mold forms on cords, knobs, and tool handles

[Red]

On Feb 27, 9:01 am, micky <NONONOmis...@bigfoot.com> wrote:

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 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.

 

[Doug]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:40:20 -0500, micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com>
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:24:01 -0600, Doug <doug@noemailaddress.com
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:01:25 -0500, micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:09:51 -0600, Doug <doug@noemailaddress.com
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:21:50 -0500, micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com
wrote:

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.

Thanks.


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,

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.

does this occur only in one area or all over,

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.

humidity level,

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.

etc... . You said the rest of the house is not clean so I wonder if
there is a connection to the basement?

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.


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... .

No, I appreciate your concern. If you were my mother, I'd be annoyed,
but she never knew when to stop.

My adult daughters say the same about me :-(

 

[Brian Berg]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:21:50 -0500, micky wrote:

micky wrote on Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:21:50 -0500:

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.)

Does it look like this?
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/12297573/img/12297573.jpg

Or this?
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/12297574/img/12297574.jpg

The former I always attributed to some kind of persistent "moldy"
like white paste (which I've long ago painstakingly scraped off
handle that tool you see in the picture so that only remnants remain)

The other is on my pool pump - which - you can imagine - isn't
mold but a white chemical covering (calcium carbonate?).

So, the first question, is whether it's a mold or a chemical?
Note: I don't know the answer for either of my tools above.

 

[Brian Berg]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:07:44 -0800, Red wrote:

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.

That's exactly my experience.
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/12297573/img/12297573.jpg

The plastic on the handles was coated with a thin white layer
which I could scrape off with a sharp tool (the results in
that picture are of a screwdriver scraped years ago, but some
of the persistent white stuff is still on the handle, in spots).

I don't know WHAT it is!

Like you experienced, it wouldn't 'wash' off and chlorine bleach
didn't faze it (of course, if it 'is' mold, it would be dead but
still there if bleach did kill it, since it's white).

I don't know if it's a "mold" or a "chemical".
It does seem to 'infect' other tools - but both a mold and a chemical
'can' do that (think hydrochloric acid).

 

[Brian Berg]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:14:07 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Maybe a photo will help:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/plastic-rot.jpg

That's EXACTLY what this screwdriver USED to look like!
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/12297573/img/12297573.jpg

So, whatever it is, it's common.

Again, I don't know if it is a mold or a chemical.
It does NOT happen to all tools of the same type.

It just happens to select tools which were stored in a
different environment (I think my affected screwdrivers
were used when I worked at a hospital on oxygen respirators).

 

[Dave Platt]

In article <glisi81ku2lr81s8gg2rhd5skd84ekkc5k@4ax.com>,
Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:

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.

Maybe a photo will help:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/plastic-rot.jpg
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.

Migration to the surface of a plasticizer, or an un-cured acrylic
monomer, followed by oxidation?

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

 

[Brian Berg]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:40:54 -0800, hrhofann@sbcglobal.net wrote:

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.

Wow. The real Jeff Liebermann (two n's and i-before-e) on alt.home.repair.

I'm impressed. You're the expert in the SC mountains for wireless radio.
Glad to have you here.

I am VERY FAMILIAR with this persistent "white stuff".
I have no idea WHAT it is - but I have it too.

It's either a chemical coating or it's a mold-like growth.
It does seem to be hugely persistent, in that if you don't scrape it
away, it will last (seemingly unchanged) forever.

I remember segregating my white-coated tools a while ago, but I no
longer do that once I manually scraped them (mostly) clean.

I seem to remember that the white stuff "infected" other tools, but,
it's no longer doing that (after twenty years). But, that white stuff
you see in this photo is easily twenty years old!
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/12297573/img/12297573.jpg

It had coated that screwdriver handle with a white persistent but
powdery on the outside surface coating just like the picture the OP
posted over here:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/plastic-rot.jpg

I considered throwing the screwdrivers away, but, my sense of
tool preservation had me soak that screwdriver maybe 15 years ago
in all sorts of horrid solvents (acetone, bleach, acid, etc.) in
my attempts to clean it off.

If anyone actually KNOWS what this white stuff is, I'd be curious!

 

[Bill Rotham]

micky wrote on Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:21:50 -0500:

micky wrote on Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:21:50 -0500:

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.)

Does it look like this?
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/12297573/img/12297573.jpg

Or this?
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/12297574/img/12297574.jpg

The former I always attributed to some kind of persistent "moldy"
like white paste (which I've long ago painstakingly scraped off
handle that tool you see in the picture so that only remnants remain)

The other is on my pool pump - which - you can imagine - isn't
mold but a white chemical covering (calcium carbonate?).

So, the first question, is whether it's a mold or a chemical?
Note: I don't know the answer for either of my tools above.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On 27 Feb 2013 20:56:29 GMT, Brian Berg <bberg@yahoo.com> wrote:

Wow. The real Jeff Liebermann (two n's and i-before-e) on alt.home.repair.

