My shop is in my basement, which has always seemed to be a very dry floor. However, about 4% of my cords, my spare radio and tv knobs, and the handles of my tools get a think layer of some sort of mold on them. It's like a grey dust. (Or some other light color, I forget.)
I wasg them in the dishwasher and they come out clean, but once in the basement again, after a few months, U notice that the same ones have mold. And the rest never get mold.
I suppose I could just ignore this, since it doesn't spread, but I wonder if any of you have ideas. No other part of my house is neat or clean, but the shop is the most important place, and I'd like it to be clean.
So what are your lungs like? Wasn't the biblical plague of deaths of the first-born sons put down to the premium food reserved for the first-born sons, stored in the basement, being contaminated with ergot or some-such mold
Hope you wear some kind of protection when you're in your basement. This doesn't sound good to me over time for your lungs, etc... .
Probably need more information about the basement such as what's done there, does this occur only in one area or all over, humidity level, etc... . You said the rest of the house is not clean so I wonder if there is a connection to the basement?
The plastic in some tool handles will break down over a period of time. It is just bad quality plastic. Even some other wise good tools have this problem. If it only some tools and always the same ones, you just have to replace the tools when the handles fall off.
Welll, sometimes I just watch TV, sometimes I make a fire in the fireplace, most of the time I work on electric projects in the "family" room and wood or metal projects in the laundry room, fright next to it.
I think it's all over the basement, but I guess there are only 2 or 3 areas where those three things are kept. There is a dresser at the far side of the room, the back end of the house. I keep a lot of knobs in one of the drawers -- knobs that go back to the 1930's but mostly I think it's those from the 50's and 60's that get moldy -- and
4 or 5% get "moldy". I put it in quotes this time because I've been assuming it's mold. It's some sort of dust like stuff, that I can wipe off with my fingers, but I use the dishwasher because it gets into the cracks and crevices. .
There is t he pair of little dressers that hold my work bench, in the middle of the house, near the base of the stairs. That has tools in one of the drawers and in the In-basket at the far end, plus some bananan plug jumper wires that get moldy. Thiese 8" jumpers were two of the few cords that got moldy. Mostly it's knobs and tools. . (Tools with yellow plastic handles are some of the moldy handles, but not every yellow plastic handle.)
And about 18 months ago I set up the new computer in the basement so I could use it to fix the old computer (which needed a new cpu.). So I do that stuff down here too.
I think the humidity is about 30% in the summer. Lower now. (I"ll get a meter and measure it , sicne you ask) But I'll say this. WRT water spilled on the laundry room floor, some of it soaks into the cement quickly and the rest evaportates within 12 to 24 hours (even when there is a lot of water from the laundry sink over flowing, or the hose to the washing machine springing a leak) and the cement itself dries out in less than 12 hours. I used to make a point of taking the laudry upstairs as soon as it was done, but one time I forgot and since then I've noticed that it can sit in the washing machine wet, for days, without getting moldy or smellilng bad, and can alos sit in the dryer only partly dried for days and it smells just the way freshly dried laundry should smell.
20 years ago after one of the bigger leaks, some mold grew on a sheetrocked wall, but I killed it with bleach and then painted it over, and that was the end of that.
I was mostly making a joke. The rest of the house isn't that dirty, and anyhow, it was clean for 15 or 20 years and I still had the moldy cords, tools, and knobs in the basement. Two or three times I've gathered them together and washed them in the washing machine. I don't pay close attention, but they all turn moldy again, in less than a year, probably less than 3 months.
I'm not worried about my health. Some mold is bad for all of the people some of the time, and some for some of the people all of the time , and some doesn't bother some people any of the time, and whatever I've got here has never bothered me in the 30 years I've lived here. And I'm the only one living here now. I'm just getting tired of having moldy things.
So you mean clean them first and then do this? OKay, I'll try it. It will take a few days at least to start the test and up to a month or three to wait for resutls, but I'll get back to you. At least I sincerely plan to.
micky wrote the following on 2/27/2013 2:21 AM (ET):
What kind of handles do these tools have? Steel, plastic, rubber, wood? You say these things have a 'dust like' layer. Could it be brushed off, or has to be washed off in a dishwasher? I know many of my tool handles get a gray or dark covering after a while, but I attribute it to an accumulation of dead skin cells from my hands. This could also be attributed to the handling of the TV knobs. I don't know about the 'mold' on the cords. All my tools are in an attached garage. I doubt whether this is mold if there is no other mold in the basement.
