[CaptLego]

I was just wondering if anybody has made their own chips from scratch.


From time-to-time, I've seen postings on various boards about this, but I'm not aware of anybody actually doing it. Perhaps the link-meister has some leads?

I've heard of folks considering 3 different aproaches:
A) Wood.

• There a lot of beautiful exotic hardwoods, and it is an easy material to work with. On the other hand, it would require some kind of insert to get much weight, and strength would be an obvious problem -- they'd break easily.

B) Cast.

• Make some kind of mold, and use a casting resin. You could get some interesting patterns here... but again I wonder about getting good quality and weight.

C) Clay

• Somebody once posted about using that modeling clay like FIMO. It comes in lots of colors. You could make a big sausage with whatever edgespots --- and centerspots! --- colors you want, then slice it up into chips and bake it in your oven. Sounds interesting, but I don't know how you'd get any kind of accuracy or consistency in size and thickness. Also, I again wonder about the weight and durability.

I could also imagine just having a bunch CNC machined out of various metals (or other material). Then there's EDM, and a variety of other machining/molding options if you have access to a good model shop....

[TenPercenter]

Originally Posted by CaptLego

I was just wondering if anybody has made their own chips from scratch.


From time-to-time, I've seen postings on various boards about this, but I'm not aware of anybody actually doing it. Perhaps the link-meister has some leads?

I've heard of folks considering 3 different aproaches:
A) Wood.

• There a lot of beautiful exotic hardwoods, and it is an easy material to work with. On the other hand, it would require some kind of insert to get much weight, and strength would be an obvious problem -- they'd break easily.

B) Cast.

• Make some kind of mold, and use a casting resin. You could get some interesting patterns here... but again I wonder about getting good quality and weight.

C) Clay

• Somebody once posted about using that modeling clay like FIMO. It comes in lots of colors. You could make a big sausage with whatever edgespots --- and centerspots! --- colors you want, then slice it up into chips and bake it in your oven. Sounds interesting, but I don't know how you'd get any kind of accuracy or consistency in size and thickness. Also, I again wonder about the weight and durability.

I could also imagine just having a bunch CNC machined out of various metals (or other material). Then there's EDM, and a variety of other machining/molding options if you have access to a good model shop....

It's almost funny you should ask. One of the ads up there in the Google banner was for chip manufactutring equipment. I didnt look closely, but it was very expensive just for a hotstamping machine.

[Dan808]

haha...let me tell you, it takes time. when i was in highschool (awhile ago now), i wanted a set, so i carved 175 out of wood. my dad builds repo. furniture, so i was able to find tons of scraps around. painted them different colors, and that was that.

i do like the idea of using exotic woods...tho i doubt i "wood" ever do it again. especially since there are so many readily available chips on the market now.

[messenger309]

If you like the look of vintage ivory chips, you buy buy 1 1/2'" faux ivory round stock and cut it into rounds. It works just like real ivory (more or less) and can be polished then scrimshawed.

It takes about an hour to do one chip. . If I ever finish I'll post pics and details of the process.

Rob

[Dan808]

309: where would u get something like that, and what's it's price range? do u have pics of even 1 or 2 finished chips?

[messenger309]

I don't remember the exact company I ordered from, but it was a billiards supply company. If you google faux or imitation ivory you'll find it. A lot of custom knife and gun supply sites also have it. I'll see if I can find my invoice. I'll post pics later of the equipment I have used, you need a very good mitre saw or a lathe for cutting the chips and a bench grinder with polishing supplies. Scrimshawing is very difficult, go to antiquegamblingchips and pick a very basic design. Straight lines are good, curves are bad.

One alternative to scrimshaw by hand would be to use a hotstamping machine. You can use these with a custom die to deboss and imprint the image at the same time. not cheap though.

Rob

[CaptLego]

Originally Posted by messenger309

I don't remember the exact company I ordered from, but it was a billiards supply company. If you google faux or imitation ivory you'll find it. A lot of custom knife and gun supply sites also have it. I'll see if I can find my invoice. I'll post pics later of the equipment I have used, you need a very good mitre saw or a lathe for cutting the chips and a bench grinder with polishing supplies. Scrimshawing is very difficult, go to antiquegamblingchips and pick a very basic design. Straight lines are good, curves are bad.

One alternative to scrimshaw by hand would be to use a hotstamping machine. You can use these with a custom die to deboss and imprint the image at the same time. not cheap though.

Rob

This sounds pretty interesting. Please post pics when you can.
How about doing the scrimshaw work with a CNC engraving machine?

[messenger309]

Okay,

I should say at the outset that my intention was to create a set of ivory chips and do it in the traditional scrimshaw manner by hand. Here are some photos with notes along the way.

Tools:



At the top are two of the traditional type tools I tried, a scribing knife and an exacto knife. They both had pluses and minuses but I settled on the exacto knife as the scriibing tool was too thick.

The blank stock

This is the blank stock. It is 1 1/2" in diameter and it is a cast polyester resin with additional compunds to simulate ivory. It is impossible to tell in any of these photos but it really polishes up beautifully.

Cut and Unpolished balnks


From here the chips were wet sanded (600-15000) and then polished on a cloth wheel.

A cutting error.


Cut very slowly

Some practice chips.





You can see on the last one where I slipped with the knife. You have to apply a lot of pressure and it is very easy to slip. Not a good feeling after cutting, polishing and almost finished scrimming. These look rough because I subjected them to some wear tests but the uncut polished chips look great.

Paint

This is an unpolished painted chip. I haven't tried polishing it yet but the paint really soaks in. You can't paint the polished chips.

Chewed Chip

This chip was attempted with the dremel tip from above. The tip is very small but still chewed up the chip. Engravers use airtools similar to what your dentist uses that spin a finer tip at 400 000 rpms. I haven't tried one, they are not cheap.

That's just off the top of my head, it's been a while since I worked on this project.

And yes I can see my poker table needs to be cleaned

[CaptLego]

wow - great pics. For the scrimshaw, how do you get the black in the lines? Is it just an ink?

[TenPercenter]

I moved this topic to the "History" forum, because

A) I wanted to try the nifty "move" feature and founda reason, and

2) The History forum needs seeding, and this topic is perfect...


Look s like a lot of fun making ivory chips!