The Chipping Adventures of ejot (3 Viewers)

[ejot]

Since reacquiring the chipping bug earlier this year and becoming much more serious about them than in the past, I've spent a lot of time thinking about chips. And a lot of time shopping for, learning about, buying, shuffling, fondling, cleaning, oiling, milling, designing, planning breakdowns for, and generally obsessing over a fair assortment of these addictive little buggers.

Thought it might be fun to document my "adventures" as I further discover this hobby and refine my tastes. Also as a place to post ideas and questions to get some feedback from this incredibly knowledgeable community.

As soon as I first saw pics of Gear labels, I knew there would be relabeling in my future. Being something of a DIYer, I dove into developing a milling process and have been meaning to post a write-up of my trials. Let's do it!

My goal here is two racks of well-worn Lucky Derby $100's, replacing the generally knackered and inconsistently-worn hotstamps with nice clean 7/8" label recesses. Following some advice on this board I ordered a Magnate brand bottom cleaning router bit, and then started digging around my scrap parts bins for a chip holding jig. It was a fun puzzle and after an hour or so I'd rigged together this little guy:

The chip seats against the center trapezoidal cutout in the uppermost bar and is clamped down by the slotted feet, to which I affixed some rubber sheet to protect the chip surface. Unfortunately you have to remove an entire bolt and swing one of the clamps around to remove and replace a chip, instead of just being able to loosen it up and slide it out. Eventually I'll mod or improve this to quicken the process.

Started with some CC Pharaohs for practice. Figured they'd cut more like a Paulson than any other disposable chip. Speaking of which, this happened to the second chip I de-labeled. Didn't drop it or intentionally break it ... it just split and crumbled as I picked off the label.

And to think, a few months ago, when I dug my chips out of storage - my plan was to sell off the few Paulsons I had, buy a big set of CC's, and be done with it. LOL!!

But let's get back to the milling. What kind of machinery will we be using?

Meet M1.

She ain't pretty these days - decommissioned and relegated to a quiet warehouse corner - mostly forgotten and rarely brought to life. But Mill-1 has a long, storied history. Decades ago she played first fiddle in the prototyping of a device and broader technology that would ultimately play a tremendous role in resolving the infamous Ozone Hole of the 1980's. Another story, for another day.

So, I need to mark a center point of the chip and then position that directly under the center of the mill spindle. Hmm, let's see, first idea ... I'll print up some circles with center marks in the size of the preexisting label recess, and double stick tape them in. Then align with something pointy like a countersink bit.

Locked and loaded, target in the crosshairs. Fire away.

How did we do?! ....

Well then.... shucks. Looks like crap. Not centered at all, and the depth was a crapshoot.

However, the cutter performed beautifully. Nice, clean, flat recess.

And that's why we started on a practice chip. Back to the drawing board. And besides... cutting and sticking all those circles? I am not a smart man! A better way there must be.

Spoiler alert: More failure precedes any success. But I'm patient and stubborn. We'll get this.

But for tonight, that needs to be a wrap.

 

[Mockk]

Goodluck! I am sure you will get it just right!

 

[ejot]

Thanks! I did ... just need to find some time to tell the rest of the story.

In the meantime have a little blaze org / choc pr0n. Now I want a Reese's cup.

 

[RussB42]

Did ya make the chip holder???

Would like one.

 

[WedgeRock]

disposable chip

Not familiar with the term... please define.

 

[kmccormick100]

Is that recess domed at all? The bottom cleaning bit I used left a fairly concave bottom to apply labels too, but I'm sure there are flatter ones out there.

 

[ejot]

Did ya make the chip holder???

Would like one.

I didn't really make it so much as get very lucky to find a collection of scrap parts that worked together without any major modification. I wouldn't have the patience or skill to machine those parts from scratch. There are also a couple disadvantages to the design and materials. Firstly, it is more time consuming than it needs to be to remove a chip and replace with the next one. Secondly, the aluminum builds up an oxide that rubs off as two little black marks on the edge of a chip. It's easy to clean off with Magic Eraser, but it's an extra step that doesn't need to exist.

