Redbelly's "Crown Jewels"! (2 Viewers)

[Redbelly]

This is awe inspiring. Congrats! What is the "HOB" for? Is it the paired other side of the mold? (Cup one side, HOB other?)

Just a quick answer to this question...

The HOB is the "Key" to the mold.

There is only one. (It really is the Holy Grail!).

Remember this is old school. (Now this would be done with CNC machines)

They would cut rolled steel tubes still hot and soft and "stamp" each piece to form an "unfinished" cup. They could make a lot of unfinished cups because the cost was low. They would then typically take only the number they needed for the mold "shoe" (40-20 per side) and lathe them into "finished" cups. That was the expensive part. If I remember correctly the unfinished cup cost $40-60 and the finished cup cost in the $400 range.

As I indicated in the OP I had only received unfinished CSQ cups. David told me that because it wasn't going to used for chip production that I could find someone to lathe one of the unfinished cups. The tolerances for cups placed into the actual mold are extremely precise.

I found someone and he gave it back shortly after telling me that because it was rolled steel it was incredibly hard for him to lathe it.

I'm patiently waiting to have a couple of the unfinished CSQ cups made into finished cups. Right now all I have is an example of an "attempt"!

From left to right you have the HOB, Unfinished Cup, "attempt" to Finish, and the Finished Cup (dice/car)

 

[cyberottweiler]

Thanks for this beautiful story !

 

[Redbelly]

Thanks for all the nice words!

It's been incredibly difficult to NOT share this story for almost a year!

I'll try to answer some questions over the next few days or weeks but some questions I will probably only answer privately.

There are many side stories within this journey that would put anyone in this community in full TILT mode!

The appreciation and thanks are best directed to the Davids, Jim B., and all the fine people working at CPC!

 

[chipjoker]

Oh so beautiful, very nice.

 

[Mr Hanky]

Superb !

 

[Racer96]

And now everyone knows why they should never ever ever miss a Redbelly event.

Mike

 

[B.C.]

Amazing.

 

[JFCJ]

Great great story, Sean! I glad it all worked out.

 

[David Spragg]

As you probably know, I suspect the rolled steel was a lot more workable in its younger days. Those unfinished cups could easily be 50 years old.

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Amazing story!!! It goes to show what a good turn can get in return. Also, very insightful to see how bad the Red Tide was while it was happening. We all had a pretty good idea that he didn't care and was looking to liquidate and the lack of communication on that part and the fact that you were able to get what you did tells even more.

Love those pics! Nice clean-up job on everything (looks like they are about ready to be used, though I suspect they might be dead cups). On that subject though, the scratch on the H-mold cup looks like a little scratch I seem to remember in some of the chips in my H-mold set. There's a small but non-zero chance they were made with that cup!

Thanks for the post! Great story, and thanks for sharing with all of us!!

Yes, unfortunately all the loose finished cups were indeed worn out and Sean did a great job cleaning them up. I kept a similar handful of one each myself which I have not yet cleaned. Will take a pic tomorrow to show just how bad they started off. Half of the items were not even ASM's to sell so we returned those to their rightful owners and then ended up donating the few remaining unusable items to a museum and recompensing Sean for getting things back to us. At least we do have most of the HOBS for our molds should there ever be a desperate need to make more cups.

 

[onerand]

Redbelly,

This is bloody awesome.

Still confused how the cups are formed into a mold, but now you have best card protectors ever.

Slight derail: So there is only one CSQ HOB and you have it? Is it used to stamp other cups, which are then made into the mold. Is this right?

 

[EZMONEYRMJ]

And now everyone knows why they should never ever ever miss a Redbelly event.

Mike

Exactly Mike!!!

Great story Sean. I heard some of it when I was at the Roundup on the Ridge event. Very impressive.

 

[ssanel54]

Wow, just caught this thread. Awesome to see the pics. Well Done Sean!

 

[TheBigTater]

View attachment 3093

Sean, thanks for sharing your story and all the lovely pr0n. I even see a LG Greek Key cup in there, awesome! : I know it must have been really hard to hold all this in for that long without being able to share. Not ever meeting you there is one thing I know about you for sure, "Sean can be counted on to keep a secret".

Well played sir, well played.

 

[CO0LHand]

As I take my first steps into this fascinating world of custom chips this has helped me to understand a great deal about how these things are made and the history of exactly how CPC came into being.

Thanks for the story !

 

[BGinGA]

my head just exploded.

^^ This. After many days of internet connection problems, I finally got around to reading this thread.

Very nearly speechless. And very thankful. Wtg, Sean -- you secured a spot in chip history with this one.

 

[PatTheCat]

Epic story, epic thread. I'm a bit jealous.

At my university of applied sciences we have to give a presentation about a subject of our choice. I did choose the topic "Amercian made poker chips", what else ... ?! Is it possible that I can use your pics of the cups for my presentation?

