Xcelite Screwdriver

[GreyOwl]

Picked up this from the local bargain $1 screwdriver bin this afternoon. It will go well with my others. #R5324 6 1/2" long X 1/8" blade.

 

[Exceller8]

Picked up this from the local bargain $1 screwdriver bin this afternoon. It will go well with my others. #R5324 6 1/2" long X 1/8" blade.

Nice score! I really love the Xcelite screwdrivers. I picked one up today for $1 as well...

 

[Outlawmws]

The larger Xcelite drivers are good solid drivers; I'm far less impressed with the small sets that came in a case with a torque handle...

 

[kc-steve]

Grats, that's a good quality tool for a buck. I started collecting Xcelite tools again after 30 years. I used a 99 set back in my early days of electronics. Memories ya know?

Steve

 

[Exceller8]

Grats, that's a good quality tool for a buck. I started collecting Xcelite tools again after 30 years. I used a 99 set back in my early days of electronics. Memories ya know?

Steve

I'm thinking about collecting the amber screwdrivers. I find them all the time and could have a pretty nice collection for little $$$. The last thing I need is more screwdrivers though. I probably have over 100 in my shop, maybe more...

 

[George in Rancho Cordova]

In my misspent youth, I had a set of Xcelite flat-blade screwdrivers with square shanks. I felt that they were better pry tools that way!

 

[Exceller8]

In my misspent youth, I had a set of Xcelite flat-blade screwdrivers with square shanks. I felt that they were better pry tools that way!

 

[zuk123]

Does anyone know how to get rid of the peculiar smell old Xcelite tools get? (to me it makes my whole box smell like puke.)

The best result I've had so far is dipping them in acetone. It seems to re-activate the plastic and skin it over again.

If you are collecting them you must know what I'm talking about. What do you do?

zuk

EDIT - I've got a set of NOS Klein replacement pliers handles that smell the same way, so I think it is the plastic combined with age and not confined JUST to Xcelite...

 

[losttechnician]

At work, my small dept has a "community" set of Xcelite nutdrivers, in a molded plastic case. Sits closed up for months at a time, and every time it gets opened, the room clears out.

Like has been said, smells like puke. Just can't talk the powers that be into a new set with less... ummmm... personality.

Can't even talk them into a bucket of deodorant. For me OR the tools.

 

[Jawn]

There's a toolbox at my work, one drawer has assorted old screwdrivers... mostly that sort of Xcelites. And yes... they stink to high heaven, but they're great tools.

 

[WWIIjeep]

Does anyone know how to get rid of the peculiar smell old Xcelite tools get? (to me it makes my whole box smell like puke.)

The best result I've had so far is dipping them in acetone. It seems to re-activate the plastic and skin it over again.

If you are collecting them you must know what I'm talking about. What do you do?

zuk

EDIT - I've got a set of NOS Klein replacement pliers handles that smell the same way, so I think it is the plastic combined with age and not confined JUST to Xcelite...

It's the plastic deteriorating due to age, and is sometimes called "vinegar syndrome" because of the characteristic acetic acid odor.

There's really nothing you can do to stop it. Keeping the affected items in a cool, dark, well-ventilated place can slow the deterioration, but ultimately, the product will continue to deteriorate to the point where it will become brittle and crumble. Worse yet, the acetic acid residue can actually burn your skin, especially if handled with damp or sweaty hands.

Symptoms are, in general progression:

Odor of acetic acid (vinegar), or puke, or whatever else you want to call it.
White, cloudy, or chalky bloom on the plastic surface.
Corrosion or rusting of adjacent metal parts.
Cracking, crazing, crumbling of the surface and ultimate destruction of the product.

The acetone treatment you've been using may appear to be helping, but actually, it's not "reactivating" the plastic, it's only removing the outer smelly and chalky layer and accelerating the depolymerization of the plastic by exposing fresh surface to the air.

No cellulose acetate handle from any maker is immune. It happens to older Snap-On tool handles as well as to Xcelite, Craftsman, or any other brand. The only difference is when, or how fast it will occur, and that's determined by the environment. Temperature and UV light are the worst enemies of plastic tool handles.

Once you've got a tool handle with any of the aforementioned symptoms of deterioration--smell, chalking, crazing, etc.--the only thing to do is replace it. Keeping it in a closed container makes the smell worse and accelerates deterioration. Coating it with anything may stop the smell temporarily, but the deterioration continues underneath.

