[industrialengineer]

I have started playing more poker recently, and I have outgrown my first table and chip set. However, when shopping for poker chips, I was discouraged by the cost to truly customize a set of poker chips.

At this point, I am not interested in applying labels to my chips. I want both faces to have a customized "stamp".

Has anyone created their own chips at home? Is it cost-prohibitive to do this? Is it even possible?

[rolandshoffinc]

Considering there are only a few chip manufacturers that make true clay chips I would think it is not feasible.

[industrialengineer]

What about the idea is unfeasible? Is it...

...cost?
...time?
...availability of materials and/or equipment?
...skill required?
...something else?

I'm not presuming that you're incorrect. You are probably right, but I want to understand completely before I put this idea to rest.

[tomb1]

Originally Posted by industrialengineer

What about the idea is unfeasible? Is it...

...cost?
...time?
...availability of materials and/or equipment?
...skill required?
...something else?

I'm not presuming that you're incorrect. You are probably right, but I want to understand completely before I put this idea to rest.

Probably all of the above, starting with cost. The biggest thing is probably the press/machine and mold to stamp out the chips. Then the availability of the material for a good quality chip. Getting a "clay" mixture like one of the pro chip makers would be impossible, you'd have to create your own.

But it depends on what you're looking for. If you want a full color-printed ceramic chip, I suppose you could buy the ceramic blanks and do the pad printing yourself, with the proper equipment. If you want plastic chips, it would probably be cheapest to buy plain plastic chips (like faux clays or super diamnds for 4¢-5¢ each) then hotstamp them. For clay chips...these are compression molded so you'd need (in addition to the clay compounds) a high-temp press and molds, plus equipment to print and apply the labels.

Here are a few (old) pictures of making clay chips, just so you can see what's involved. http://www.antiquegamblingchips.com/mfgchip.htm

Quantity would be the big question. If you want fewer than 3,00 chips, you could buy the best chips available and still spend less than just some of the machinery to make them yourself.

[rolandshoffinc]

Everyone is very secrative about the process.
Almost all the major producers of clay chips in the US have been around for a long time. The latest one is Blue Chip company and they are family of Paulson.
I am sure you can get materials and I am sure if you had the technology you could break down the chip material and how it is made but time spent, material cost, and machinery cost would be expensive.
But if you figured out how to do it I know alot of people here would love to get in with you on it. The problem is all the variables that we don't know.

[rolandshoffinc]

If you want to do ceramics I know someone who will set you up for the cost of $40,000. And you could do them in your garage.

[industrialengineer]

Hmm. The more information that I get, the more it sounds like this could be more difficult than I previously imagined. I'll lay out my thought process and please comment on it.

1. In terms of figuring out the chemical composition of a quality chip, I don't think it would be extremely difficult. I imagine that your local university chemistry department would be willing to determine the chemical signature of said chip for a nominal fee. Whether or not the compound is registered in the CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) or if it is copyrighted will raise interesting legal questions.

2. The next step is acquiring the material to create the chip. This is where I am less knowledgeable. I am not certain if you need specific licenses to buy the chemicals and dyes to make the chip.

3. A mold must be created. There are many articles on DIY CNC (http://www.hackaday.com) at DIY websites. This is probably where most people would start to lose interest due to lack of technical ability, time, cost, space, etc.

4. Based on the chemical composition of the chip and the type of mold used, some system to deliver high pressure to the chip would have to be developed. I don't even know where I would begin to find the space for something like this. Then just start cranking them out.

5. After creating all of the chips (minimum of 500-1000), they would need to be oiled, polished, etc.

All in all, it would be a pretty detailed project. The only way that most people could justify doing this would be to make this a 2nd job, at least until the startup costs had been paid back.

Again, I want to stress that I do not want to do anything illegal to create these chips. I'd rather have something someone else made legally before I have my own illegally.

[rolandshoffinc]

I don't know if it is a legal issue in the US or not. Maybe it is and that is why the new compression chips are comming from China.
But on the other hand there is more than one chip company in the US.

[2_hotty]

Originally Posted by industrialengineer

However, when shopping for poker chips, I was discouraged by the cost to truly customize a set of poker chips.

Yet you would be willing to invest the money and time into the machinery needed to make your own? After you bought everything you needed, you could have purchased more custom BC's then you could ever use. Hell, you could design a set of Blue Chips, have 20k made, keep a few for yourself and sell the rest at a profit. That would be more efficient then setting up a chip processing plant in your garage.

That's just my .02

[str8edg]

I unserstand that custom chips are expensive... I am designing (well sn0wstorm is) my own ceramic chips and I know the cost. But making them on your own? I would say that is kind of overkill IMHO. I am with 2_hotty on this, I would make a bunch with an excellent design and resell them before I started a chip making business in my house.