Cure for plastic handle white fungus?

[Sevenhills1952]

Anyone found a cure for screwdriver or nutdrivers plastic handles turning white?
Mostly Xcelite and Craftsman. Xcelite set was so bad I got a new replacement. Apparently something in plastic formula used maybe 70s-90s?
About a year ago online I saw fixes, one was painting with acetone which seemed to work...but didn't last.
I have an Xcelite 99 series set the yellow handles cruddy.
Thanks any ideas.

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[Lesserstore]

I've used soapy water and a brush to remove that stuff, and it seems to work, but it won't cure the stink.

 

[TuxThePenguin]

As far as the stink goes - butyric acid. It makes your vomit taste and smell bad, it makes low quality cheeses taste and smell bad (if you ever had parmesian that LITERALLY tasted like vomit, that's butyric acid), and it makes screwdrivers smell bad.

The only way to avoid it is to avoid this style of screwdriver.

There is no fixing the stink. Dumping baking soda on it for a bit then washing that off might make it go away temporarily at best.

I'm not sure if that's the same problem that causes the white stuff or what.

Edit: P.S. Keep your screwdrivers out of sunlight / UV light as much as you can to lessen this problem (this doesn't help with fixing it once it already happened, though)

 

[driz]

How bout spraying with clearcoat?? Just spitballing no idea really myself.


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[Drive-south]

Hot water with minced garlic kills fungus. Works great on athletes foot. No harm in trying.

 

[driz]

Hot water with minced garlic kills fungus. Works great on athletes foot. No harm in trying.

Kills my buddies here [emoji3365][emoji3347][emoji3374]too they say.


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[RTM]

I have tried coating them with shellac (clear unwaxed). Seems to mostly keep the smell inside. I have not tried acetone first to turn it back to clear prior, as none of mine are that bad.

Reduces it from sympathetic barfing to the odd whiff of barf. Or I have more bad screwdrivers to find.

 

[rlitman]

Hot water with minced garlic kills fungus. Works great on athletes foot. No harm in trying.

It's not fungus.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

Right after posting this I noticed I had this furniture polish on the bench, so I tried it on a cloth & brush. It worked like magic. I'll give it a few weeks but it seemed to work great.

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[BlakeTheCarGuy]

I haven’t had a problem like that I don’t know if it’s the environment that my shop and toolboxes are in or what but I wouldn’t clean it because I like the smell it’s that true garage scent that I can smell 24/7


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[dadsEH]

Wipe them with autotrans fluid and polish off.

 

[DadsTools]

Yes, the white powdery surface is another aging characteristic of this material. After you clean it off, it will stink better!

There is nothing that you can clean the handles with that will make the stink permanently go away.

The very best solution is to encapsulate it with a finish after thoroughly cleaning. After much research, the best finish for this is dipping in wooden-floor grade polyurethane. Once hardened, no more stink. As long as the coating isn't breached, stink no more ever. This works. I haven't read about anyone trying two-part catalyzed lacquer (like a liquid epoxy) but I bet that would work very well too. Both these finishes are designed to leave a hard surface that will hold up to a lot of surface wear.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

Thanks all replies.
I said fungus but that's not it. From what I understand it must be the plastic formula they used a certain year span. New ones don't do that. Dad's (rip) old Craftsman ones don't. Some replacements he got probably in 70s-80s do.
Ones I have are randomly affected.

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[GTO]

Acetone

 

[seber]

I don't have an answer but I do know the cause. Some plastics require a "plasticiser" to keep them from deteriorating or to keep them soft. That chemical is volatile by nature and over time works it's way to the surface and evaporates. The white powdery residue is plastic without plasticiser. I would guess that is what smells also.

 

[Ton ton]

Do it best brand of screwdrivers don't seem to stink.

 

[BigBoreFan]

"After you clean it off, it will stink better!" That's funny.

