Poker Chip Cookie Cutters (2 Viewers)

[Nex]

Wasted about 80 grams of material and a lot of time with misprints - mainly due to incomplete part design changes, but some also due to piss poor material behavior of a new premium price spool I was using (thanks PrimaSelect)...

I'm just too lazy to build Inventor assemblies for all the possible combinations to preview how the parts fit together. However, doing that didn't stop me from doing such misprints for the very first combination I built either, so duh. Waste seems inevitable in R&D no matter how good your simulation possibilities are.

Arbitrary diameter modifications to all parts are complete now. I can print all the eight parts a complete punch consists of for any cookie diameter I want now (okay, there is a certain minimum and maximum diameter for technical reasons, but you get it). It still would be a lot of dull work to add the necessary new entries to the configuration tables, but no actual modifications to the part designs are needed to make it work. Just copypasting and editing a lot of stuff in a spreadsheet.

I am now done with the round punch designs for Moon, HC, W and V spots.
Printed a single 43mm punch of each spot style for starters.

Picked up a couple more filament spools and have enough colors now to give each spot style's pushout assembly a different color for easier recognition:

Moon: Blue transparent
HC: Green transparent
W: Yellow transparent
V: Red transparent
34: White
58: Lavender
916: Blue
12: Green
38: Yellow
14: Orange
18: Red

I have cut down on the round punch variations, removing any combination punch, i.e. these punches will not cut D(S)/T(S) multi-color spots in one go. I have opted for a two-punch approach to reduce design complexity / number of punch variations. Plus, this gets it closer to what happens with actual chip punching anyway I believe. If you want to create a 3TA14 cookie for example, you would use a 334 round punch first to get the cookie bodies, and then use a dedicated 14 spot punch to get the spots. There will not be a round punch that cuts the three 14 spots individually out of the cookie body. I will however make variations of the dedicated spot punches that will cut multiple spots of the same type in one go.

There won't be a dedicated spot punch for W style spots as these can be assembled with two V and one 18 spot.

I also had an improvement idea for the mold assembly design. Two optimizations: mold plate will be printable without supports and handle pin will get a broader plate. It takes quite some force to press the dough into the desired form and the thin pin in the center concentrated all the resistance forces on one small spot in your palm which does get painful after pressing the mold onto a couple of cookies. With a broader handle, the force should get distributed better. Also, as a side effect, the modification to make the mold plate printable without supports will increase the rigidity of the mold plate, so it should imprint more evenly over the whole surface.

This mold modification idea only exists as a bunch of doodles on paper currently. I will first finish up all the variations for the punches (7 more to go, each requiring changes to three parts) before building the modifications in Inventor.

After that, I will make the dedicated spot punches. I have come to the conclusion that due to the size and shape of these it won't be feasible to make them a three-part assembly with punch, top clip and pushout. I am going to drop the top clip; the pushout piece will be loose inside the punch.

I am also going to make 43mm versions of the THC-LCV/SCV and RHC molds. There won't be a 39mm version for IHC though.

 

[allforcharity]

I must say, this level of obsession is mighty impressive!

 

[Nex]

Doing this project as seriously as I was able to instead of half-assing it made me pick up a very solid working knowledge for the CAD software.

Assembly part 1/3 is completely done now with all remaining spot types implemented (x34, x58, x916, x12, x38, x14, x18).
Printed a small supply of 43mm top clips and 334, 412, 614 round punch base parts today. 458/3916/438/818 round punch base parts still printing.

Saturday/Sunday I hope to finish up the last two assembly part modifications to be able to print the first few pushout assemblies for the punch base parts I printed today, a handful of dedicated spot punches, and the 43mm version of the THC-LCV mold. Sometime next week I hope to do a new baking session.

Not going to drop the 39mm, but will focus my experiments on the 43mm size for now. The bigger the easier to handle the dough I hope.

There are 28 different round punch models in total (per diameter), and there will be 21 dedicated spot punch models. It'll take a while but I am going to print them all for personal use at 43mm.
Had to drop my plan to make an 814 design as there's simply not enough space to fit the pushout assembly, neither at 39mm nor at 43mm.

 

[Blaster]

.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/new-clay-chip-mfgr.19408/

 

[Nex]

Design modifications completed on part 2 of 3 for adding the remaining spot styles.

I didn't let my printer sit idle while I was working... 18 of 28 round punches with top clip printed. Plus an empty round punch to take the 43mm THC-LCV mold stamp.

