Ceramic No-Mold Spinners, Explanation with video examples (1 Viewer)

[NotRealNameNoSir]

Finally took video of this, had some good conversations trying to explain it and @TX_Golf_N_Poker asked about it.

No-Molds dont have a recess, so any imperfection leads to SPINNERS! Still love my set for the price, no buyers remorse cause you get what you pay for and theyre gorgeous, but its very annoying when you cant push a barrel neatly.

No-Mold no spinners, barely used $5s:

No-Mold bunch of spinners, very used nickels. Very little force when spinning them.

Comparison between the two when pushing a barrel. Attempted to use similar force and motion, instantly fell over

For me, this is not a deal breaker and I love it for the cheap set that I wanted. Its fully mine and we're splashing around at microstakes anyways, but I do think the more I use certain chips, the more spinners appear, but I haven't tested this hypothesis.

 

[ngmcs8203]

I looked at my set this week too. Roughly 5% of them were spinners. Not awful.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

I looked at my set this week too. Roughly 5% of them were spinners. Not awful.

How long have you had/used them for? Believe mine are showing more and more, with clear correlation between use and spinners.

 

[inapinch]

Can you please shave your hands?

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

Can you please shave your hands?

OH GREAT, ANOTHER INSECURITY

 

[yoke386]

THANK YOU! I kept seeing “spinners” posted and didn’t have a clue what this meant. Haven’t had a good Aha ! Moment in a while, appreciate the videos.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

THANK YOU! I kept seeing “spinners” posted and didn’t have a clue what this meant. Haven’t had a good Aha ! Moment in a while, appreciate the videos.

Yup; instability in barrels due to chip deformities. Less friction from less of the chip faces touching = more spinning and tipping. None of my players care at all but anyone who likes chips or frequents casinoes would be more annoyed than us.

 

[CdnBeerLover]

How much texture is on the faces of the barely used $5s and is there less texture on the used versions? Wondering if it's due to some texture wearing down due to shuffling.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

How much texture is on the faces of the barely used $5s and is there less texture on the used versions? Wondering if it's due to some texture wearing off due to shuffling.

Certainly possible, good guess and definitely would be part of the wear. Ill give a better answer tomorrow when I compare the two blind.

 

[MichaelBubly]

The spinner issue drove me away from China ceramics due to my frustration with stacking and the instability while in play. They looked good and when they stacked well they felt quite good too. Certainly bang for the buck, but I couldn't get past the number of spinners as I usually had 2-3 per barrel.

The new Greek mold may be a huge step forward though.

 

[Colquhoun]

Here's an example of clay chips unstable when shoving as well.

 

[ngmcs8203]

How long have you had/used them for? Believe mine are showing more and more, with clear correlation between use and spinners.

Just got them a few weeks ago. Haven’t used them yet.

 

[triton]

@NotRealNameNoSir yes tina spinners are a fact of life, but I have had success with correcting for this. Not 100%, but I've been able to reduce warp by about 75% which makes a massive difference. I've been through thousands of chips now (don't ask) and the amount of spinners varies from batch to batch. I have also noticed that they are often times clustered either within specific denominations or individual shrink-wrapped packages, which leads me to believe this happens during the manufacturing process and not during shipping.

For those interested I will follow up with another post that details the process I go through.

Here is a video showing two stacks, one just before correction and one after correction:

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

@NotRealNameNoSir yes tina spinners are a fact of life, but I have had success with correcting for this. Not 100%, but I've been able to reduce warp by about 75% which makes a massive difference. I've been through thousands of chips now (don't ask) and the amount of spinners varies from batch to batch. I have also noticed that they are often times clustered either within specific denominations or individual shrink-wrapped packages, which leads me to believe this happens during the manufacturing process and not during shipping.

For those interested I will follow up with another post that details the process I go through.

Here is a video showing two stacks, one just before correction and one after correction:

Talk to us, whats the pro-ce-dure?

 

[triton]

Talk to us, whats the pro-ce-dure?

I’ll compile and post later today

 

[triton]

Ok, here goes. First and foremost, please do this at your own risk. This procedure involves the use of trigger clamps and ovens, so the risk of damaging your chips is not zero. Also, this procedure is for ceramic chips, not Paulsons, CPC, etc.