Many improvement could be made designing from a clean slate. My plan is to eventually design a better jig and open source the parts required on something like Thingiverse. Then anyone could have them 3D printed in a more suitable material for the job. 3D printing has become surprisingly accessible, especially in more populated areas that are likely to have a "hackerspace" nearby.

I would also be open to the possibility of loaning this one out in the future, but I'd like to get through the milling I have planned so far, which is pretty substantial backlog at the moment.

Not familiar with the term... please define.

A chip that I don't mind destroying ... to gain experience and knowledge for rehabbing far nicer chips.

Is that recess domed at all? The bottom cleaning bit I used left a fairly concave bottom to apply labels too, but I'm sure there are flatter ones out there.

I will take a closer look tonight but I was extremely pleased with the flatness upon casual inspection. The bit was recommended by @duffman here. I could bring a milled chip to work and check the flatness on a height gage.

 

[kmccormick100]

I didn't really make it so much as get very lucky to find a collection of scrap parts that worked together without any major modification. I wouldn't have the patience or skill to machine those parts from scratch. There are also a couple disadvantages to the design and materials. Firstly, it is more time consuming than it needs to be to remove a chip and replace with the next one. Secondly, the aluminum builds up an oxide that rubs off as two little black marks on the edge of a chip. It's easy to clean off with Magic Eraser, but it's an extra step that doesn't need to exist.

Many improvement could be made designing from a clean slate. My plan is to eventually design a better jig and open source the parts required on something like Thingiverse. Then anyone could have them 3D printed in a more suitable material for the job. 3D printing has become surprisingly accessible, especially in more populated areas that are likely to have a "hackerspace" nearby.

I would also be open to the possibility of loaning this one out in the future, but I'd like to get through the milling I have planned so far, which is pretty substantial backlog at the moment.


A chip that I don't mind destroying ... to gain experience and knowledge for rehabbing far nicer chips.


I will take a closer look tonight but I was extremely pleased with the flatness upon casual inspection. The bit was recommended by @duffman here. I could bring a milled chip to work and check the flatness on a height gage.

As long as it's not visibly domed, that's good enough for me haha

 

[duffman]

(y) :thumbsup: on the "magnate" branded bits. The best bits I've tried by far.

 

[duffman]

Recent milled experimental R&D Pron...

 

[superchromix]

Thanks! I did ... just need to find some time to tell the rest of the story.

In the meantime have a little blaze org / choc pr0n. Now I want a Reese's cup.

looking forward to more from this story (y) :thumbsup:

 

[ejot]

^ I can tell you some more about them!

Three racks of the blaze, one Starburst LCV, two Roulette SCV, all warped completely to hell. My heart skipped about three beats when I seen them on the big auction site. I kind of have a thing for orange.

Won 800 other chips from the same seller and all 1100 arrived together in a LFRB ... completely loose packed, mixed in with grungy casino racks.... and with a giant tear across one of the (untaped) edges.

I was megatilted and figured there would be dozens of missing chips. But after calming down and sorting through the mess, I counted everything up and miraculously every single chip made it.

There's about 2 racks of decent chocolates, mostly Roulettes, maybe a barrel or so of the Fun Nite 500's. Everything needs serious rehabbing. They're all dirty and absolutely parched, but clean and oil up nicely. Chocolates stack fairly well the but the oranges will need a flattening - another project to start researching.

The other problem I'm having with these orange chips is deciding what kind of set to put them in:
> would be sweet as a large denom in a big solids MTT set. But, I don't play tourneys, much less host large ones.
> would be awesome 5's (as a twist on a "red") in a single table 1-2NL solids cash set. But, I don't play in 1-2 home games and certainly can't see myself hosting one anytime soon. I want to USE these chips, in their full glorious quantity.
> so I'm leaning towards using them as quarters in a 5c-25c-1-5 cash set which is a good fit for the 5c-10c to 25c-25c games I could more reasonably hope to host considering the group I play with. But that's still a lot of quarters, do I split them and use 200?

Or do I just fix them up and stash them away until a later time when I could get them in play as one of the first two options?

