Poker Chip Tubes (3D printed) (2 Viewers)

[Hairy_Crocodile]

Are these tubes still being worked on by chance?

 

[Nex]

No active work on the design. But they work perfectly as they already are.
iirc the only thing left that I was considering doing was tournament seating markers inside tube caps

 

[Hairy_Crocodile]

No active work on the design. But they work perfectly as they already are.
iirc the only thing left that I was considering doing was tournament seating markers inside tube caps

Have you been selling them at all? Id love to talk about cost and such with you in pms and potentiallytry one out.

 

[WedgeRock]

the only thing left that I was considering doing was tournament seating markers inside tube caps

Great idea.... Numbers 1-9 (10?) to designate seat, printed in different colors to differentiate the table... Could be part of the lid, or a piece added later (like the mixed game die), although there won't be any need to switch out faces...

 

[Nex]

Have you been selling them at all? Id love to talk about cost and such with you in pms and potentiallytry one out.

Nope. Would cost too much for majority of the potential customer base, which doesn't make it worth to set anything up in that regard.

An average tube would run around €4, and people will rarely need only a single one. Add about €16 for untracked shipping of a small number of tubes or €37 for tracked shipping with a little more volume over the big pond, and you see where this is heading. Might be just-so feasible for an US based printer, but you can't do this with just any printer model. Tolerances are super tight and there is no wiggle room for postprocessing of prints like cutting off brims.

Was fun to do as a hobby project and to learn the CAD software hands-on in depth, but considering costs, it really is nothing but a gimmick.

Great idea.... Numbers 1-9 (10?) to designate seat, printed in different colors to differentiate the table... Could be part of the lid, or a piece added later (like the mixed game die), although there won't be any need to switch out faces...

My idea was colored plates that can be inserted into a recess in tube caps. Most flexible solution.
But I don't really do tournaments, and even when I do I already have seating chips, so not much motivation to revise my 3D models.

 

[QuailValley]

Are you possibly going to share/post the files for the 43mm version?

 

[digirati]

This has been another side project I started around the same time as my cookie cutter project... and put it on the back burner for a good while after I was frustrated being unable to find any new ideas on how to design a connection for the tube caps to the tube itself which would not be so extremely brittle as the push-over clip design I was using back then. The clips would break off the cap after only one or two uses.

A couple of days ago, I remembered this project, and did another brainstorming session for connection design solutions. I believe I've come up with one now that is stable enough - it's a screw and clip combination. While I was working on the parts I also refined the tube, taking away a lot of unnecessary volume that would only waste filament and increase printing time.

The end caps have a pseudo "seal" that will plug about 1 mm into the tube to better keep lint out of the tube if you stow it away somewhere.

Impact / outside force resistance is questionable - I would avoid dropping them. But they will certainly keep chips nicely in order.

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(Above photo is showing a beta version of the tube - it doesn't yet have the cutouts in the rails.)
Custom 33 chip capacity, for samples of all my custom CPCs.

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Smooth or textured surface finish

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Any color combination, any capacity (front left to right: 15, 8, 10 chips).
Also, Logo/Text embossing on caps.

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Nicely fills that little leftover space in your transport case that won't really hold another regular chip rack.

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Window cap close-up. The 3D printed "transparent" window could also be replaced by a piece of overhead transparency for example if you want clear sight.

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Left to right on the print bed: One 20 chip tube; four 25 chip tubes with another 25 chip tube on top; two 50 chip tubes. The other ones off the print bed are all 25 chip capacity, including the ones without caps.
Foreground right: tube caps with windows.
Background right: Tons of demo tube cap sets in different colors.

Production stats:
39mm Tube (20 chips capacity): 2h 28m print time / 17.53 grams PETG
39mm Tube (25 chips capacity): 3h 00m print time / 21.17 grams PETG
39mm Tube (50 chips capacity): 5h 45m print time / 39.51 grams PETG
Dual end caps: 1h 31m print time / 19.08 grams PETG
Measurings were done using my Prusa i3 MK3S unit and PrusaSlicer 2.0.0.

Dimensions:
39mm tubes: 50mm L x 50mm W max (center section: 42mm x 42mm)
43mm tubes: 54mm L x 54mm W max (center section: 46mm x 46mm)
Capacity 20 chips (including end caps): 78mm H
Capacity 25 chips (including end caps): 95mm H
Capacity 50 chips (including end caps): 179mm H

This presents a lot of nice options...
Any chip diameter? Check. Any chip thickness? Check.
Also, any capacity, for example for tournament starting stacks. Perfect fit for 8/8/4/7? You can have that. What if I want a bounty chip in there too? Sure thing.
With the maximum print volume of my printer, I can produce tubes that hold up to 60 chips.

I've embossed my monogram on the end caps, which could also be swapped out for pretty much anything that doesn't have too thin lines. Or of course no logo at all. Or a shallow recess for a label. Or a see-through window. Sadly it's impossible to simply import some 2D vector graphic... you have to manually retrace the lines, else you end up with unusable geometry So logos are hard to do, unless it's all straight lines. But at least adding simple text is easy.

Models:
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Bonus - old crappy clip design:
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Those tubes you made look fantastic! I'm actually looking for a tube that could hold 30 39mm casino chips. Is that something you could make? I'd be interested in buying four of them.

 

[allforcharity]

Those tubes you made look fantastic! I'm actually looking for a tube that could hold 30 39mm casino chips. Is that something you could make? I'd be interested in buying four of them.

Prescription vials, dude.

 

[Nex]

Those tubes you made look fantastic! I'm actually looking for a tube that could hold 30 39mm casino chips. Is that something you could make? I'd be interested in buying four of them.

Shipping over the big pond would cost a fortune, this would likely be a dealbreaker.

But if you can find someone with a well calibrated 3D printer near you (the model is not the easiest to print properly) who is willing to try making it for you, I can supply the STL files.

Be aware though that these tubes are not that stable and will break easily if dropped, even more so the longer the tube is. You can make the structure a little more durable by printing with a layer height below 0.2mm, but that'll significantly inflate the printing time.

 

[digirati]

Shipping over the big pond would cost a fortune, this would likely be a dealbreaker.

But if you can find someone with a well calibrated 3D printer near you (the model is not the easiest to print properly) who is willing to try making it for you, I can supply the STL files.

Be aware though that these tubes are not that stable and will break easily if dropped, even more so the longer the tube is. You can make the structure a little more durable by printing with a layer height below 0.2mm, but that'll significantly inflate the printing time.

Thanks for getting back to me and generously offering to share your files. It sounds like a more difficult process, so I will continue looking for another solution. Have a great holiday season!