 

[BigBoreFan]

I'm a bit of an xcelite fan myself. My first job was in electronics. They were the go screwdriver back in the day, where i worked at anyway. I still have a few smelling up my box

 

[David C]

You need to add this with the garlic or it won’t work.



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[NoahG]

Something must be wrong with me cause I dont mind the smell.

 

[DadsTools]

"After you clean it off, it will stink better!" That's funny.

Hahaha. Yep. From my experience, taking off that top waxy layer (it's not powder, that's for sure) exposes the bare plastic that then stinks even better.

Encapsulation is the only permanent cure.

 

[56Mark]

Something must be wrong with me cause I dont mind the smell.

Yep, you not right!
I work for the company that makes the plastic for many of these. It is a cellulose acetate butyrate. I hate the smell of butyric acid and I have had to work on tanks, pumps, etc that handles it. It all starts with the cellulose out of wood pulp, is broken down with acids and acetylated into CAB plastic.

The reason it makes good handles is that CAB won't dissolve in oil and grease, but acetone will do a number on it if left in it.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

"After you clean it off, it will stink better!" That's funny.

When grandmother wore perfume grandad would say "Now you stink pretty".

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[Drive-south]

I just noticed that many of my Xcelite drivers have this white residue and the odor. I wonder if a trip through the dishwasher would help.

 

[TuxThePenguin]

I just noticed that many of my Xcelite drivers have this white residue and the odor. I wonder if a trip through the dishwasher would help.

At absolute best, it would remove residue but leave the smell. Even though this type of plastic feels hard and reasonably dense, it is still porous and butyric acid is difficult to remove. It's still going to be degrading and will continue to push chemicals to the surface of the handle.

Probably the most promising idea in this thread, in my opinion, is using polyurethane on the handle to FULLY encase it once you clean the stuff off (via whatever method works), mentioned by someone else on page 1 of the thread.

I have doubts a dishwasher would be strong enough to do it but you can try it if you like

 

[Sevenhills1952]

A trip through dishwasher would help if you're wanting a divorce [emoji3].

I still can't believe how well the lemon oil furniture polish works.
I believe that, then just hand wash with dish detergent wearing gloves, rinse, dry then 1 or 2 coats polyurethane would be the coup de grâce.





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[metaldad]

i clean mine with mineral spirits, dry well, and shoot several times with gloss urethane. works very well

 

[Vercingetorix]

Has anyone tried Plasti Dip?

 

[Sevenhills1952]

Has anyone tried Plasti Dip?

I've used it for pliers handles, but for screw & nutdriver handles it would cover it over. I've never had much success with plasti dip for anything. Not very durable.

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[Bacon!]

Those of you with them even 1/4th that bad, how are you storing them?

I have several screwdrivers from that era of 70's, 80's, 90's, and may not have even bought any Cman since then, but none of mine are even remotely close to looking like that, at MOST they have a haze over the plastic so it looks slightly frosted but even that, polishes away with brasso/etc (the few times I bothered to try, I really don't care about the minimal level of change in any of mine).

I also don't notice them stinking very bad. Can I smell that? Yes, I smell all kinds of things reasonably well but it's hardly worth mentioning as more than a piece of trivia.

If I only had one set from the era, then I'd think maybe they accidentally added some additional ingredient that changed their formula and made mine more stable, but with several over those decades, it just doesn't add up to me that people are seeking these extreme measures to coat them for what I strongly suspect is some kind of storage problem.

... or do I have it backwards, that I managed to coat every single one of mine in grease and then I only wiped the grease off rather than going to extreme measures trying to make them fit for a surgical task, and that has saved them from the fate some are seeing?

???? I really don't understand this difference without some variable involved, but personally if it were me, I'd not care at all if they were transparent like new/glass, just that they do the job and the plastic texture doesn't hold excessive grime, so it is at least relatively smooth no matter what amount of transparency it has.

I've had no issues with mine becoming unsmooth, except for rare cases where I took a pair of pliers to one to get more leverage and left indentations.