And a quick pr0n of a couple round Monaco plaques that I had to sample. Paulsons for scale. These are beautiful! Me wants more plaques and jetons now.

 

[ejot]

I'll get back to the milling, promise. But I've amused myself with some chip set breakdown vs storage options this evening and would like to share my little result.

It all started when I added a couple Boardwalk dealer buttons to my order in that big assorted button group buy.

Might as well take a closer look at the chips, too, right? Decided I definitely wanted to get in on a set and started thinking about a budget (sub-500 chip) set for my 5c/10c and 25c/25c games. Loved the idea of 43mm $5 & $20 which are decidedly non-workhorse. This brought me to thinking about storage options,and after considering some fancier alternatives, I realized the infamous sub-$20-shipped faux alligator 500-chip case fits both 39mm and 43mm. Based on my measurements, 54 Sun-Fly hybrids should fit perfectly in each row. Ten rows available - will be using eight for chips with one divider removed for assorted dealer button storage (everyone loves when I bring an assortment of buttons to choose from for the night). And with an extra strap buckled around the outside, and carried under the arm / not by the handle, this should make a perfectly robust, compact, & economical travel set.

My OCD then drove me to find a breakdown that would both play well in our games and also fit "evenly" into the rows. Specifically, meeting two conditions: 1. Each row was all-39mm or all-43mm, and 2. Each denomination can have a split in at most one row.

After lots of toying, I'd come up with: 54x - 5c, 150x - 25c, 120x - $1, 88x - $5, 20x - $20. After tallying up the total bank, I couldn't help but eliminate four pesky nickels. Two chips in direct-fit Air-Tites as card protectors fit perfectly in their place.

Why? Well:

Dunno, it just seems cool to have such a rounded bank.

And maybe it's not the greatest idea to design an breakdown around one particular cheap storage solution. Or maybe it is. Time should tell. Now, where is that Boardwalk order thread.....

 

[Mrs Poker Zombie]

disposable chip

Not familiar with the term... please define.

A chip that I don't mind destroying ... to gain experience and knowledge for rehabbing far nicer chips.

I think you missed the humor of this question.

 

[ejot]

But if I think, that you think, that I know it's a humorous question, the overly literal reply would just be a subtle wryness.... doubling as a statement on my somewhat poor impression of CC's. :

 

[ejot]

A frac label for the Empress set is still under development and will be revealed when ready.

But in the meantime.....Empress $1 labels are about to hit the printers! @Gear
The white hues don't compare quite correctly in my mockup below from the art he supplied, the label will be slightly more off white than the chip.

 

[duffman]

A frac label for the Empress set is still under development and will be revealed when ready.

But in the meantime.....Empress $1 labels are about to hit the printers! @Gear
The white hues don't compare quite correctly in my mockup below from the art he supplied, the label will be slightly more off white than the chip.

That chip looks familiar. Lucky Derby $100?

EDIT: never mind...just re-read your original post. Looks great!

 

[ejot]

Thanks! The edgespot progression is a little odd, and there's probably a little too much green in the set. But I like them, so I'm goin' for it!

 

[ejot]

OK, at long last I will bring my milling story up to date.

So my paper label did not serve to center the chip well. My next thought was that a perfectly round centering insert of the correct diameter to fit in the recess, with center point marked, would allow me to center with respect to that recess. So I whipped up a quick 3D print and tried it out.

It quickly became apparent that the center recess was not deep enough to provide a "solid" location of this insert. I could tell I'd still be off by +/-0.015" or more, and my result would still be ugly.

So I switched gears and decided to center to the outer diameter of the chip. This has the disadvantage that any preexisting misalignment of the mold pressing to OD will show up as a misalignment of the milled area to the mold pressing. But it has the advantage that all chips of a certain diameter can be milled in rapid succession without any centering adjustment. Since the mold pressings were, on the whole, pretty well centered - I figured the results should be pretty good. Some would be a little off, but only by the amount that the original pressing was already off. Since Paulson inlays are not always perfectly centered either, this would add the perfect degree of "authenticity".

