Customizable compression clays slowly going the way of the buffalo... (1 Viewer)

[Psypher1000]

TRK...gone
BCC...gone
Paulson home sets...done for now
ASM...now CPC, but at max capacity with dying molds...

David Sprag, re: the MD-50 mold: "[It's] impossible to repair anything. The cups for this mold are cast into the iron cavity. All one piece with nothing removable or repairable."

Thankfully the FDL and scroll mold could be brought back to life, but I don't know how long much longer some of these classic molds will remain viable.

The more I see great chip sets of the past, and the more I realize just how few options for home compression clays there are, the more irritated I get - almost angry, even! Not at David or CPC or anyone in particular...just the situation as a whole. The extreme lack of options is just bad for the community. Certain things I lament particularly strongly for...

• TRK large and small crown molds
• TRK color options
• TRK spot patterns
• The mold for the old BCC Mardi Gras chips
• The BCC 614 spot pattern (Sunfly, you're going to help with this...)
• Customizable hot stamping
• Paulson Avalon Clubs and the mold that was used for them

Is there anything we can do as a community to help gain more options when it comes to customizable clays? Or are we just taking punches to the face until we're dropped?

 

[BGinGA]

All it takes is $20K for a new mold plus shipping to CPC. Throw more cash at new punches for those 618 and other desired spots. Hot stamping is still viable today via aftermarket vendors.

 

[Psypher1000]

All it takes is $20K for a new mold plus shipping to CPC.

Wow...that's not unreasonable as a community effort, and is potentially worthy of a Kickstarter/crowdfunding campaign at some point. That said, I'd be MUCH more interested in seeing another outlet for custom clays pop up somewhere. Clearly a far more expensive and risky venture, and clearly much less likely to happen in the immediate or foreseeable future, but that would be my hope nonetheless. New molds, more color options, more production lines (so potentially reduced wait time), and an alternative formulary to CPC for those that aren't partial to their materials. Some people love TRK's...I'm not one of them (mainly due to the materials they used...just don't care for the feel of them) but for their sake I do wish TRK-style chip options still existed.

Throw more cash at new punches for those 618 and other desired spots.

Pardon my ignorance, but I don't understand this. Punches?

Hot stamping is still viable today via aftermarket vendors.

Can you let us know these aftermarket vendors? I've not had much success locating them - they seem to be harder to find than the A-Team! I've reached out to not less than seven potential aftermarket sources for hot stamping - some personal, some enterprise. Of those, three only stamp the chips they sell (plastic stuff), and four never responded. I only found one source for the aftermarket hot stamping and he doesn't particularly care to stamp CPC chips (not that he won't, but it literally takes longer and hurts) which isn't great for the community since they're the only chip gig in town. Besides that, I'd much rather my chips be stamped by the manufacturer so I don't have to worry about breakage (I'm assuming here that the manufacturer assumes all risk for said breakage and already knows the appropriate pressures/durations to use, but some of my assumptions may well be false in that matter).