Time for Murder (1 Viewer)

FS21

FS21

Two Pair
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I have about 1000 chips that I intend to murder and relabel on my own, I do not intend to grind the label down. All of my chips are Paulson RHC and they're all the same size inlay, about 1". Before I begin the process, which I expect will take quite some time, I want to gather as much information as possible to avoid as many headaches as possible. Here are my main thoughts:

What tools will I need?
What chemicals should I use (if any)?
Once the label is removed, should I clean or sand the inlay area?
Is there a tried and true process that others have used and would recommend?
Is there a specific member that you know has done this many times before?

Regards,
FS 21
 
jamesjkim said:
Cut away from you or your fingers and don’t cut deeper than the clear vinyl top layer.
Click to expand...
This thread should have its own forum.

I need an exacto knife, a dental scraper, a needle nose plyers, a non-acetone nail polish remover, safety glasses, gloves, and patience.
 
As you are newish member, I get the desire to want to create your own relabel set, and do it yourself. I did the same thing - but mainly because I didn’t know any better. My first relabel set took me almost 5 months to remove the inlays. It was during Covid so I had a lot of time on my hands. It was a TREMENDOUS amount of work and the chips I murdered were relatively easy (paper inlays are ridiculously hard to remove). My wife thought I was crazy.
IMG_4835.jpeg


Fast forward to today (and 4 relabel sets later), I would never tackle a 1000 chip removal project myself. It’s just too time consuming. Leave it to the professionals. Trust me. @Nanook does a wonderful job and will save you a lot of time and possible pain. Send him your chips and pay for his services. It is well worth the investment. Just some advice from an experienced chipper who has been there done that.
 
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I just did a couple racks of the Paris $1 chips.
It was necessary to cut just beyond the laminate, and to the vinyl printed layer as well. Very little room for error. If I didn’t go deep enough, the laminate would come up without the vinyl and the job got a lot tougher…when it all comes up together, it’s great. However, you don’t want to go so deep as to damage the clay at the bottom either.
For me, cutting away from you is near impossible to control the knife from slipping and going into the clay edge of the recess. I cut slowly and smoothly from the edge of the inlay about a 1/4” in length.
Use a thick blade xacto or one of those plastic-cased utility knives that has the little breakaway tabs on the blade to get a sharp section. I found a regular #11 xacto is too thin and weak to do the job.

I did use non-acetone nail polish remover on the vinyl layer for those chips where the laminate had peeled off without it. I bought an eye dropper bottle at Whole Foods (the kind used for fragrances, aromatherapy etc) and it was a godsend. I flood the recess of the chip with a few drops of npr and wait 15-30 seconds, and the vinyl came up much easier.

It’s a big job, good luck.
 
I will also share a tool I found invaluable. For gently peeling up the vinyl after npr and also cleaning up the remnants, I used (don’t gasp!)…
A small, sharp, wood chisel.
Very gently held the front edge of the chisel flush to the surface (leaning the chisel from side to side could make a corner dig in, and may damage) and with almost no downward pressure, it was like scraping a paper sticker from glass with a razor blade. No clay was harmed with this process, and it took off the vinyl layer beautifully.
IMG_5168.jpeg

This is a cheap chisel from a set from Harbor Freight.
I’m not saying this is the best tool, but it was amazing for me.
 
FS21 said:
I will contact @Nanook to discuss this. The process does sound time-consuming, but I do have time. I am in no rush to get this set done anytime soon.
Click to expand...
I took me over a week to do 220 of them, and that was a few hours per night. I actually enjoyed it, as I wasnt in a hurry either. I had Netflix on, and just kept at it.
 
FS21 said:
I need an exacto knife, a dental scraper, a needle nose plyers, a non-acetone nail polish remover, safety glasses, gloves, and patience.
Click to expand...

Everything except that last one should be easy to find and retain.
A soundproof room to dampen the noise of all the swearing might also help.
 
I used an x-acto knife, needle-nose pliers, non-acetone nail polish remover and an eyedropper, gloves, and cotton wipes. The nail polish remover will dry your hands badly if it gets on them.

Your exact technique will depend greatly on the chips you're removing labels from. When I did Ballys and Horseshoe $1a, it was as simple as making a single cut from edge to center, and slipping the x-acto knife under the label and prying it up. Then I pulled the plastic and as much of the label off with my hand. Something like 1/2 of the chips the sticker came with the plastic and I was done. The rest the label split from the plastic, and I would apply 1 or 2 drops of nail polish remover, let it sit a few seconds, then pull it off with an x-acto knife. Wipe off the chip with a cotton pad so there's no polish remover left.

Older chips will not be this easy. I would cut a pie shape from the edge to center, then pry that off. Then similarly I would wedge up part of the plastic label far enough so that I could grip it with pliers and twist it off. Every label had the sticker remain, so from there it's applying nail polish remover and potentially scraping at the label if it's stuck on enough. Older labels seem to stick much more strongly to the chip, so expect more difficulties there.