But then a new problem - in measuring the OD of the chips, they were most certainly not all the same. Shoot! My next move was to measure and record the diameter of each chip in a rack, to get an idea how many separate alignment jigs I'd need.

Conveniently enough, the measurements revealed a classic bimodal distribution. In simple terms, "half" the chips were close to one size; the other "half" were close to another size. It correlated pretty well with two different styles of the $100 hotstamp - so basically, two different batches with different amounts of wear. Makes total sense.

So I had to make two jigs - a small one and a large one.

Here's the design:

The "lip" holds the outside of the chip. The "flats" allow the clamps to still hold the chip. And the center hole allows me to dial in the position until a countersink bit fits right in.

Here's one chip from each batch in its respective jig. The two diameters were 1.539" and 1.544".

Lining up the less worn, larger chips:

Fingers crossed..... HEEEEERE WE GO!!

How did we do???! ............

Yes! It worked great. And I milled six more of this size in quick order - no adjustments needed - just plop it in, clamp it down, hit the switch, and pull the lever. Repeated the alignment on the "small" batch with the same results.

I did these 12 to prove the method and held off on the rest, which took a lot of restraint. Want to have labels in hand to dial in the depth before doing the rest.

Here they are ... can't wait to finish 'em up! Oh, and I now have THREE racks of these to do.

 

[upNdown]

A classic bimodal distribution. If I've seen it once, I've seen it a hundred times.

Seriously though, nice work.

 

[WedgeRock]

I thought there were more failures before success was achieved. I haven't seen any other failures but this looks like a damned success! Nice job!

 

[ejot]

Thanks! The failure was just that second attempt at a recess-based centering technique. At the time it felt like a giant roadblock, in retrospect it wasn't even a speed bump.

 

[WedgeRock]

Looking forward to the next update.

Hopefully your next chips will demonstrate unimodality.

 

[ejot]

Came home tonight to some labels waiting for me! Woot!

@Gear .... totally killed it, these rock. They deserve much better photos than I can manage right now, but I had to grab a few quick shots. When they're all done I will post some proper pr0n. The blue solids still need milling so I just threw on one frac label to get a taste.

I am freaking ecstatic.

(edit: resize photos)

 

[ejot]

Milling is on hold because my blue chips ain't flat! A barrel stacks okay but they get all jiggly by two barrels high. Really makes me appreciate what bricks the Lucky Derby's are even at stacks of four and five barrels. Thems buttery leaded beauties, love 'em.

So I've gathered up all the standard tricks for flattening - light bulbs in the oven, candy thermometer, Jorgie-style handscrew clamp, super flat ceramic chips, the works. Haven't had any color bleed issues with these brown Chipcos you'll see below, but will order some white blanks soon. Cause MOAR chipes.

But... but... getting these lined up in the clamps has been a major PITA. AArrgh! So tilted.

Cookie racks, yup not helping.
So I've designed and printed the ChippieCuppie™:

With the ChippieCuppie™, your long frustrating nights of chip alignment are gone! But wait, there's more! Order now and receive a second ChippieCuppie™, just pay additional shipping and handling!
**insert black and white video of chips being hurled across the room by an angry unkempt woman, followed by a vibrant full color demo of chips being loaded into the ChippieCuppie™ by the same lady, all dolled up and smiling**

It's as easy as 1,2,3.
Insert your ChippieCuppie™ into your knockoff Jorgie:

Load in your chippies:

Tighten, flip, and effortlessly slide out your ChippieCuppie™:
(Shaddup, that's one step, dammit)

But in all seriousness, it really does work quite well. Chippies perfectly stacked and centered. Let's get that oven lit up.

Finally, while I am strictly limited in my printing resources and would be unable to produce finished jigs for others, I would certainly be more than happy to design one around your precisely measured clamp and chips specs, and provide you the digital file, on the house. (Just pay shipping and handling ). PM any interest.

Also, by the way, that particular clamp is an utter piece of shit. Get a better one. I mean, you don't have to go all Dubuque Clamp Works, but Bessey or similar FTW.

 

[ChipEnvy]

Dude, you are my hero.