The original message was crossposted to sci.electronics.repair,
another of my hangouts.

I'm impressed. You're the expert in the SC mountains for wireless radio.
Glad to have you here.

Not much wireless happening lately. alt.wireless.internet is
essentially dead. Wireless has become a commodity after about 15
years, which is a good thing.

I am VERY FAMILIAR with this persistent "white stuff".
I have no idea WHAT it is - but I have it too.

I do. However, if you want a microscope photo, I'll bring the "moldy"
screwdriver from home, put it under the microscope, and take some
photos. I assure you that it's plastic, not spores.

It's either a chemical coating or it's a mold-like growth.
It does seem to be hugely persistent, in that if you don't scrape it
away, it will last (seemingly unchanged) forever.

Yep. It doesn't grow. Therefore, it's not mold.

I remember segregating my white-coated tools a while ago, but I no
longer do that once I manually scraped them (mostly) clean.

I seem to remember that the white stuff "infected" other tools, but,
it's no longer doing that (after twenty years). But, that white stuff
you see in this photo is easily twenty years old!
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/12297573/img/12297573.jpg

My early Craftsman tools, when they were made by Miller Falls, do not
collect plastic rot.
<http://oldtoolheaven.com/history/history.htm>
The later Craftsman tools, probably made in China, have the plastic
rot problem.

It had coated that screwdriver handle with a white persistent but
powdery on the outside surface coating just like the picture the OP
posted over here:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/plastic-rot.jpg

Grumble. That's my picture and I'm NOT the OP. The tools with the
acrylic coating are kinda rough, but plastic rot. The two with
plastic rot may have been added after I coated the others. I don't
recall.

I considered throwing the screwdrivers away, but, my sense of
tool preservation had me soak that screwdriver maybe 15 years ago
in all sorts of horrid solvents (acetone, bleach, acid, etc.) in
my attempts to clean it off.

The only things that actually directly attacked the white stuff were
mild plastic solvents. However, anything that dissolved the white
stuff, also attacked the plastic handle, so that's not a good fix.

If anyone actually KNOWS what this white stuff is, I'd be curious!

Send it to a pathology lab and see what they say.

--
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

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:37:00 +0000 (UTC), Bill Rotham
<baroth@notforspam.com> wrote:

The other is on my pool pump - which - you can imagine - isn't
mold but a white chemical covering (calcium carbonate?).

So, the first question, is whether it's a mold or a chemical?
Note: I don't know the answer for either of my tools above.

Well, you can easily eliminate calcium carbonate (lime) as a
possibility. Take some dilute hydrochloric acid (Muriatic Acid or
pool chlorine), and smear it on the plastic rot. If it fizzes and
belches gases, it's calcium carbonate. If it doesn't fizz, it's
something else:
CaCO3 + 2HCl -> CaCl2 +CO2 + H2O

--
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

 

[Sjouke Burry]

micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> wrote in
news:2icri8llum4a5m0qp0g2rkt9k5lj5m6p1j@4ax.com:

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.

Thanks.

Dont touch the utils with greasy fingers.
That feeds the mould.

 

[Brian Berg]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:18:08 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

I assure you that it's plastic, not spores.

Well, you're famous for having the right answer in the electrical
realm, so, I would have to give you the benefit of the doubt in
the mechanical.

It doesn't grow. Therefore, it's not mold.

True. It just sort of sits there. Minding its own business.

Grumble. That's my picture and I'm NOT the OP.

Ooops. Sorry about that. Your picture, as always, was perfectly apropos!
Too bad the OP didn't have the skills you have for Internet nntp work.

Come to think of it, VERY FEW people have your skills. You've helped
me quite a few times (under various nyms) on the wireless side, what
with that lousy set of WISPS in the SC mountains (yea, Brett, you know
him as I do. He's nice enough - but he's too busy and harried to give
you the technical time of day, and Dave, well, I'm glad I dropped
them).

The only things that actually directly attacked the white stuff were
mild plastic solvents. However, anything that dissolved the white
stuff, also attacked the plastic handle, so that's not a good fix.

I seem to remember I soaked mine in a variety of nasty solvents,
none of which worked - and then - about 10 years ago (or so, as I
don't really remember), I just scraped them clean. Have been that
way ever since.

Send it to a pathology lab and see what they say.
I wish I had the following 'scopes ...

a) microscope
b) oscilloscope
c) telescope

 

[Brian Berg]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:22:49 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Take some dilute hydrochloric acid (Muriatic Acid or pool chlorine), and
smear it on the plastic rot. If it fizzes and belches gases, it's
calcium carbonate.

I'll try that tomorrow as I have tons of pool acid (HCl).

Like you, I'll take a relevant picture, and let the world know the
results.

 

[Brian Berg]

On Thu, 28 Feb 2013 02:39:32 +0000, Sjouke Burry wrote:

Dont touch the utils with greasy fingers.
That feeds the mould.