The new punches only are missing the 6-piece pushout assemblies. I could already print 5 of those 6 pieces for each, but I prefer to do all the parts in one go so I'll complete work on the third part first.

One of those pushout assemblies takes roughly 1.5 hours to print, but that's significantly less than what a punch and top clip take, so there's already a lot more done than it looks like. The pushout parts are bulky but have a fairly thin shell and low infill, while the round punches and top clips are pretty much solid with thick walls.

 

[Nex]

Modifications on all pushout part designs completed. While I was working, I printed three more punch/top clip combos and the pushout assemblies for six already-designed spot types.

Printed assembly for 334 punch for testing. Seems fine except for some tolerance issues that however are stemming from printer-filament calibration. But I probably designed it with not enough give and was only lucky so far that the material I used was flexible enough.

Also did the envisioned modifications to the mold stamp punch design. I still have to rework the other already existing mold designs for this but already have the parts ready for the 43mm THC-LCV mold, which is printing right now.

Didn't get to work on the dedicated spot punches yet and tomorrow will be a busy day, so probably going to be tuesday/wednesday.

 

[Nex]

Been a while since my last update.

Had some time during my holidays to work on the cutters.

Produced a lot of plastic waste due to me screwing up my printing profiles completely without noticing . At first I thought the hotend/nozzle were clogged with some shit, so I did cold pulls over and over only to find perfectly clean filament coming out.

Turns out I was operating at the very lowest end of nozzle temperature you can for the specific PETG material I was using, and my fatal modification was that I upped the print fan speed. It cooled the nozzle just a few degrees celsius too much so the filament would partially solidify inside the nozzle before coming out as soon as the fan started - which was programmed for layer 4 and onward, meaning a lot of wait only to find a fucked up underextruded print coming back after a while. Frustrating experience. No idea how I realized what was wrong but I'm glad I did...

All punches in 43mm are printed now. Plus my modified THC-LCV punch with thicker molding plate and larger palm plate.

Next up - dedicated spot punches.

Top to bottom, left to right: (red) 818, 618, 418, 218, (orange) 614, 414, 314, 214, (white) 334, (green) 412, 312, 212, (trans blue) 3Moon, (blue) 3916, (lavender) 458, 258, (trans green) 6HC, 4HC, 3HC, 2HC, (trans yellow) 4W, 2W, (yellow) 438, 238, (trans red) 8V, 4V, 3V, 2V.

 

[markleteenie]

This is so amazing, and they turned out well!

I know someone was playing around when they said edible labels, but you could probably do a hotstamp in the middle!!!

 

[MD Mike]

Been a while since my last update.

Had some time during my holidays to work on the cutters.

Produced a lot of plastic waste due to me screwing up my printing profiles completely without noticing . At first I thought the hotend/nozzle were clogged with some shit, so I did cold pulls over and over only to find perfectly clean filament coming out.

Turns out I was operating at the very lowest end of nozzle temperature you can for the specific PETG material I was using, and my fatal modification was that I upped the print fan speed. It cooled the nozzle just a few degrees celsius too much so the filament would partially solidify inside the nozzle before coming out as soon as the fan started - which was programmed for layer 4 and onward, meaning a lot of wait only to find a fucked up underextruded print coming back after a while. Frustrating experience. No idea how I realized what was wrong but I'm glad I did...

All punches in 43mm are printed now. Plus my modified THC-LCV punch with thicker molding plate and larger palm plate.

Next up - dedicated spot punches.

View attachment 252239
Top to bottom, left to right: (red) 818, 618, 418, 218, (orange) 614, 414, 314, 214, (white) 334, (green) 412, 312, 212, (trans blue) 3Moon, (blue) 3916, (lavender) 458, 258, (trans green) 6HC, 4HC, 3HC, 2HC, (trans yellow) 4W, 2W, (yellow) 438, 238, (trans red) 8V, 4V, 3V, 2V.

 

[FordPickup92]

Soooo, does the top hat press still exist? I've no cookie cutters but I will attempting this exact feat this weekend. Your info was helpful

 

[Nex]

Still does exist, but I haven't done any cookies with it this year.
Don't try it with 39mm or 43mm... it works, but punching is a PITA at this size. Big work for little output.
Maybe sometime I'll regenerate my punch designs for 50-60mm and try again.

 

[Nex]

Yes, it's that time of the year again.

Another round of baking and another couple lessons learned.