1000 chips will take you a long time. I did 400 and was cursing myself by the end. But the 180 that were older chips took probably double or triple than the 220 that were newer. If it were 1,000 Bally's chips I could've done that. If it were 1000 of the VLVs and Roulettes I would never.

You will almost undoubtedly scuff some chips in the process. I was okay with this, and most of the errors I made are hidden by the labels. Be patient, and if you have any low value chips you can practice on, I would recommend it.

Colquhoun said:
I will also share a tool I found invaluable. For gently peeling up the vinyl after npr and also cleaning up the remnants, I used (don’t gasp!)…
A small, sharp, wood chisel.
Very gently held the front edge of the chisel flush to the surface (leaning the chisel from side to side could make a corner dig in, and may damage) and with almost no downward pressure, it was like scraping a paper sticker from glass with a razor blade. No clay was harmed with this process, and it took off the vinyl layer beautifully.

This is a cheap chisel from a set from Harbor Freight.
I’m not saying this is the best tool, but it was amazing for me.
Click to expand...

Boy do I wish I had known about this haha. Looks much easier than an x-acto knife for prying/scraping off labels.
 
I murdered over 1000 roulette mold chips in my set. Yes, it took time, and yes, there is a learning curve. But once you are done, it's extremely gratifying knowing that you did it yourself. Best advice: be extremely careful with your xacto knife. I cut myself a few times early on. Proceed with caution!

1701292649274.png
 
Good luck in your project, if your RHC chips not have a textured inlay, you can overlabeled with non laminated vinyl or polyester labels.
 
FS21 said:
I have about 1000 chips that I intend to murder and relabel on my own, I do not intend to grind the label down. All of my chips are Paulson RHC and they're all the same size inlay, about 1". Before I begin the process, which I expect will take quite some time, I want to gather as much information as possible to avoid as many headaches as possible. Here are my main thoughts:

What tools will I need?
What chemicals should I use (if any)?
Once the label is removed, should I clean or sand the inlay area?
Is there a tried and true process that others have used and would recommend?
Is there a specific member that you know has done this many times before?

Regards,
FS 21
Click to expand...

My somewhat limited experience (with <300 chips) is that every type of chip is different.

Sometimes you’ll be pleasantly surprised that everything comes up easily.

Other times you’ll be very unpleasantly *un*surprised that the tasks of getting the laminate and the vinyl off are both incredibly laborious.

Until you try attacking each type of chip that you’re going to be murdering, there’s no real way to know how difficult and time-consuming the project will be.

But at minimum, you’re almost certainly going to need some acetone-free nail polish remover, an eyedropper, and a set of X-Acto-type knives.

If you go to Harbor Freight or Lowe’s, you can usually find a set with a variety of different blades for $20 or so. You’ll just have to experiment with what shape works best for you, probably with some adjustments for different chips.

I could mention different common techniques which have worked better or worse for me, but TBH I found that it varies a lot from batch to batch. If one way isn’t working, experiment with another approach until you hit upon the best one for those specific chips.

I rarely use tweezers or needlenose pliers but many others do.

You’ll want a toothbrush you don’t care about and some abrasive toothpaste for cleanup. And something with which to scrape off remaining crud, gently, that has slightly dull edges.

Oh, and BandAids. You *are* going to cut yourself at least once, even if being super careful.

GL
 
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Taghkanic said:
My somewhat limited experience (with <300 chips) is that every type of chip is different.

Sometimes you’ll be pleasantly surprised that everything comes up easily.

Other times you’ll be very unpleasantly unsurprised that the tasks of getting the laminate and the vinyl off are both incredibly laborious.

Until you try attacking each type of chip that you’re going to be murdering, there’s no real way to know how difficult and time-consuming the project will be.

But at minimum, you’re almost certainly going to need some acetone-free nail polish remover, an eyedropper, and a set of X-Acto-type knives.

If you go to Harbor Freight or Lowe’s, you can usually find a set with a variety of different blades for $20 or so. You’ll just have to experiment with what shape works best for you, probably with some adjustments for different chips.

I rarely use tweezers or needlenose pliers but many others do.

A toothbrush you don’t care about and some abrasive toothpaste for cleanup. And something to scrape gently with that has slightly dull edges.

Oh, and BandAids. You *are* going to cut yourself at least once, even if being super careful.

GL
Click to expand...
I agree that you'll need to find the best combo of tools that suit you best, but it will still be a bunch of chips before you find a real groove.
Hopefully that will be before the last 50 chips! :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
 
P.S. With the non-acetone NPR, I found with most chips (once you’ve cut away enough top material to help it penetrate underneath), you want to make a puddle within the inlay area and let it soak 10-15 seconds.