If it is mold, I doubt shop grease would feed it as I
don't think anything has evolved to eat grease just yet.
Wait a few thousand years, and I'm sure they will.

Now, if you meant oily fingers (from human sebum), I'm
sure LOTS of organisms find that yummy.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On 28 Feb 2013 03:00:47 GMT, Brian Berg <bberg@yahoo.com> wrote:

Well, you're famous for having the right answer in the electrical
realm, so, I would have to give you the benefit of the doubt in
the mechanical.

Bad idea. I jumped into sci.electronics.design with my ancient and
obsolete experience. It appears that some things have changed in the
last 20+ years. After shoving my foot firmly into my mouth several
times, I've decided that I don't really know everything. Try not to
assume that I'm always right, as I've made some rather spectacular
technical screwups. However, it appears that I know more about
management than many engineers, so I'm not a total loss.

Come to think of it, VERY FEW people have your skills.

Answering questions is easy. The real problem is that most people are
not really well versed in the art of how to ask a proper question.
Most of what I do rather well, is decoding such questions, reading
between the lines as to what this person is really trying to
accomplish, and then answering the questions they didn't ask. If I
control both the question and the answer, it's all quite easy.

You've helped
me quite a few times (under various nyms)

I wish you wouldn't do that.

Send it to a pathology lab and see what they say.

I wish I had the following 'scopes ...
a) microscope
b) oscilloscope
c) telescope

You're not getting my microscope:
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/slides/Olympus-BHC-Microscope.html>

I have far too many oscilloscopes. I was about to fix some of them
and put them on eBay. Make me rich and you can have one of them.
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/scopes-to-be-fixed.jpg>

I do have a crappy 4.5" Celestron reflector with a few eyepieces that
is cluttering up my bedroom. Can't see anything through the trees and
I don't feel like freezing on some mountain top.

--
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

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On 28 Feb 2013 03:22:19 GMT, Brian Berg <bberg@yahoo.com> wrote:

On Thu, 28 Feb 2013 02:39:32 +0000, Sjouke Burry wrote:

Dont touch the utils with greasy fingers.
That feeds the mould.

If it is mold, I doubt shop grease would feed it as I
don't think anything has evolved to eat grease just yet.
Wait a few thousand years, and I'm sure they will.

You can have mutant oil eating bacteria today:
<http://www.naturalnews.com/031090_Gulf_of_Mexico_bacteria.html>

I usually wear blue latex rubber gloves when working with anything
potentially nasty or messy. It's not really for protection but
because I dislike cleaning up everything I touch afterwards. Black
fingerprints on my (music) synthesizer keyboard is not a good thing.

--
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

 

[Brian Berg]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:55:34 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

You're not getting my microscope:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/slides/Olympus-BHC-Microscope.html

Heh heh. That's a nice microscope with a nice oscilloscope in the background!

 

[Brian Berg]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:01:42 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

You can have mutant oil eating bacteria today:
I hadn't realized they were that advanced!

 

[micky]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:22:26 -0600, Doug <doug@noemailaddress.com>
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:40:20 -0500, micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:24:01 -0600, Doug <doug@noemailaddress.com
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:01:25 -0500, micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:09:51 -0600, Doug <doug@noemailaddress.com
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:21:50 -0500, micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com
wrote:

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.

Thanks.


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,

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.

does this occur only in one area or all over,

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.

humidity level,

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.

etc... . You said the rest of the house is not clean so I wonder if
there is a connection to the basement?

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.


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... .

No, I appreciate your concern. If you were my mother, I'd be annoyed,
but she never knew when to stop.



My adult daughters say the same about me :-(

My mother eventually began, when I was over 40 she said it outloud,,
to believe that I would do whatever she told me not to do. After I
noticed this, I asked her, So if I do what you tell me not to do, why
do you keep telling me not to do these things? She didn't have an
answer, but afaict she didnt' stop either.

 

[willshak]

Brian Berg wrote the following on 2/27/2013 3:45 PM (ET):

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:07:44 -0800, Red wrote:

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.

That's exactly my experience.
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/12297573/img/12297573.jpg

The plastic on the handles was coated with a thin white layer
which I could scrape off with a sharp tool (the results in
that picture are of a screwdriver scraped years ago, but some
of the persistent white stuff is still on the handle, in spots).

I don't know WHAT it is!

I have some hard spots on my tool handles like that, but I know what it is.
It is remnants of paint that may have been on my hands when I used the
tool while painting, like removing face plates off switches and outlets,
or other uses of the tool while painting.

Like you experienced, it wouldn't 'wash' off and chlorine bleach
didn't faze it (of course, if it 'is' mold, it would be dead but
still there if bleach did kill it, since it's white).

I don't know if it's a "mold" or a "chemical".
It does seem to 'infect' other tools - but both a mold and a chemical
'can' do that (think hydrochloric acid).

--
Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
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