What is that smell ...

[SeanB]

It is vulcanised rubber. Best way to treat it if the smell is too much is to wash in boiling water for a few hours, in a drum over a fire would probably be best. Add a half kilo of sulphur into the water as well. That way you vulcanise it fully, and then it should smell less like new car tyre. Otherwise you just leave it out in the sun on a roof for summer, which should bake it nicely. Leaving in the cold dark worsens it, you need to get it nice and hot.

[jlmoon]

Xcelite nut drivers .... Yep know that smell well ! That is a smell I do not like though.

Aurora

Oh wow.. I have one of those Xcelite tool cases.. brown one that attempts to look like leather.  It has that smell as well.  Almost like puke.

[Ian.M]

Pack it for return with an inner wrapper of an opaque heat sealed heavy gauge plastic bag and 'mature' it in a nice warm place for a week or two so that customer service can fully 'appreciate' your problem! <Evil Grin>

[max666]

It is vulcanised rubber. Best way to treat it if the smell is too much is to wash in boiling water for a few hours, in a drum over a fire would probably be best. Add a half kilo of sulphur into the water as well. That way you vulcanise it fully, and then it should smell less like new car tyre. Otherwise you just leave it out in the sun on a roof for summer, which should bake it nicely. Leaving in the cold dark worsens it, you need to get it nice and hot.

Hmmm ... that sounds interesting, gonna try that on the weekend. Thanks SeanB!

[edavid]

The Harbor Freight smell is plasticizers, mostly phthalate esters.  It's not the same as the Xcelite/butyric acid smell (fortunately).

[Melt-O-Tronic]

On the other hand, old electronics can have a wonderful smell.  I recently acquired some obsolete instruments from the late 60's and early 70's.  The interior of an old Wavetek 130 in particular has that glorious old electronic smell.  There was also an old force gauge in a wooden box lined with velvet that smells of ancient machine oil and fabric.

Mmmmmmmmm, love those smells. 

[SeanB]

It is vulcanised rubber. Best way to treat it if the smell is too much is to wash in boiling water for a few hours, in a drum over a fire would probably be best. Add a half kilo of sulphur into the water as well. That way you vulcanise it fully, and then it should smell less like new car tyre. Otherwise you just leave it out in the sun on a roof for summer, which should bake it nicely. Leaving in the cold dark worsens it, you need to get it nice and hot.

Hmmm ... that sounds interesting, gonna try that on the weekend. Thanks SeanB!

I use old scrapped conveyor belting as a soldering base, it is well cured vulcanised mat ( really well cured, a worn out belt that was worn down to the ply layer on the one side) and it is slightly conductive, and will survive the soldering iron on it, though it will smell then. Yours probably is just new, and needs to cook a little, and the sulphur will help to finish vulcanising it as well. Bleach will damage rubber, which worsens the smell.

[max666]

It is vulcanised rubber. Best way to treat it if the smell is too much is to wash in boiling water for a few hours, in a drum over a fire would probably be best. Add a half kilo of sulphur into the water as well. That way you vulcanise it fully, and then it should smell less like new car tyre. Otherwise you just leave it out in the sun on a roof for summer, which should bake it nicely. Leaving in the cold dark worsens it, you need to get it nice and hot.

Hmmm ... that sounds interesting, gonna try that on the weekend. Thanks SeanB!

Nope, did not work at all. Smells at least as bad as before. 
And just to be clear, it is a new car tyre, rubbery smell.
I also question whether the sulphur in boiling water is doing anything, the sulphur powder came out of the water the same condition as I poured it in. Obviously sulphur is insoluble in water and I think 100°C is too low for any expected chemical reaction with the sulphur.
I boiled it for 6 hours, during which loads of the lovely rubber and a little bit of sulphur smell pervaded the vicinity of my cauldron. That didn't make me very popular with everyone around me 
At first the fact that the boiling forced out the rubber smell in high concentration made me hopeful, but hanging the mat outside for a day now, the smell is just as bad.