Custom Chip Display & Storage Cabinet – Design & Build thread (1 Viewer)

TX_Golf_N_Poker

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I recently called upon my son to help me come up with a beautiful and functional chip storage and display cabinet. Gonna brag a little, my son is extremely talented with his hands. By education he is a mechanical engineer, and his hobbies for many years have included building and maintaining sports cars and motorcycles, including rebuilding engines, and rehabbing his own home as well as a rental property that he owns. Several years ago he started doing woodworking and cabinet building, and as someone with his knowledge and skill does, he has progressed very quickly. He has really fallen in love with building furniture, so much so that he is planning to one day make a second career of it. And then… earlier this month (May 2020) he was laid off from the oilfield services company where he has worked for over 10 years.

So he is taking full advantage of this time between jobs to kickstart his furniture crafting business. He and I have been going back and forth with quite a few different ideas for a poker chip display and storage cabinet. We are far enough down the road that we are ready to share some of our ideas, but not so far that we can’t make changes, or correct any critical errors we may have made. And that is where all of YOU come in!

I’m pretty new to the chipping hobby. Because of that, I may not have foreseen all of the features that I might one day want in a chip storage cabinet. Additionally, we are designing this with the thought that other PCF members might also want to commission the building of a similar cabinet of their own someday. My needs are probably not as great as many of yours are, so our design can easily be adapted. I only want room for 4000 chips, on 4 custom drawer/trays that each hold about 1000 standard 39mm chips. Mine is a tabletop chest. I plan to keep it on top of a matching custom wood file cabinet in my study that my son is also going to build for me. But it could easily be adapted to have legs, be placed on top of a custom bookshelf unit or drawer unit for more poker or other hobby storage or expanded to have many more drawer/trays and be a free-standing unit.

The dimensions of this example will be approximately 21 inches square at the base, including the trim, and about 28 inches high. The interior of the upper storage compartment will be about 18 ½ - 18 ¾ inches square and 6 ½ inches tall. These dimensions were used so that it would hold a few Bud Jones 43mm storage boxes two wide (end to end) and two high.

The following renderings are for the cabinet I’m having built for me. The top swings open for additional storage of decks of cards, oversized chips and other various poker paraphernalia. If others would prefer, that space could also become a drawer. Or it could be eliminated and replaced with more display trays. The glass door swings up, and then slides back into the cabinet. Although not shown in these mock-up drawings, both the top and the glass door will have keyed locks. The four trays slide all the way out so they can be taken to the poker table using the carved handles. The chip trays are the 1000 count trays sold by Spinetti’s. These seem to be a nice quality, heavy duty plastic that should last for many years. The trays will probably rest on the drawer bottoms, which will be constructed to securely support the heavy weight of 1000 poker chips.

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This cabinet is currently being designed with ¾ inch solid oak and walnut. Future pieces can be designed with any wood the buyer chooses. And yes, you are seeing interior LED lighting! We’re still working out exactly what that will look like, but it’s definitely one of the “cool” factors in this design.

These next pics are an initial mock-up build for the chip drawer. The front and back are walnut and the sides are white oak. The chip tray fits snuggly in the drawer with the top of the chip tray just below the top of the drawer sides. The sides will have grooves cut in them to slide into and out of the cabinet. We are working on a solution to also display 43mm poker chips. This will probably involve cutting out all or part of 6 rows of the plastic storage tray to make room for acrylic 43mm chip trays. I’m thinking that mine will have two sections in one drawer cut out to make room for two chip trays. I don’t anticipate a need for a lot of 43mm storage, but we’re happy to entertain suggestions on how others might want this to look.

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That’s it for now. If you’re still with me, thanks for reading to the end of this long post, and please feel free to contribute any thoughts about this design, especially anything that might be missing, or anything that you think may not work the way we’re expecting with this design.
 
Thanks for the compliments. Keep an eye on here as we start the build soon. Definitely happy to hear any suggestions.
 
Great design!!! Do the lights allow color changes? If not i think that would be a great idea. Also line the trays so the chip holder can be removed for plaques.
 