Also, this was not my original idea – I first read about this here:

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/flattening-warped-chips.3903/page-9#post-2182036

This is the process I go through:

1. Chip assessment. I spin test each individual chip (both sides) on a flat surface. Almost every chip has a warp to it; its just a matter of determining your tolerance level and the time/effort it would take to correct. I am ok with a small amount of spin, but that is just my personal preference. I also believe that it is almost impossible to get chips 100% straight, so I don’t bother doing this to chips that are only slightly warped. This video shows four chips, each with a relatively higher spin rate than the last. For this sample I left the first two chips alone but corrected the last two:

PLEASE NOTE that it is IMPORTANT to (a) keep your work surface clean of dust, as these chips do have dust on them which can artificially increase their spin rate and (b) sometimes chips that spin have dust embedded in the texturing process – you should check for this before you assume that a spinning chip is warped.

2. Chip stacking. I test until I get two chips that are warped past my tolerance level, then I stack them with their concave sides facing each other.

3. Trigger clamp. Once I have 20 chips (stacked in pairs of two as described above) I place them in a trigger clamp, and apply a moderate amount of pressure (not extreme, but at minimum a medium amount of pressure):



4. Oven – I set my toaster oven on the “warm” setting, set the temperature at 150F, and the timer for 90 minutes. Once done, I let them cool until they reach room temperature (45 min +/- depending on ambient temperature)

5. Results! I have two videos to show – the first video is before treatment. I have 40 chips stacked. The left stack is the warped stack, and the right stack is a stack of chips that I have screened as being acceptable (but not applied the procedure to). You can clearly see the difference when I apply the push test:

The second video is after treatment. The left stack is the same stack of warped chips that have now been treated, and the right stack is the same stack as the right hand stack in the 1st video so that you can see the difference

As you can see the treatment definitely makes a difference – far less wobble. Not perfect, but good enough for me.

 

[ngmcs8203]

What trigger clamp do you use?

 

[triton]

What trigger clamp do you use?

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics...-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

 

[triton]

I don't use the small ones -- just the four larger clamps.

 

[triton]

Here is another example:

 

[KingZilla]

Thank you for taking the time and effort to do this

 

[Nymor]

Thanks for laying this out @triton - giving it a go with a barrel of spares/samples.

I'm not overly bothered by spinners - and they all spin if you give them enough woof - but if there's an easy fix then no harm in doing it.

In the oven at 65C for an hour and a half. I put a slip of paper between each as an added safeguard against possible colour leeching - not sure that's even possible but just in case.

Will report back.

 

[triton]

I have done this on thousands of chips and have not seen any color transfer (also one of the reasons why I stress this procedure is for ceramics; clay chips would need a different procedure)

 

[Santa123]

Here is another example:

Resly good job. Love how people experiment.

Would you say Tina chips are worth it if you have to go through that flattening process. Why not pay the extra for BrPro or Sunfly? Sunfly has also molds available.

 

[triton]

Resly good job. Love how people experiment.

Would you say Tina chips are worth it if you have to go through that flattening process. Why not pay the extra for BrPro or Sunfly? Sunfly has also molds available.

Absolutely yes the Tinas are worth it. I consider them an excellent value and am continuing to purchase them. I did my homework in advance and ran a trial before I made volume purchases. I’ve become proficient with this process, so it’s very easy for me to sort/correct large volumes of chips in a reasonable period of time.

They are a great product.

Not saying this to take away from BRPro (which are excellent); just saying every product has its pros and cons and it’s up to you to balance choices against your specific needs/constraints. For my needs the Tinas are a perfect fit.

 

[Nymor]

I tried a couple of times - 65C and 75C - and while there is some difference I'm not sure how much. In a stack of 20 it seems the middle ~8 now don't spin at all but the 6 on either side/end are the same as they were. I'm going to leave them overnight and see what they are like in the morning and maybe have another play.

 

[ngmcs8203]

Ugh my oven only goes down to 170.

 

[Colquhoun]

Ugh my oven only goes down to 170.

A heating pad is what I use to heat clays...and on high, it gets around 140 degrees...maybe not enough for this project, but may be worth a try.

 

[triton]

Ugh my oven only goes down to 170.

170 may also work (I just haven't tried it) but you should run a trial on a small portion of your chips (like 2 chips) to see there are any issues.

 

[triton]

I tried a couple of times - 65C and 75C - and while there is some difference I'm not sure how much. In a stack of 20 it seems the middle ~8 now don't spin at all but the 6 on either side/end are the same as they were. I'm going to leave them overnight and see what they are like in the morning and maybe have another play.

thats weird -- I have not had variability within trigger clamps like that