cleaning paulson cherries

jdunford · #21 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 08:49 AM

Just to clarify, are you guys using liquid Tide? Are you diluting it at all with water, or just straight up?

In anticipation of a witty reply:
* I like my Tide on the rocks! *

JoseRijo · #22 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 03:05 PM

I use liquid Tide (not that it matters). Maybe one cup to two gallons of water - the water should be blue (before the chips go in, of course).

jdunford · #23 (**permalink**) 11-23-2006, 01:55 AM

Okay, tonight is my first opportunity to play with poker chips in the chem lab... I forgot to bring a camera, so please don't hit me with "... useless without pics..." I'll repeat any interesting results for the camera another time.

For each of the following, I'm wearing a labcoat and nitrile gloves, holding a chip securely with plastic forceps.

First, I found some of my dirtiest and lowest quality red cherries. I sprayed the first one with pure ethanol ("absolute... > 99%) for a few seconds and gave it a wipe. The hot-stamp still looks okay. The only thing I noticed is I get some colour transfer (a Kimwipe gets a little red after rubbing) but it's not significant. Unfortunately, it didn't come clean, either. Still has black splotches of dirt and oils...

Once dry, I squirted the same chip with acetone. Immediately, the hot-stamp turned grey (not even silver... just gold -> grey). I then tried to wipe it with a Kimwipe... and it PAINTED the Kimwipe. Conclusion: Paulson chips dissolve in acetone. For a mental image, think of the Wicked Witch... "I'm melting! I'm melting!" Seriously. It's not far off. I'll bring a camera next time and drop one into a beaker with acetone and take a picture every few seconds... it's pretty dramatic! Keep in mind that acetone is the same solvent I used to dissolve the "Vegas Classics" logo off a Target neoprene table topper... and it took more effort to dissolve that logo than an entire Paulson cherry!

I had to take a new dirty red cherry (after dissolving the last one) and tried sonicating it in ethanol - hoped that the ultrasonic energy would aid in dissolving the dirt and oils. After 15 minutes of sonicating in ethanol, there was little change. The chip was still dirty. Surprisingly, the gold hot-stamp was not visibly affected.

Next I tried toluene. It had a similar effect to acetone, but not quite as severe: the foil turned grey and colour immediately transferred to a Kimwipe upon wiping, but it didn't turn to a paint-like consistency. The only interesting thing that I noticed with toluene is it turned the red chip pink wherever the forceps had been touching... as though it somehow lost colour selectively at those points. It might've done this with the acetone as well, but it lost a lot more than just colour...

Conclusions: Stick with Tide / water mixture! Unfortunately, my lab is all out of Tide. I'll have to bring some next time.

Stevo · #24 (**permalink**) 11-24-2006, 06:09 PM

I've used a mix of dishwashing detergent, laundry detergent and warm water. Let em sit in it for about 20 minutes. Agitate them occasionally. Finish with the Brawny miracle sponge.

This works fantastically.

JM · #25 (**permalink**) 11-25-2006, 12:54 AM

See the problem is you're using solvents when what you need to use is a surfactant.

I soaked my dirty grand casino hotstamps in a mixture of sp1c-and-span and water (50/50 I think) for 15-20 mins, then scrubbed them using a toothbrush wet in the solution. I held the chip so as to protect the stamp though. I wore a rubber glove and held the chip between my thumb and index finger with my thumb over the stamp and scrubbed away and rotated it as I scrubbed. When done, I took my thumb off and brushed once or twice across the stamp to finish then dried it with a paper towel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdunford

Okay, tonight is my first opportunity to play with poker chips in the chem lab... I forgot to bring a camera, so please don't hit me with "... useless without pics..." I'll repeat any interesting results for the camera another time.

For each of the following, I'm wearing a labcoat and nitrile gloves, holding a chip securely with plastic forceps.

First, I found some of my dirtiest and lowest quality red cherries. I sprayed the first one with pure ethanol ("absolute... > 99%) for a few seconds and gave it a wipe. The hot-stamp still looks okay. The only thing I noticed is I get some colour transfer (a Kimwipe gets a little red after rubbing) but it's not significant. Unfortunately, it didn't come clean, either. Still has black splotches of dirt and oils...

Once dry, I squirted the same chip with acetone. Immediately, the hot-stamp turned grey (not even silver... just gold -> grey). I then tried to wipe it with a Kimwipe... and it PAINTED the Kimwipe. Conclusion: Paulson chips dissolve in acetone. For a mental image, think of the Wicked Witch... "I'm melting! I'm melting!" Seriously. It's not far off. I'll bring a camera next time and drop one into a beaker with acetone and take a picture every few seconds... it's pretty dramatic! Keep in mind that acetone is the same solvent I used to dissolve the "Vegas Classics" logo off a Target neoprene table topper... and it took more effort to dissolve that logo than an entire Paulson cherry!

I had to take a new dirty red cherry (after dissolving the last one) and tried sonicating it in ethanol - hoped that the ultrasonic energy would aid in dissolving the dirt and oils. After 15 minutes of sonicating in ethanol, there was little change. The chip was still dirty. Surprisingly, the gold hot-stamp was not visibly affected.

Next I tried toluene. It had a similar effect to acetone, but not quite as severe: the foil turned grey and colour immediately transferred to a Kimwipe upon wiping, but it didn't turn to a paint-like consistency. The only interesting thing that I noticed with toluene is it turned the red chip pink wherever the forceps had been touching... as though it somehow lost colour selectively at those points. It might've done this with the acetone as well, but it lost a lot more than just colour...

Conclusions: Stick with Tide / water mixture! Unfortunately, my lab is all out of Tide. I'll have to bring some next time.

Oldcycles · #26 (**permalink**) 11-28-2006, 09:10 AM

Cherry cleaners go here.
http://www.chiptalk.net/forum/poker-...ng-option.html

maniack · #27 (**permalink**) 11-28-2006, 10:14 AM

I got to this thread late, but I cleaned a ton of cherries a while back so I thought I'd offer my opinion. I tried a number of different cleaners and found that Armor All tire cleaner worked great for the really dirty chips and that a simple castile soap (Bronner's) worked fine for all the rest. The castile soap is really gentle - and smells nice! Like mint! About a tablespoon in a couple cups of warm water, soak briefly, soft toothbrush each side and all but the most seriously dirty chips will be clean. The soap seems to dry the chips out a bit though, so I'd definitely oil them after using this route.

beekeeper · #28 (**permalink**) 11-28-2006, 04:22 PM

Where do you find Castile soap? (i.e., what else is in near in the store)? Thanks.

maniack · #29 (**permalink**) 12-01-2006, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beekeeper

Where do you find Castile soap? (i.e., what else is in near in the store)? Thanks.

I've been able to find it in the cleaning aisle at the grocery store for a while now. Both Safeway and Trader Joe's have it on the East and West coasts... I dunno about the Midwest. I used to get it at a natural foods store.