 

[ChipEnvy]

I was one of the first to arrive at the Roundup. While looking around Sean's poker room I came across a black and white picture that he had framed, similar to what he posted in the OP, but none of the Redbelly logo'd stuff was visible. I immediately recognized the pieces as chip molds. Some really amazing stuff was in there. I asked him "Where did you get this picture?" Thinking that I would like to pick one up for myself because I thought it was some pretty insane chip art that I had never come across. I was still awe struck by the pic that it took a minute for his answer to compute... "I'll tell you about that in a little bit"... Wait.... WAH? The next 5 minutes I couldn't think straight. I had no idea what he was talking about or what it could mean. It was totally beyond the realm of possibility that he actually owned the pieces in the picture... right?

I collect casino chips, not just in sets, but individual chips. I just sat there for a few minutes looking at the molds in the picture and flashes of all these amazing vintage chips that the molds had produced raced through my mind. I mean, some of the coolest chips of all time were made on these molds! Then Sean brought the box out and told the story. It was the highlight of the night, at least to me, by far. Not something I'll soon forget. Thanks for sharing Sean, truly incredible!

 

[atomiktoaster]

Hey Sean and Dave. Great story! It really sounds like an epic quest to save the past and future of custom chips for the public. Since I'm a mechanical engineer, do you know a bit more about the processing of the unfinished cups? It looks like all the work on the lathe is turning around the area with the design. The cost would come from ensuring the existing molded area was in the chuck on dead center and dead parallel to the chuck face when the rough surfaces won't have a fixed relationship to those datums. Plus it has to be machined after final hardening. Some combination of 3d scanning, multi-axis wire edm, and surface grinding might be more economical. Love to help if I could, though I'm not used to real tight margins in my day job projects.

 

[Toby]

Best thread evah!

 

[links_slayer]

I keep coming back to this thread and am still awed by the story and pics. Truly awesome stuff Sean.

 

[Redbelly]

I was one of the first to arrive at the Roundup. While looking around Sean's poker room I came across a black and white picture that he had framed, similar to what he posted in the OP, but none of the Redbelly logo'd stuff was visible. I immediately recognized the pieces as chip molds. Some really amazing stuff was in there. I asked him "Where did you get this picture?" Thinking that I would like to pick one up for myself because I thought it was some pretty insane chip art that I had never come across. I was still awe struck by the pic that it took a minute for his answer to compute... "I'll tell you about that in a little bit"... Wait.... WAH? The next 5 minutes I couldn't think straight. I had no idea what he was talking about or what it could mean. It was totally beyond the realm of possibility that he actually owned the pieces in the picture... right?

I collect casino chips, not just in sets, but individual chips. I just sat there for a few minutes looking at the molds in the picture and flashes of all these amazing vintage chips that the molds had produced raced through my mind. I mean, some of the coolest chips of all time were made on these molds! Then Sean brought the box out and told the story. It was the highlight of the night, at least to me, by far. Not something I'll soon forget. Thanks for sharing Sean, truly incredible!

But yet you didn't stay for the Tourney...[emoji6][emoji41]

 

[Redbelly]

It looks like all the work on the lathe is turning around the area with the design. The cost would come from ensuring the existing molded area was in the chuck on dead center and dead parallel to the chuck face when the rough surfaces won't have a fixed relationship to those datums....

David will likely be the one to answer those questions more accurately. I will say when the "attempt" was made to finish the unfinished CSQ cup the alignment was one of the biggest headaches. The unfinished cups have some varying thickness making the positioning on the lathe difficult but very important. That and the metal was said to be extremely hard (the weight is quite heavy for the size!)

When you say help... Do you mean ability to finish an unfinished cup? Let me know... I have a few that I would very much like to have finished as close as possible to an actual finished cup, although the preciseness is not as necessary as they will never produce chips. Shoot me a PM!

Thanks!

 

[Redbelly]

I'm SO glad that everyone has enjoyed the story and pictures! Just being able to "Show and Tell" has been a great "release"!

Everyone's comments have meant a lot!

 

[Puggy]

How have I missed this thread. OMG! Thank you for the great story and great pictures. I love your enthusiasm.
I am so happy for you, those cups are really the holy grail. Congratulations and very very well played Sir.

 

[Mr Tree]

Sean, I hope you were serious about bringing the HHR cup to S@P! It would be one of my weekend highlights just to see one of these beauties.

 

[tommythecat]

How many other people have set some of these pics as the desktop background? The last picture in the group of cups post is mine.

 

[Redbelly]

Sean, I hope you were serious about bringing the HHR cup to S@P! It would be one of my weekend highlights just to see one of these beauties.

If I make it... I'll bring it and more...

 

[Poker Zombie]

How many other people have set some of these pics as the desktop background? The last picture in the group of cups post is mine.

Mine is the FDL!

 

[Zentish]

I was another member lucky enough to attend Redbelly's Roundup over the summer. The first day was mostly "chippers" and as the story unfolded and the molds, cups, and hobbs came out we were just astounded. All of the items were heavy, and as most of us chip collectors are very "tactile" critters, the heft, texture and smoothness was something hard to describe but very pleasant. Chips fit perfectly into the cups. There were molds that I'd only read about in collector's posts or seen pictures of old casino chips from other websites.


Thanks for sharing!

 

[rowlin]

Welcome to PCF, Zentish!

I was also lucky enough to behold these beauties this past September.

Mind-blowingly awesome. RB has some impressive knowledge of CPC lore and goings-on, as well.