If you've got smelly tool handles, the best thing to do is replace the tools. Or at the very least, if they're just at the first stage of deterioration (the smell) take them out of tool boxes or the OEM soft vinyl storage cases and leave them in the open air (and preferably also away from high ambient temperature and UV light).

 

[Exceller8]

Wow, some of my screwdrivers are over 30 years old with no problems. I have 5 or 6 Xcelite screwdrivers with no smell at all. At least when I go to buy one now I can smell it first and make sure it doesn't stink.

 

[Burgerkong]

Good thing my Vaco drivers smell like sweet candy.

 

[JASTECH]

I have a few xcelite drivers and all w/o puke. I don't collect them though. But I do have 2 sets of Cutco knives made in USA many years ago that smell, then when wet....pukeified! big time like gag city. My Dad took 3 of them that I cut meat off deer leg with, washed them...gaged, lol...so I told him. He then oiled them with samething he uses on breaking sticks out of oak and stink is gone.

 

[MrMark]

They are made from something called Buterite that stinks so bad. It is the best compromise for Xcelite because of its properties re insulation, so they told me. I don't know if this Buterite is related to acetate. I have some new ones and they don't smell like the old ones yet. The old ones pretty much smelled like puke from day one.

 

[zuk123]

Well, I was hoping for a miracle cure. They are good tools and too pricy to just replace.

Here is a pic that must be the endgame you describe WWIIJeep, it's a Snap On driver that was in a box with the mini breaker and the sockets. It crumbled apart under my fingers. You can see how corroded the shaft and the breaker got.

zuk

 

[Exceller8]

I bought another used Xcelite screwdriver today and it doesn't stink, yet!

 

[WWIIjeep]

They are made from something called Buterite that stinks so bad. It is the best compromise for Xcelite because of its properties re insulation, so they told me. I don't know if this Buterite is related to acetate. I have some new ones and they don't smell like the old ones yet. The old ones pretty much smelled like puke from day one.

It's actually "Butyrate" not "Buterite." And it's part of the full name of the product: Cellulose Acetate-Butyrate, sometimes abbreviated as Cellulose Butyrate or further yet as CAB.

I was attempting to be brief in the original description upthread, not so successfully. Having taken the advice given to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate ("Plastics"), I worked in plastics engineering in the 1970s. My memory ain't what it used to be, but here's what I remember (with a little help from an old plastics engineering manual):

In the production of Cellulose Acetate-Butyrate (CAB) tool handles and other products, butyric acid is added to cellulose acetate as a dimensional stabilizer, and to impart better weathering and chemical resisting properties.

The maufacturing process involves first reacting cellulose acetate with sulfuric and acetic acid, which is then further reacted with butyric acid and acetic anhydride to make the finished CAB compound. Both of the latter products (butyric acid and acetic anhydride) are responsible for the offensive odor occasionally encountered.

In fact (something I didn't know until I looked it up), butyric acid is a component of human puke, so you guys are right on about the odor. I must be partially immune to the odor, possibly from having been puked upon by many children and grandchildren over the past 40+ years.

BTW, butyric acid is sometimes used on fishing lures, so if you happen to run out of bait on a fishing trip, or the fish just aren't biting, you might try trolling with a stinky Xcelite screwdriver and a spinner....

Anyway, the best thing you can do to minimize the odor is to store the offending objects in open air so the odor doesn't concentrate in one spot; however, there's nothing you can do once the product advances from the puke stage to the acetic acid (vinegar) stage and ultimate destruction.

I pulled out 4 samples of Xcelite products from the 1960s/1970s for comparison and only 1 has any kind of (slightly) objectionable odor.

Only the 4th down from the top has any odor, and only very slight. All have been stored in open air (tool pouch or open box), not sealed up in a tool box or plastic case, for 30+ years.

Below the Xcelites are examples of the next stages of CAB handle deterioration, a NOS Craftsman screwdriver from the 1980s, exibiting vinegar odor and chalky appearance. The chalky substance will rub off, but if you leave it on your hands it will irriate the skin. The bottom is a Snap-On in the next stage of deterioration, permanent chalky/cloudy appearance and some crazing, blistering and cracking, along with the SHS (stinky handle syndrome).

 

[willhollin]

Butyric acid, I think thats the stuff the Sea Shepherd crew lobbed at the Japanese whaling boats to spoil the whale meat.

 

[WWIIjeep]

Butyric acid, I think thats the stuff the Sea Shepherd crew lobbed at the Japanese whaling boats to spoil the whale meat.

Apparently so, although in this video, at 12 seconds in, it looks like he's shooting an Xcelite screwdriver at them...