Great design!!! Do the lights allow color changes? If not i think that would be a great idea. Also line the trays so the chip holder can be removed for plaques.
We have talked about color changing lights. Looking at LEDs is on my schedule for today, so I will let you know what I see. And of course, each one built can be customized to the buyers wishes. I'm sure he could put together some kind of rack for plaques in one drawer. We've already talked about a cut-out for 43mm chips, so I don't see any reason not to do the same for plaques. I'm deciding whether or not I want to line the bottom of the upper section with felt (or padded suited speed cloth!) or just leave the natural finished wood alone. I may have him build a covering on a thin piece of board so it can be put in or taken out as desired.
 
I was asked in a PM if we had considered a secret compartment in the upper storage section. I thought that was a great idea! Here is my reply:

Nothing like that has been covered. Honestly, the sky's the limit. If it can be built, he can do it. So you mean a false bottom in the upper compartment? I was thinking of having him take a slim sheet of board, then covering it with a thin layer of pad and suited speed cloth to put on the bottom. So it would be super easy for him to raise it up say a half inch, maybe make it two pieces that fold in the middle so you could lift it up from one side and get to the secret compartment.
 
We have talked about color changing lights. Looking at LEDs is on my schedule for today, so I will let you know what I see. And of course, each one built can be customized to the buyers wishes. I'm sure he could put together some kind of rack for plaques in one drawer. We've already talked about a cut-out for 43mm chips, so I don't see any reason not to do the same for plaques. I'm deciding whether or not I want to line the bottom of the upper section with felt (or padded suited speed cloth!) or just leave the natural finished wood alone. I may have him build a covering on a thin piece of board so it can be put in or taken out as desired.
Can't wait to see the finished product with all available upgrades.
 
Can't wait to see the finished product with all available upgrades.
Thanks. It sounds like we covered most of the basics in our initial design. Not getting anyone telling me yet that I completely screwed anything up! :D I suspect we will start the build next week. I'll change this to a build thread and will post our progress. He works pretty fast so I don't think it will take too long to get it put together.
 
Looks tremendous. When can I order mine! Lol!
Don't laugh. :D You will absolutely be able to commission one for yourself. We should start building mine next week. I'll post the progress here and once the first one is completed we will have a better idea regarding pricing, and my son will begin taking orders.
 
I wanted to comment that maybe having a smaller version with 500 chip trays would be more usable but then I remembered where I was and the fact that I have almost 3k chips myself....

Looks great. Can't wait to watch the build thread.
 
Don't laugh. :D You will absolutely be able to commission one for yourself. We should start building mine next week. I'll post the progress here and once the first one is completed we will have a better idea regarding pricing, and my son will begin taking orders.
FYI to any mods following this thread. NO solicitation of sales will take place on PCF until my son or I have been set up as an official vendor. I've been looking for information on this, and have not been able to find it. If someone will reach out to me via PM, I would appreciate it. Thanks! Just want to make sure we stay within the forum rules. :tup:
 
FYI to any mods following this thread. NO solicitation of sales will take place on PCF until my son or I have been set up as an official vendor. I've been looking for information on this, and have not been able to find it. If someone will reach out to me via PM, I would appreciate it. Thanks! Just want to make sure we stay within the forum rules. :tup:

Thanks for addressing this immediately. Makes our jobs easier. @Tommy is the person to speak to on being a site vendor. Welcome to the forum! I'm looking forward to seeing the build thread on more of them in the future.
 
...a thought I had would be to add blacklights. Can you imagine how those edgespots would pop?
 
Do the drawers have any sort of track mechanism?
I thought he had given me a drawing, but I can't find it now. The sides of the drawers have a grove routed into them. A strip of wood is installed into the case for the drawers to slide on. The wood strip is waxed so that they slide smoothly. It's a common cabinet building method. Here are some example photos of a build I used for inspiration:

EDIT: To avoid confusion, I removed the photos since they are not of the piece we are building...
 

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