Plastic handles smell of vinegar!!Any Chemistry experts?

[toolsntat]

This happens to some plastic tool handles when they start to degrade,
It is a real sicky nasty smell and in the end they turn into a disintegrated mess :twisted:

They are a thermoplastic, Cellulose Acetate Butyrate. which, when that plastic begins to degrade, releases free acetic acid and butyric acid.

So, is there a chemical cure :idea: :?:

Picked up some info from these bits......
http://dwarmstr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/ ... stink.html
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=840385

Andy

 

[bridger]

The cure: bust off that failed plastic and make a nice wood handle for it.

 

[JimB]

Get rid of it keeping it away from any other plastic handles. My wife collects dolls and it occurs in some dolls and can spread. Look up 'hard plastic disease', the vinegar smell is a giveaway. If you see collectors sniffing dolls they aren't checking to see if the nappies have been changed.

 

[JohnPW]

I've read that the orange and yellow Marples splitproof chisel handles are made from cellulose acetate butyrate. Mine (about 20 years old) haven't started to degrade yet, they're still hard and smooth. I've found that they're really smelly when they're kept in a tool box, I don't know if the box being plastic makes any difference. But one chisel I've kept in the open isn't smelly, but if I sniff hard there's a faint smell.

The smell is not the same as vinegar though.

 

[woodpig]

Sadly this has happened to most of the Snap-On Screwdrivers I bought when I was a car mechanic many years ago. I've tried everything to halt the decay but nothing seems to work. Whatever is leaking out of them also attacks the steel shafts making them go rusty. I've got lots of other old screwdrivers but it's only happened to the Snap-On ones so far.

 

[Racers]

Haven't Snap-On got a life time guarantee?

Pete

 

[Jamesc]

Haven't Snap-On got a life time guarantee?

Pete

They always did have, I broke a 25 year old screwdriver of theirs. Being out of the trade I called my local rep and he came round, collected it and dropped off a replacement the following week. It's got to be worth persuing.

James

 

[HarryJ]

I'm pretty sure Snap-On still have their life time guarantee, so its probably worth asking!

Harry

 

[woodpig]

I bought these screwdrivers a long time ago and I'm not in the trade anymore. The last one I did have a problem with was a Philips driver with a broken tip, it wasn't exchanged for a whole new screwdriver just the shaft which was fitted in the old handle! What do I say to the Snap-On guy anyway? They smell a bit funny and leak ectoplasm?!!!

 

[Jamesc]

Tell him that theplastic handles are degrading. The worst that can happen is he says no.

James

 

[JimF.]

My Record Marples chisels stink to high heaven. Which is a shame because they are really quite nice otherwise. I bought them about 20 years ago in a box, new.

The best I can do is to leave them out on the shelf. Any hint of confinement brings out the worst in them.

The terrible odour may be just the excuse I need to acquire some nice wooden handles. :mrgreen:

 

[JimB]

My Marples blue chip show no sign of deterioration. I bought them over forty years ago.
I've seen knife handles shrink (faux ivory) and put it down to being kept in a plastic cutlery tray as ones kept separately are still good.
I was about to say, wood might crack but it doesn't smell foul but then I remembered some African wood that smelled like dog droppings.

 

[GLFaria]

My Marples blue chip show no sign of deterioration. I bought them over forty years ago.
...

Just like mine. About the same age and still going strong. But they're sizes I don't use much...