Ultrasonic Chip Cleaning (19 Viewers)

[Taghkanic]

Boiling! LOL

Per above, I do think the TSP may have attacked the already-degraded Starbursts on the Charcoals (not pictured, as my photos didn’t really capture much) a little.

Hard to say for sure. The hotstamps on the Off Whites that were in good shape, with the gold layer on top intact, seem to have made it through fine. But it may be that once they are starting to wear off, the TSP is more able to eat at the underlayers. Just a theory.

Will be trying this out on another few recently-acquired chips in brighter colors and will report in again. But I still am going to get an ultrasonic rig for the long term.

 

[RowdyRawhide]

Here's some a few weeks ago.

Before

After 30 seconds

These were much dirtier than they appear on the pic

Ran these for 45 seconds

 

[allforcharity]

Looks nice! I will probably be in the market for an ultrasonic sometime in the next 2 months.

 

[Taghkanic]

I tried the manual salad-spinning approach on some more intense colors (Day Green, Butterscotch, Horizon Blue). They came out looking really clean. On closer inspection, there was just one where I needed to get out the dental pick.

I did notice that after the process, they looked quite dry, after rinsing, patting down and airing out for a while. With oiling, they brightened back up considerably.

This was with a slightly diluted formula—2 tablespoons to 9 cups of water, instead of 8—and feel like I could go even a little weaker.

 

[v1pe]

Without taking the time to search thru the thread.... Has anyone used actual TSP (not lundmark soduim metasilicate) with ultrasonic? Need to clean some casino well used Paulson chips, bright green/black color...

 

[allforcharity]

I thought there were stories that actual TSP *ate* Paulsons....

 

[v1pe]

I thought there were stories that actual TSP *ate* Paulsons....

There seem to be reports in the thread that say regular tsp is okay. Anyway, I found some non phosphate tsp (sodium metasilicate) at the store, so all good!

 

[BGinGA]

Without taking the time to search thru the thread.... Has anyone used actual TSP (not lundmark soduim metasilicate) with ultrasonic? Need to clean some casino well used Paulson chips, bright green/black color...

Very harsh on some Paulson colors -- not recommended. Will disolve ASM/CPC chips.

 

[v1pe]

What's the consensus for post clean oiling?

Full chip or just the rolling edges?

These puppies took a good 3 minutes (plus some picking) in the ultrasonic.

 

[v1pe]

Before and after

 

[allforcharity]

Was wondering - does using distilled/filtered water in the ultrasonic make that much more difference over tap water? We've got very clean tap water where I am.

 

[v1pe]

Was wondering - does using distilled/filtered water in the ultrasonic make that much more difference over tap water? We've got very clean tap water where I am.

I meant to buy distilled to try it out, but I forgot. We have very clean tap water too...I think the important thing is that your water isn't very hard...read that somewhere.

 

[allforcharity]

Then I should be good to go. Water quality here is excellent. The less things I need to lug around, the better. Now, off to get a salad spinner (or reasonable facsimile)!

 

[BGinGA]

Distilled water >>>> tap water. Some results using tap aren't even worth the effort.

 

[Taghkanic]

Full chip or just the rolling edges?

I do the full chip, but mainly because the Paulson THC Starbursts I’ve used the Lundmark on have come out looking very clean but very dry, with the brighter colors looking subdued as a result. Mineral oiling (with a foam shoe polish thing) and a light rubdown after they’ve had time to air out really brings them to life.

Yours don’t look so dry—maybe I am using too much of the fake TSP? I’ve settled on a a 2 tablespoon to 9 cups of hot water ratio, with exactly two minutes in the spinner (no ultrasound). Probably could dilute it further, and maybe shorten the spin cycle.

 

[v1pe]

I do the full chip, but mainly because the Paulson THC Starbursts I’ve used the Lundmark on have come out looking very clean but very dry, with the brighter colors looking subdued as a result. Mineral oiling (with a foam shoe polish thing) and a light rubdown after they’ve had time to air out really brings them to life.

Yours don’t look so dry—maybe I am using too much of the fake TSP? I’ve settled on a a 2 tablespoon to 9 cups of hot water ratio, with exactly two minutes in the spinner (no ultrasound). Probably could dilute it further, and maybe shorten the spin cycle.

They are pretty dry. I'm using 2 Tbsp to 8 cups water. Around 44 degrees C for water temp.

I oiled a rack on the edges only last night and did one barrel that I oiled completely. I'll check how they look this evening and take some pictures.