Painting them with (anything) seems nuts to me, as they are pedestrian quality, not something that's one of a kind and you're stuck making due on some deep space expedition where it's that or nothing.

I guess there is that restoration angle, wanting them to look like new for hobby/insanity reasons, but otherwise it seems ironic to me that I wouldn't be bothered much by handle plastic hazing, yet mine haven't done that, lol.

 

[TuxThePenguin]

UV light does it. Leaving them outside or next to a window that receives sunlight [causes it].

Edit: This is probably not the only possible cause of the problem. But it's generally considered to be a significant factor in the breakdown of CAB.

 

[Bacon!]

UV light does it. Leaving them outside or next to a window that receives sunlight.

That seems like a better solution (avoiding that) than painting them with *goop*? I still don't understand the effort vs outcome for Cman screwdrivers. If they were rare, someday valuable, okay then, but they are too common to become rare in our lifetime, and practically all mine are made in USA and that doesn't mean much for their screwdrivers, are still nothing special.

Seems like an unhealthy obsession to me, or just something to put in hindsight as not the best material for a handle.

 

[Sidchrome]

My dad a sparky had a set of Ecilites from the 70’s, they were in a little plastic carry box, with a very distinctive smell. He was very upset when someone stole them a few years ago when he left them out.
I still remember that smell though!

 

[wayne55]

I've had new Craftsman screwdriver handles develop the white fungus that were inside a closed metal toolbox that never saw daylight for 10 years. Some were OK and some would get the white stuff.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

I've had new Craftsman screwdriver handles develop the white fungus that were inside a closed metal toolbox that never saw daylight for 10 years. Some were OK and some would get the white stuff.

That's been my experience as well. Most old USA Craftsman were bought as a set and some turn white, other's don't.
This 9/16" Xcelite nutdriver I modified brazed to make longer 35 years ago, yet handle isn't white.
No connection between UV light and effect in my experience, just random.View attachment 1032545

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[shannos]

I've had new Craftsman screwdriver handles develop the white fungus that were inside a closed metal toolbox that never saw daylight for 10 years. Some were OK and some would get the white stuff.

This. I just discovered my first purchased toolbox, a black crinkle paint Craftsman 2 drawer box (with genuine simulated woodgrain top!) under my work bench in my garage. Tools been in there for probably 20 years. Some are thick white moldy looking, some are fine. It's not damp in my insulated garage.

 

[Bubba Fett]

The ultimate solution is to get rid of them and get better screwdrivers. That said, none of mine have developed the gunk, but they have a bit of a smell.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

The ultimate solution is to get rid of them and get better screwdrivers. That said, none of mine have developed the gunk, but they have a bit of a smell.

I wouldn't replace them just for cleaning...they still work!
I'd hate to think my missus would replace me just because I stink[emoji38].

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[DadsTools]

I think most get what's going on here, but a few don't, and that's ok, they can play too. For those who don't, if I may.....

This is Garage Journal. We do not throw away tools. We keep tools. Tools are good. We get more tools. No tool is left behind. No one can have too many tools.

This is Garage Journal. We fix things. If tools have a residue, we can fix that. If tools have a smell, we can fix that.

This is Garage Journal. There is no such thing as too many screwdrivers. I can't fathom anyone in here even entertaining such a thought, let alone allowing that thought to materialize into a sentence.

It does not matter on the floor.
It does not matter out of doors.
It does not matter in the tray.
It does not matter barn or bay.
It does not matter on the truck.
It does not matter what your luck.
It does not matter night or day.
It does not matter nay fay way.
It does not matter bench or box.
It does not matter, Goldilocks.

Your education now complete.
More tools to find so hit the street.

 

[egdede]

I find the smell to be like boiled linseed oil smell: UUHHH at first, then it gets familiar, almost friendly. I just put 3 panels of plywood up behind a workbenchand used BLO. It's been 2 weeks and the smell has got 'just right'.