It evaporates fast, and a second puddle may be needed. But do give it time to work. If you’re lucky the whole thing will then just lift off in one piece.

But most of the time… it won’t.
 
Taghkanic said:
P.S. With the non-acetone NPR, I found with most chips (once you’ve cut away enough top material to help it penetrate underneath), you want to make a puddle within the inlay area and let it soak 10-15 seconds.

It evaporates fast, and a second puddle may be needed. But do give it time to work. If you’re lucky the whole thing will just lift off after soaking in one piece. But most of the time… it won’t.
Click to expand...
Bingo, this is exactly my experience as well. That leftover vinyl layer seems like it's never going to come up, until it sits in a pool of npr for that 10-15 seconds...and it peels right off.
 
While I’m rambling on, I would also mention that it seems some Paulson chips become mushier than others when the NPR hits the clay.

Most of the types I tackled were unaffected, but I found some other types really soften up while they are still saturated.

You wanna be careful not to attack these mushier chips too aggressively because you can really do some damage before they dry back up.
 
Colquhoun said:
I took me over a week to do 220 of them, and that was a few hours per night. I actually enjoyed it, as I wasnt in a hurry either. I had Netflix on, and just kept at it.
Click to expand...
This is pretty much it. This whole thing takes a lot of time and especially so when you have only done a few or a few hundred. I have now done 10's of thousands and I can most likely go a lot faster than most anyone else.

I am going to post the rest of this post in the ongoing murder thread that I have posted in several times before as I think it will likely survive longer than this one.

I'll give another hint to anyone trying this themselves and I would say this one is the biggest of all: Go slow at first and make sure you like what you are doing before proceeding with a mass murder.

Here is my reasoning:
There are several things that can go wrong with the whole murder thing. I am sure that there are others, but these are the ones that jump to the top of my mind as I am thinking about this. All of the following can be avoided by following my advice of going slow and if you don't like the results just slow down and change your procedure/method of murder or just stop all together and let someone else do it that can do it without damaging the chips (other than the murder part)
- you might not even like the chips you have chosen to murder & once murdered you can't un-murder.
This one has been discussed quite a bit before, but it a big one and deserves mentioning again. You can murder just a few chips and label them 1st so you are confident that you like the final result before mass murder.
- Damaging the chips by cutting too deep: (1st pic below)
This was a chip that I did not murder, but is a good example of this. The angle of attack with your knife to the face of the chip is too steep and you wind up cutting too deep. A small nick isn't a big deal and will be covered up by the labels, but a deep cut/gauge will bee seen and can be felt through the new label. Hold the knife as parallel to the face of the chip that you can. I almost never cut into the clay at all. When I do it is very shallow.
- Damaging the chips by NANPR causing discoloration: (2nd pic below)
Different chips react a lot differently to different solvents. In the pic below you can see that the clay material on chip on the left in the area that used to be covered up by the inlay is not discolored, but the one on the right is. These two chips were done with the same NANPR, but as you can see one color gets discolored and the other does not. I am not going to intentionally ruin a chip so I can show you all what that damage looks like on the face of the chip, but I think everyone can imagine that if the discoloration in the middle of the chip on the right was on the face of the chip and it would not be covered up by the new label and would look really bad. Some colors are extremely sensitive to discoloration and others are not very sensitive at all. You are not going to know until you try and I can assure you that if the chips you are murdering are sensitive to discoloration you are going damage at least a few before you figure out how to murder them without damaging them. Once again, I almost never damage the face of the chip by discoloring it from the solvent because I have figured out how to keep the solvent off the face of the chip.

Moral of the story:
Go slow and make sure you are getting satisfactory results before proceeding with mass murder

 
This is what it looks like when you get the NANPR outside of the inlay on a color that doesn't like it.....:oops::vomit:....don't do it!!!

IMG_5536.jpg
 
Yep, that is what I was talking about. Some chips are much worse than others, but it looks like crap when it happens.

It took me lots of experimentation to figure out how to avoid this and still go relatively fast.

I almost never get any discoloration at all on the face of the chips I murder.

Just sayin
 
I’ve found that sometimes the discoloration from NANPR is temporary, lasting only while wet, and other times it is permanent. Depending on the chip color, it may be very noticeable, or not so much.

You can try lightly scraping the surface to try to salvage a chip, but that leaves you with a different sort of damage.

Best is to apply the liquid very carefully and barely deep enough to just cover the inlay, starting from the middle, and making sure the chip is level so the stuff does not slide.

Sometimes a small application where you’ve cut through the laminate and inlay is enough to seep all the way under, but often it requires either more liquid or multiple iterations of cutting/lifting/soaking.

As many have said, there seems to be a lot of variation on how tenacious the inlays may be.
 

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