This time I went with 60mm punches and relatively simple spots, rolled the dough significantly thicker than usual (about 3-5mm), also I increased the emboss depth of the THC mold stamp a bit. No food coloring for the dough this time, only two colors, created completely naturally by using different types of flour and sugar.

Results:

Higher emboss depth massively increases the risk of the cookie dough sticking to it. I had to put flour over the mold stamp like every second cookie. Cold dough is great for the punching phase (barely sticks to anything, keeps shape very well) but useless for putting the punched pieces together, and for applying the mold. Warm dough does work for that but the stickiness makes it tricky to remove the mold stamp after applying.

Unfortunately the punched pieces still won't reattach to each other so nicely, which becomes fairly obvious when the cookies are baking. The spots don't fall out though because of their shape. (The moon spots last time didn't hold so well). The embossed THC mold detail does bake out a good bit, but in my opinion is still recognizable. The baking out effect was much bigger this time; I assume it is stronger the thicker you roll the dough. 60mm diameter is big enough for putting punched pieces together easily, but actually a bit too big for my taste. If I were to do this again I'd try around 50-55mm.

And of course, the punches and mold stamp are one-time use only... you never get these fully clean again. Dishwasher won't work as the PETG material becomes soft around 50-60 degrees celsius already and will deform. But it doesn't require that much material if you skip the center push-out assembly and top clip. The punch and spot push-out assembly really is all you need.

 

[jpietrella]

After assembling, try throwing the cookie sheet with the cookies in the freezer for about 30 min before baking. It'll prevent them from spreading when they bake and you'll get cleaner edges/lines.

 

[allforcharity]

Can you do a 3TA316 cookie? You know, progression.

 

[Nex]

Well, I don't have separate punches just for the spots, it's always center blank and spots combined. If I were to subdivide the spot part of the punches, you couldn't 3D print that anymore, too much detail, too thin walls. But since spots mainly are rectangle shaped, one can easily cut these in masses manually with a knife. I do have a 3916 punch where you can fit three 3/16" spots into each slot of the punched blank. Any imperfections in width or length would be erased after applying the mold stamp/punch.

 

[allforcharity]

Naw. you just use your 3-spot punch and get creative with tiny inserts of coloured dough in a triple pattern that would fit.

I'd be happy to eat all the error cookies first.

 

[CrazyEddie]

What kind of cookies are you making? Do they have any leavening / rise?

You might try shortbread cookies. They're made with only flour, butter, sugar, and salt and have very little rise in the oven. Here's my own recipe, which I arrived at through a lot of trial and error. You'd want to roll and cut them differently than specified here, but you should be able to make the dough the same way. Less rise might make the hat-and-cane edge molds stand out better in the finished product.

---

3.5 oz powdered sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
10 oz flour
1/2 tsp salt

Combine sugar, flour, and salt - whisk, sift, or process
Cream butter until light and fluffy
Add sugar/flour/salt
Mix until it just comes together
Turn out of mixer onto work surface
Knead until it holds together (just barely knead)
Press flat, chill until slightly firm and workable - a few minutes in the freezer
Shape into two 6" logs
Chill until firm - about half an hour in the freezer
Slice into 1/4"-thick cookies
Place on parchment-lined sheet pans
Bake at 325 until firm and just barely turning color, about 15-20 minutes. Rotate pans halfway through.
Cool on pans.

Makes four dozen cookies, 1/4" thick and about 2" round.

Variant: These cookies are rather sweet. If too sweet for your tastes, try using only 3.0 oz powdered sugar instead.

Note: the undersides of these cookies will have little air pockets in them. This is normal. If it bothers you, I suggest spending more time eating the cookies and less time looking at their undersides.

 

[Nex]

Our recipe...

500g flour (usually whole grain, but doesn't matter for the recipe)
250g butter (unsalted - didn't know with salt was even a thing...)
200g sugar (white, brown, doesn't matter)
1 whole egg
4 egg yolk

Mix everything thoroughly. Let dough rest for at least 1 hr in fridge before using.

For the sprinkle decor... we take a mixture of egg yolk and milk (about 1 Tbsp milk per) to coat the punched cookies for the sprinkles to stick (apply with a brush).

Bake in oven at 200°C for about 10 mins (baking sheets with parchment paper). Obviously duration varies depending on how thick you roll the dough, ours are usually around 3mm.

How many cookies you get out of that also heavily depends on your punches and how thick you roll it, but generally, one or two rounds of this recipe is enough to get two cookie lovers in the household through the season.

The cookies aren't particularly sweet in my opinion, their taste comes mainly from the sprinkles.