Have I just trashed 40 HS chips? (1 Viewer)

[kareth]

Hey!

Quick question to veteran chippers here.
I've been trying to get my first ever paulsons (HS $5's here) to an acceptable condition by trying to follow some tips here on the forum.
I've thoroughly cleaned them in some oxy/palmolive and dried over few days (5-10 min soak + a lot of brushing). After that they were pretty clean, but the smoke odor was unbearable, so I've tried a tip from here to soak them in white vinegar (5%, 50/50 with water) for an hour.

After the bath, they changed the color significantly (not that I don't like it, it's so much prettier, but together with non-matching label right now they look pretty awful)

Is it a normal thing after vinegar bath? Any ideas if it's possible to bring them back to their previous color?

A picture with color change (3 rows after vinegar bath, 1 row before)

Thanks!

 

[Sunshine]

Hey!

Quick question to veteran chippers here.
I've been trying to get my first ever paulsons (HS $5's here) to an acceptable condition by trying to follow some tips here on the forum.
I've thoroughly cleaned them in some oxy/palmolive and dried over few days (5-10 min soak + a lot of brushing). After that they were pretty clean, but the smoke odor was unbearable, so I've tried a tip from here to soak them in white vinegar (5%, 50/50 with water) for an hour.

After the bath, they changed the color significantly (not that I don't like it, it's so much prettier, but together with non-matching label right now they look pretty awful)

Is it a normal thing after vinegar bath? Any ideas if it's possible to bring them back to their previous color?

A picture with color change (3 rows after vinegar bath, 1 row before)

Thanks!

May just need oiling. Put a small amount -- like, less than half a teaspoon -- of mineral oil on a clean rag, pinch the top hat & canes between your thumb and middle finger, press your index finger on the edge and rotate it. Then, let them sit overnight and lightly wipe off any remaining excess oil.

Certainly many here more expert than me -- with far more sophisticated methods -- but that's how I did my old Hard Rock chips.

 

[RussB42]

I though it was a Non-Smoking Casino..

 

[Rhodeman77]

I though it was a Non-Smoking Casino..

I was about to say, that isn't a smoke smell. The casino is definitely non-smoking.

Oxyclean will fade the color. A little bit of oil will make the look bright again.

 

[kareth]

I was about to say, that isn't a smoke smell. The casino is definitely non-smoking.

Oxyclean will fade the color. A little bit of oil will make the look bright again.

Thanks for all the replies!

The faded color is not after oxy, its after vinegar. All chips in the picture are already after oxy cleaning, but only the vinegar made them so bright. It feels more like saturated than faded tbh.

I will try oiling though and report back, but as far as I can imagine oiling saturating up the color I'm not sure about darkening it up?

 

[kareth]

Allright,
So oiled both:

On the right - no vinegar
On the lest - vinegar
Top - not oiled
Bottom - oiled (I might have overdid the leftbottom one ^^)

So, oiling made them definitely darker, but the vinegared one is wayy too off color. It totally doesn't match, its just more clear red than dark red on the label.
Even though the right bottom one is not perfect, its still much better than the left one.

Any ideas if it's possible to bring left ones back to the "dark side"?

Thanks!

EDIT: I guess its WTB 40x $5...

 

[BGinGA]

Check today's @Gear response in the ultrasonic cleaning thread.

 

[Gear]

Check today's @Gear response in the ultrasonic cleaning thread.

That was a few days ago IIRC.

TL;DR -- vinegar dissolves lead. DO NOT use vinegar to clean chips that contain lead.

I don't know if the Horseshoe Cleveland chips contain lead or not. I would have guessed no, based on their age, but I don't know for certain one way or the other.

 

[kareth]

Woah, thats a pretty important note, why have I never read about it
Isn't it very dangerous to use it on chips then?

 

[BGinGA]

Yeah, and who knows what effect vinegar may have on the other materials, including the lead substitute.

 

[kareth]

Huge thanks for the warning guys -- I planned to do a shorter bath but now I will just skip it.

Those chips are trashed now, but I still have plenty that needs fixing on the smell. It's interesting to find out it's not smoke, but they still smell pretty bad (its not the clay smell as with secondaries, they just smell bad ^^). Are there any good practices for getting rid of it, other than putting it outside in fresh air for a few days?

Thanks for all the help

 

[kareth]

Turns out the smell is gone after putting them outside for a day. I have another problem now though.

I started oiling the chips and they significantly color my cloth to red. I've tried rubbing the finished, oiled chip against a white one, and after few seconds it becomes all red.

Any ideas why this might be happening, and more importantly - any ideas how to fix that behavior?

Thanks!
Piotr

 

[John Conor]

Turns out the smell is gone after putting them outside for a day. I have another problem now though.

I started oiling the chips and they significantly color my cloth to red. I've tried rubbing the finished, oiled chip against a white one, and after few seconds it becomes all red.

Any ideas why this might be happening, and more importantly - any ideas how to fix that behavior?

Thanks!
Piotr

Is the red transfer from the vinegar chips? That would make sense to me but not if you oiled chips that hadn't been subjected to vinegar. I have cleaned red chips from a number of different casinos over the years. I have found that most of them could sit in OxiClean or Dawn overnight and would have no adverse effects. That being said, I did have a problem with the color fading on the red $5's from Par-a-Dice Casino, as I have read other have too. I have experienced nothing similar with these Horseshoe primary 5's, which I feel fall into the category of not at risk of fading in a bath (aside from a vinegar bath!).

@Stibnite posted this a little while back, which you might find an interesting read.

Good luck!

 

[kareth]

Is the red transfer from the vinegar chips? That would make sense to me but not if you oiled chips that hadn't been subjected to vinegar.

No, I just threw the vinegared chips to garbage. Those are oiled chips, only after oxy cleaning.

@Stibnite posted this a little while back, which you might find an interesting read.

Good read, thanks!

I actually used baby oil for this (which he discouraged) but after so many ppl here mentioning it, I don't think that's is the problem.

Nevertheless I applied oil in a similar way he described, and just like him got colored cloth. Maybe if I'd wait a bit the coloring problem would disappear -- I'll report tomorrow. I'll also try some different cosmetic oils I have around, maybe they'd behave differently.

EDIT: If anyone ever encounters the same issue: 1. the chips stopped coloring after 48h of drying. 2. The smell was gone after few days on the fresh air and a few games.