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Subject: 
Re: How to tell Cellulose Acetate from ABS
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general
Date: 
Fri, 23 Jul 1999 17:44:22 GMT
Viewed: 
899 times
  
I am dismantling and rebuilding my large Blue Castle (on my website) one wing
and tower at a time (4 matching wings with 4 towers) just to find all of the
blue Cellulose Acetate bricks which belong to a German wooden box set (#712)
from 1962 (which has been 95% reassembled).   When you compare virtually new
blue Cellulose Acetate bricks with new blue ABS bricks, it might not be that
difficult to tell individual bricks apart, but it is a pain in the butt for me
to find all the Cellulose Acetate bricks in a mostly ABS building.

The Cellulose Acetate blue slopes are different from the ABS blue slopes, a
lighter color to be sure, and also because they are usually warped.  In fact,
I have both Cellulose Acetate and ABS blue slopes in my Train Station roof.
There are several variations in not only the color, but also the texture of
the sloped bricks.  There are different degrees of courseness to the slope
surfaces, especially among the different ABS slopes.  And then there is the
other issue of pieces yellowing.

Gary Istok

Mookie wrote:

Ok, I can understand most of that, though in some respect I don't agree
with the blue being harder to seperate, I've got some very old blue
slopes, and I can tell just by looking in the bin which ones are and
aren't.  They are lighter, not as much a "true" blue as the ones they
make now.  And most are 2x3 :) which helps a little bit :) though even
the 2x4 slopes are pretty easy to tell.  Maybe this is just the case
with the slopes, I don't believe I have any blue, yellow, black
Cellulose Acetate bricks.. just white and red ones. One other easy way
to tell those apart which has been mentioned by Gary many times is the
logo on the studs.. they go in all directions and it's a different font.
only thing different on these slopes is it doesn't do that.. it's in the
old font though they are all nice and neatly put on the stud.  I just
did some checking and I've got these slopes in 1x2 2x2 2x3 2x4 2x4 and
2x2 double slope roof ridge, 1x2 end cap, and 1x2 with overhang to
create a gable, All have Pat. Pending inside of them and I'm pretty sure
they belong to set 080 that's the only set I have instructions for from
that period.. though I remember others.. long gone :(

Gary Istok wrote:

Chris Dee sent me a personal Email about Cellulose Acetate.  So here is
a reprint of my reply.  Gary Istok

___________________________

I was looking at some Cellulose Acetate windows yesterday, and I have to
say that some of the pieces (especially white) are a little difficult to
tell from ABS Lego.

The red pieces are probably the easiest to tell apart.  They are a
lighter color that has sort of an orange tint to it.  White bricks are
more difficult to tell apart, probably due to the lack of any color.
However the white bricks have a sort of "milky" hue.  Yellow and blue
Cellulose Acetate bricks are scarcer to find.  The Cellulose Acetate
yellow is lighter and more "lemon yellow" than the current yellow.  The
blue is hard to distinquish.  And grey or black Cellulose Acetate pieces
are very rare.

The easiest way to tell all Cellulose Acetate Lego from ABS is warping.
If you take a brick and turn it upside down, look at the 2 longest
straight edges of the brick bottom.  If there is a slight curve, you are
almost guaranteed to have Cellulose Acetate.  If 2 equal sized bricks
are put together, and there is any gap at all somewhere around the edges
where they connect, you have Cellulose Acetate.  If the windows or doors
have any warping at all (very common in Cellulose Acetate windows and
sloped bricks) then you have Cellulose Acetate.

Also the flat surfaces (including the flat area around the studs on top)
can also have some roughness (not wear) and uneven surfaces.

ABS plastic tends to keep its shape, even after 35 years.  So if your
Lego brick has a darker color and no warpage, then it must be ABS.

One thing I have noticed is that those large white plates (2x8, 4x8,
6x8) with the square holed bottom are almost always Cellulose Acetate.
And yet they don't warp much.  The square holed bottom must help
preserve the shape of the plates.

Gary Istok

.
At 04:27 AM 7/23/99 PDT, you wrote:
Hi Gary

Seeing your recent discussions on LUGNET, is there a surefire way to
recognise Cellulose Acetate parts?

I have some bricks I have set aside from mixed parts purchases 'cos • they
don't look right. Some are clearly poor quality imitations, but some • have
the italicised LEGO logo on the studs, but the characters are not in • the
same proportions as the current bricks, they are slightly less tall. • The
text is definitely italicised and not squat and upright like some fakes • I
have seen. Any ideas about these - I could drop an example in the post • if
seeing them would help.

Chris Dee




--

Build everyday!
-Tamy

http://www.execpc.com/~mookie/lego.html
http://mookie.iwarp.com/
Lego isn't a toy, it's a way of life!

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Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: How to tell Cellulose Acetate from ABS
 
The online newsgroups are quiet today ..... the "Dog Days" must be here. (For those non-US folks we in the USA call late July and all of August the "Dog Days of Summer" because throughout most of the USA it is HOT (32-38 degree Celcius) and people (...) (25 years ago, 27-Jul-99, to lugnet.general)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: How to tell Cellulose Acetate from ABS
 
Ok, I can understand most of that, though in some respect I don't agree with the blue being harder to seperate, I've got some very old blue slopes, and I can tell just by looking in the bin which ones are and aren't. They are lighter, not as much a (...) (25 years ago, 23-Jul-99, to lugnet.general)

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