid, like washing your junk right after an exposed area.
All that's left now is waiting. In one or two days the rash will develop, or not. Regardless of precautions, I've never escaped a rash, but it's usually an annoying one instead of a horrific, oozing, life-altering affliction. Beware: without warning, sensitivity can develop in people who "don't get" poison ivy, or in those already sensitive, sensitivity can increase. Poison ivy can even <a href="http://nac.tamu.edu/x075bb/caddo/poison.html">kill via skin exposure:</a>
<blockquote> It takes one or more exposures to develop sensitivity but in six days after any exposure a body can be sensitized. This means is that there are people like the teacher who used to show (off) for his students how he could stroke and even chew poison ivy leaves. I guess this was a sort of a, "do as I say, not as I do" lesson. He did this for several years until the year he ended up in the hospital. There is also a record of a lady dying from poison ivy. She was only exposed to the sap every year while washing her husband's hunting clothes. After several years she died due to a severe reaction resulting in a kidney shutdown (Michael Ellis, Jan. 1986).</blockquote>
Don't leave the clothes in a pile for your mother or wife to pick up. If you're man enough to load wood into a trailer, you're man enough to load clothes into a washer.
Links:
<a href="http://nac.tamu.edu/x075bb/caddo/poison.html">The Toxicodendrons.</a> Good general info site.
<a href="http://www.cattail.nu/ivy/ivy_index.html">Poison Ivy Tutorial.</a> Identification.
<a href="http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0802.htm">Waynes Word.</a> A technical primer on urushiol. Deals with poison oak, but the urushiol info is applicable to poison ivy.
First, I assume that no matter how careful I am, I'll get some poison ivy, so I see my doctor to replenish my stock of steroidal skin cream (triamcinolone acetonide 0.1%). Forget the OTC poison ivy creams, they're worthless. I also pick up some <a href="http://www.ivyblock.com/">Ivy Block,</a> the active ingredient of which is <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a607074.html">bentoquatum.</a> Slather bentoquatum cream on exposed skin before poison ivy exposure, and it will block a mild exposure or lessen a bad exposure.
Dress appropriately. Obviously it's better to get poison ivy on your clothes than your skin. Pay special attention to places that will catch wood dust and chips, like glove cuffs and collars. Once wood chips get inside a sweaty glove, all bets are off. The offending compound of poison ivy is <a href="http://nac.tamu.edu/x075bb/caddo/poison.html">urushiol,</a> which is actually a mixture of several oily compounds. These oils aren't like engine oil, they have some water solubility, so they can diffuse through sweat. Get the oils on sweat soaked jeans, and they diffuse right to your skin - another reason to wear chaps.
Keep your chain razor sharp so it's throwing chips instead of dust. Sometimes I'll sharpen a chain two or three times on one tank of gas when working on poison ivy infested trees. Work quickly. Saw enough to remove the ivy affected parts of the tree, or the worst parts. Once exposed, you have half an hour at the most to wash off the urushiol. the hotter and sweatier you are, the less time you have, so work around poison ivy in the winter if possible.
Cleaning the saw isn't so bad if you maintained a razor sharp chain. Keep your cutting gear on and wear a face shield and breathing mask. Blow out all areas of the saw with compressed air, outside and at arm's length. Then dampen a rag or paper towel with a solvent like kerosene or WD-40 and wipe down the saw, turning the rag frequently. That's it, the saw is clean.
Phase one is complete, clean the saw, which moves us on to phase two, clean yourself.
First, off with the chaps, these stay in the garage and are always handled as if they are contaminated. The clothes come off and go straight in the washer, which you left open before going out, without touching the floor. Everything goes in, leather gloves, hats, boot laces. Try to use an extra pair of boots so you don't have to clean them up, too. Start up the washer after a shower, no need to contaminate the lid or knobs.
The expensive poison ivy designer soaps are snake oil. Urushiol covalently binds to skin cell membrane proteins within half an hour of exposure, after which no soap can possibly remove it. Soap will only wash away unbound urushiol. It is important to use a "stringent" soap, i.e., one that leaves your skin uncomfortably dry. Bath soap, even without moisturizing lotion, is ineffective, it is designed to be used daily and is not stringent. A good, cheap soap to use is grease cutting dishwashing detergent without lotion, Fels Naptha Soap is also a good stringent soap. For the hair, shampoo can be used, but make sure it's the "deep cleaning" stuff - no 2 in 1 conditioner bullsh!t. This next part sucks: we want to keep the skin pores closed so they don't let in more urushiol. That means a cold shower. Step in and buck up. Wash parts known to be exposed first, rinse out the washcloth, then hit the rest. Don't do anything stupid, like washing your junk right after an exposed area.
All that's left now is waiting. In one or two days the rash will develop, or not. Regardless of precautions, I've never escaped a rash, but it's usually an annoying one instead of a horrific, oozing, life-altering affliction. Beware: without warning, sensitivity can develop in people who "don't get" poison ivy, or in those already sensitive, sensitivity can increase. Poison ivy can even <a href="http://nac.tamu.edu/x075bb/caddo/poison.html">kill via skin exposure:</a>
<blockquote> It takes one or more exposures to develop sensitivity but in six days after any exposure a body can be sensitized. This means is that there are people like the teacher who used to show (off) for his students how he could stroke and even chew poison ivy leaves. I guess this was a sort of a, "do as I say, not as I do" lesson. He did this for several years until the year he ended up in the hospital. There is also a record of a lady dying from poison ivy. She was only exposed to the sap every year while washing her husband's hunting clothes. After several years she died due to a severe reaction resulting in a kidney shutdown (Michael Ellis, Jan. 1986).</blockquote>
Don't leave the clothes in a pile for your mother or wife to pick up. If you're man enough to load wood into a trailer, you're man enough to load clothes into a washer.
Links:
<a href="http://nac.tamu.edu/x075bb/caddo/poison.html">The Toxicodendrons.</a> Good general info site.
<a href="http://www.cattail.nu/ivy/ivy_index.html">Poison Ivy Tutorial.</a> Identification.
<a href="http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0802.htm">Waynes Word.</a> A technical primer on urushiol. Deals with poison oak, but the urushiol info is applicable to poison ivy.
Chris-PA
Where the Wild Things Are
Got some mild rashes on my forearms - pretty much what I expected. It'll give me something to do this week - think how bored I'd be without something to scratch at!
I like the WD-40 suggestion, should be safe for use on all saw parts.
I like the WD-40 suggestion, should be safe for use on all saw parts.
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
**** Coupon Code 50% off➥ [acs900074] for New and Existing Customers- Latest: ballisticdoughnut
-
-
