Here's an off question.
The Trio houses come new with a type of oil coated on the pieces. I know this is for protection (I'm not really sure why the aluminum pieces would need that kind of protection). Anyway, since most of those oils conatin benzene, does it seem like good idea to coat pieces of the house that the baby martins contact with that stuff? The directions day to wipe the oil off all of the pieces first, but you know there are some that'll skip that step. Seems like a vegetable type oil might be a good alternative.
Do the other aluminums come oiled up? Coates, Lone Star, Trendsetter?
Thanks
Aluminum housing question
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Al Denton
- Posts: 1468
- Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2003 7:31 pm
- Location: Carolina Shores NC
- Martin Colony History: New site and housing for 2018...Trendsetter 12. 1 pair of subs. Fledged 5...2019...11 pairs
Matt, My Heath and two Coates had no oil on them that I remember. If you think the oil might be a problem you can spray in and out with degreaser and wash it good with soapy water. Al
2018-new site...1 pair
2019-11 pairs
2020-15 pairs
2019-11 pairs
2020-15 pairs
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Guest
Matt - where did you get those cute smiley faces you use? Also, when I got my coates, it had no oil on it. I really don't know what that woud be for.
Lanell
Lanell
Thanks for the feedback gang! It sounds like Trio might be the only one that uses the nasty, oily coating.
Lanell,
It's kind of a cumbersome process. But what I do is collect different emoticons from other places, and save them to an image hosting site. I then place a link the emoticon that's saved on that site. For example:
If I'm writing a post, wherever I want one of the faces to appear I enter a link to that face using the "Img" tag. Say I want to enter the grinning face, I'd type
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/ ... iggrin.gif
and enter
after - no spaces. Doing so produces this: 
Lanell,
It's kind of a cumbersome process. But what I do is collect different emoticons from other places, and save them to an image hosting site. I then place a link the emoticon that's saved on that site. For example:
If I'm writing a post, wherever I want one of the faces to appear I enter a link to that face using the "Img" tag. Say I want to enter the grinning face, I'd type
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/ ... iggrin.gif
and enter
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Guest
Hi there, Matt.
My guess about the oil is that it is applied during the final stages of manufacturing, and might serve a protective role in case of long-term storage. A barrier to the outside environment. Painting or anodizing does the same thing, protecting bare metal.
The manufacturer may have just been covering all the bases by coating all of the parts.
I know for a fact that acetone will break up most oils. It might attack dried paint, too, so it would be best to first wipe with a rag dosed with acetone, then clean that off with a rag soaked in water. Acetone is also quite volatile and will evaporate quickly, so there's no chance of it lingering behind to harm martins or their eggs/chicks.
My guess about the oil is that it is applied during the final stages of manufacturing, and might serve a protective role in case of long-term storage. A barrier to the outside environment. Painting or anodizing does the same thing, protecting bare metal.
The manufacturer may have just been covering all the bases by coating all of the parts.
I know for a fact that acetone will break up most oils. It might attack dried paint, too, so it would be best to first wipe with a rag dosed with acetone, then clean that off with a rag soaked in water. Acetone is also quite volatile and will evaporate quickly, so there's no chance of it lingering behind to harm martins or their eggs/chicks.