Cleaning casino Paulsons (PCA's)

[brains613]

I just got my used PCA's in the mail, and well, "used"describes them well. I'm a little bit of a clean freak, so I haven't even touched them, other than to open the boxes. Once I get some rubber gloves on, I'll start cleaning them.

I have a couple different products, of which I'll take pictures shortly. There will also be before and after pics of each chip, and what was used to clean it.

If you have anything you'd like me to try, that you might be curious about, let me know. Otherwise, watch this space for updates.

Note - I don't claim to know what I'm doing, since these are my first used casino chips. But I have many questions about what may work, so I'm hoping this may serve to help others. And If I have to lose a few chips in the process, that's okay.

[chipandachair]

Search for TSP on chiptalk. TSP is cheap and should be easy to find and use.

good luck,

C & C

[BGinGA]

15-minute soak in warm water with Oxy-Clean, cold water rinse, wet magic-eraser rub where needed, rinse, 24-hour air-dry on towel (flip at 12 hrs), rack 'em, oil two or three days later, same air-dry routine, re-rack. Perfect, even for the most cruddy of chips. Don't plan on selling any to noelsarches.

[guinness]

Clean What?

[courage]

Originally Posted by BGinGA

15-minute soak in warm water with Oxy-Clean, cold water rinse, wet magic-eraser rub where needed, rinse, 24-hour air-dry on towel (flip at 12 hrs), rack 'em, oil two or three days later, same air-dry routine, re-rack. Perfect, even for the most cruddy of chips. Don't plan on selling any to noelsarches.

Great process, works for me for inlay chips such as PCA's. I oil after 24 hours, which undoubtedly makes my chips less desirable but they were bone dry.

For hotstamped chips, I use Simple Green and protect the stamps with my thumb when brushing. I only soak them for less than 5 minutes.

[Duckbutter48]

Originally Posted by BGinGA

15-minute soak in warm water with Oxy-Clean, cold water rinse, wet magic-eraser rub where needed, rinse, 24-hour air-dry on towel (flip at 12 hrs), rack 'em, oil two or three days later, same air-dry routine, re-rack. Perfect, even for the most cruddy of chips. Don't plan on selling any to noelsarches.

I originally used this method with the DCC that Jim sells instead of Oxy clean. After doing about 400 chips I ran out of DCC and used the Oxy Clean for the rest. This method works wonderfully. The wet ME really takes the hard work out of it, wipe in one direction then the other and the dirt comes out of the molds.



The DCC did work better then the oxy clean and it left a nice smooth film on the chips but the 200 I did with the oxy clean were fine and cleaned up great.

[courage]

Meant to qualify: oxy-clean fine for Paulsons, not for ASMs.

Some exbert should write a cleaning article.

[JM]

Originally Posted by courage

For hotstamped chips, I use Simple Green and protect the stamps with my thumb when brushing. I only soak them for less than 5 minutes.

Careful, Simple Green will EAT hotstamps right off the chips!!

[cgraham86]

I like to go a bit slower. Warm tap water (hot enough to not scald your hands), palmolive Pure + Clear mixed in. Soak for 20 min. Soft brush them, rinse in cold. Do 20-40 at a time.

Here's the same chip - nastiest one I had in my PCA $5 primaries:

Before:



After:



The best part? No gloves, no toxic residue, no chapped hands, and I didn't feel light headed afterwards.

Remember that Oxyclean likes to suck the nutrients right out of your skin - it an oxidizing agent, so long term it can do some damage. TSP is even worse - you'd better use gloves, or your hands will feel like you've been rubbing them in kerosene.

[David P]

Originally Posted by cgraham86

I like to go a bit slower. Warm tap water (hot enough to not scald your hands), palmolive Pure + Clear mixed in. Soak for 20 min. Soft brush them, rinse in cold. Do 20-40 at a time.

Here's the same chip - nastiest one I had in my PCA $5 primaries:

Before:



After:



The best part? No gloves, no toxic residue, no chapped hands, and I didn't feel light headed afterwards.

Remember that Oxyclean likes to suck the nutrients right out of your skin - it an oxidizing agent, so long term it can do some damage. TSP is even worse - you'd better use gloves, or your hands will feel like you've been rubbing them in kerosene.

Does that top pic remind anyone else of the booger scene from "Diary of a Wimpy Kid".