 

[BGinGA]

I’ve settled on a a 2 tablespoon to 9 cups of hot water ratio

Water temperature can also affect it. If it's too hot for your hand, it's too hot for chips. Doesn't take much to soften Paulson chips.

I remember one guy using tongs to transfer chips from his soaking bowl to the rinsing bowl, and it left impressions in the softened chips because the water temp was too high.

 

[bentax1978]

Water temperature can also affect it. If it's too hot for your hand, it's too hot for chips.

And even at temperatures below what is too hot for your hands, you need to be careful about color bleeding (especially for reds/purples).


Sometimes it's a fine line between sufficiently warm water to best clean the chips and water that's too hot and can damage them.

 

[Taghkanic]

And even at temperatures below what is too hot for your hands, you need to be careful about color bleeding (especially for reds/purples).

Haven’t had that happen yet, but good to know.

FWIW, I use the hottest setting on my tap water (no microwaving) for my poor man’s salad spinner approach.

That’s pretty damned hot, but not so hot that it burns me. And since the water doesn’t all go in at one shot (I fill it cup-by-cup, with the first two used to dissolve the fake TSP), there is at least 15-20 seconds for cooling.

So I would guess that if anything my hacky method is cooler at the outset than the recommended ultrasonic temps, and certainly cooler by the end of 2 minutes of spinning—since there is no more heat being introduced during the process. (Well, I suppose the spinning adds some infinitesimal amount of heat.)

 

[allforcharity]

Well I'll probably use 2 cups boiling water from the kettle just to dissolve the metasilicate, then cool it down with cold water to get the temp down to about 40-something.

 

[v1pe]

Can you tell the difference? I think I'll be oiling them in entirety...

 

[Zooks64]

I went looking for TSP for a non-poker chip related cleaning purpose.

Amazon into onto you guys.

 

[Taghkanic]

Amazon into onto you guys.

Man, there is a reason Bezos is the richest man on earth.

 

[morrotito]

Very helpful. Thanks!

 

[allforcharity]

I just put about a thousand chips through the ultrasonic this morning, and going to do another thousand this afternoon. A couple things I learned that I didn't expect:

1) There's an AWFUL LOT of crap on a used casino chip. I won't even describe the colour of the water in the detergent bath, never mind the rinse pot. Yuck!
2) Don't try to guess the colours of your chips until you've cleaned them. I mis-guessed on three large lots, and several singles.
3) There is no number 3, yet. I'll let you know if there's a number 3 after the second thousand.

 

[chipsmaster]

This is a great post, really gives a lot of good information to newbie like me!

 

[allforcharity]

Ah, yes, number 3.

3) The ultrasonic cleaner is NOT fool-proof. The gunkiest chips will likely still have gunk on them even after a good 2 minutes in the detergent bath with the ultrasonic on. Scrubbing may still be necessary to get to the level of cleanliness you desire.

 

[uclaure]

I wanted to share my diy/hack salad spinner that turned out pretty awesome. I was going to order the one that was recommended on here, but after watching the video I didn’t want to risk losing chips because there was no lid to contain them. So...I went to the dollar store and picked up this food container. The plastic is not the flimsy kind, pretty solid. I used an old bolt from one of the kids ikea beds and heated up over the stove and commenced to burn/melt holes all over...who doesn’t like playing with fire and melting stuff. It took me about 20 minutes to melt all the holes. When it came time for the zip ties, I couldn’t find the container of 500 zip ties in my garage. So I had to improvise. I used pieces of plastic line from my line trimmer/weed whacker. I tested it out on my new 6L US I just picked up off of eBay and it worked flawlessly! I cleaned 200 lucky derby 1’s and 2400 diamond mold paulsons. I can’t believe I ever used a toothbrush...should’ve got one of these years ago! My hack salad spinner was easy and fun to make. If you have any questions on how to make your own...hit me up.

 

[cpac54]

Any European chippers have any advice on where to acquire some sodium metasilicate? Unable to ship Lundmark to Switzerland and can't seem to find a similar brands over here.

Other than sodium metasilicate, is there anything else that is recommended for use with ultrasonic cleaners?

Thanks!

 

[allforcharity]

If you are cleaning chips with a significant amount of red in them, I would consider doing it at a slightly lower temperature. I did a batch this morning that included only 4 red chips at 43 degrees Celcius, and some of the colour did come out when I was padding the chips dry after the rinsing step. Last week I did more than 4 racks of red chips at 35-37 degrees, and I didn't remember seeing any real amount of colour coming out.