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Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
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I used to think like you ... that my body was pretty strong (and it was) but lately I'm experiencing things that never used to be so I think age is the culprit. My point is that even if your body was strong against the mold before, it may change with your age now. And it may be too late after you begin to notice it. Sorry if I seem overly concerned but I've had to deal with Cancer patients going to the doctor, etc... .
It's not mold. It appears to be mold, but if you look carefully, it doesn't "grow" in a radial pattern, as you would expect real mold to grow. I've put the dust under a microscope to be sure. It's plastic dust. Hit is with some heat, and watch it melt. I get this plastic "mold" on most of my cheap plastic handle tools. The plastic breaks down along the surface and sorta crumbles. It's probably caused by exposure to something in the air, which condenses onto the surface when wet. Washing the stuff off with any kind of kitchen cleaner works, for a while.
I've tried a few things to prevent its return. Dipping or spraying with acrylic coating (clear Krylon) seems to work best. I have one old plastic handle nut wrench, that I coated only half with acrylic spray. I can see tiny pits starting on the uncoated side, but the coated side looks like new. Note that you have to really clean the plastic with sandpaper and solvent before spraying or it will flake off. Also, don't worry about the dull finish after sandpapering, as the clear acrylic will make it shine again. Also, the acrylic sometimes feels kinda "sticky". I'm not sure what causes that.
Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck preserving rubber and flexible handles that have the same problem. The acrylic coating just cracks and falls off. Even worse, I haven't found a fix for the rubberized paint coating on plastic, that eventually turns to a sticky gooey tar mess.
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Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Your explanation makes more semse than "mold". The OP did not say what type of handles or tools were/were not affected, or if the tools were in a dark airless corner or out in plain sight, etc, so we really need more information.
You can eliminate UV from the guess list. I've had it happen in a closed toolbox, where no light enters except perhaps twice a year. It's also happening in my steel drawer tool boxes, where again little light enters. Ozone is a possibility, but I don't have any obvious sources for excessive ozone in the shop (Hi-V, electrostatic precipitators, negative ion generators, laser printers, etc). However, I do store aromatic chemicals nearby, which may be the problem.
Also, an important clue is that I can have a drawer full of plastic handle hex spintite wrenches, and only some of them will have a "mold" problem. This implies that the culprit is resident mostly in the plastic and not the environment.
Opinions seem to vary...
Mold growth on plastic:
Can mold grow on plastic and, if so, is there a way to clean it? - See more at:
How to Remove Mold From Plastic:
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Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
That's one theory, as made popular by a TV documentary. The problem is that ergot can cause death in sufficient quantities, but more commonly causes hallucinations, temporary insanity, convulsions, and various symptoms that look like madness. None of those symptoms were mentioned in the Old Testament. If it were a massive overdose of ergot poisoning on the surface of the food storage pot, there would be enough at lower levels to create mass insanity. Ergot is also very easily visible in unmilled grain, and would have been recognized. Also, the Nile valley is a large area, with diverse microclimates. Chances of a country wide epidemic of ergot poisoning is unlikely.
Drivel: Short lesson in critical thinking... If you read something that looks like cause and effect, try to visualize what else the cause might have produced. In this case, what would lesser concentrations of ergot poisoning produce. There are plenty of theories that will fall apart after failing that test including government solutions and creative economics.
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Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
I also have a parts drawer with an assortment of old knobs and I recently had the same experience you have. Out of an assortment of about 25 there were 6 that had an off white coating similar to mold. The coated knobs were identical and appeared to come off the same piece of old test equipment. The rest of the knobs were perfectly normal. Thinking they were moldy I soaked them overnight in a clorox solution and it didn't phase them. So it definitely wasn't mold. But with soapy water and a old toothbrush they cleaned easily so I determined it was an old plastic compound reaction.
Contrary to what some are saying I don't think you have a health problem in your dry basement.
Some Craftsman tools with plastic handles left in a car trunk or hot toolbox for a long time often get real stinky. That again is the type plastic they use and giving them a soapy bath usually helps a lot.
Maybe a photo will help: This is a drawer from my steel Craftsman toolbox that I don't use very often. The white stuff is the alleged "mold". Note that it's on two of the handles, but not the others. The larger tools are made by Vaco. The blue and the yellow handles are covered with the stuff. However, the other handles, from the same manufacturer, are pitted, but untouched. That's because they previously were cleaned and coated with a very thin layer of Krylon clear acrylic. I'm not sure why the blue and yellow handles are affected. I probably just forgot to coat them (about 18 months ago). There is no rust anywhere inside the toolbox on any of the other tools, so it's not moisture accumulation or consensation.
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Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
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