Here is how to modify 44mm CPC chips to fit in over-sized chip racks! (2 Viewers)

alpine0000

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I recently received my 44mm chip order from CPC, and bought a rack online for them, and I couldnt fit 20 chips in each barrel of the rack.

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After searching online, and some back and forth with @David Spragg (and some members here), I learned that there aren't any chip racks on the market that will hold 44mm CPC chips. My only option is custom wood racks, or custom 3D-printed racks, neither of which I like the look of.

These generic chip racks are 67.87mm interior width.
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And a barrel of CPC chips average about 68.26mm thick (too thick for the racks)
3.JPG


So after some thought and some math, I realized that these chips weren't too far off from fitting, and only a small amount would need to be removed from each chip for them to fit. With my calipers, I was averaging 3.41mm per chip from CPC, but they only needed to be down around 3.39mm to fit, so I would only need to remove .02mm on average (a human hair is about .06mm). The 3.41mm from the factory is "average" though. Some chips were below the 3.39mm already, and some of them were as high as 3.48 or even 3.52mm.

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I emailed David to ask him if the center of the chip was lower then the rim, and he said it was, but only slightly. So I decided to use my 1000 grit wet stone (made for knife sharpening) to remove a small bit of material. This is a very fine grit, and the stone feels almost like glass -- This isn't rough and coarse like your typical sand paper you buy at your home improvement store.
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I measured each chip with my calipers and made sure I got each chip down to 3.39mm (removing a little bit evenly from each side). Here is an example: This chip started at 3.45mm thick
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Here is a video showing the method:

We are really only knocking off the high spots from the rim of the chip. The center doesn't get touched.

Here is the same chip after about 1-2 minutes of evenly removing material from each side
6.JPG


And here is the face of that same chip after sanding it from 3.45 to 3.38mm. The cross-hatching is still strong and looks great.
7.jpg


So after I did 20 chips down to at least 3.39mm, I washed the dust off and tested them in the rack. PERFECT! And looking at the face of the chips, you cant even tell they were sanded.
8.JPG


So the next thing I thought was, hmm, now these barrels of pumpkins will be slightly shorter than all the barrels of my 39mm. So I got a brand new barrel of my $500 39mm purple chips that have never been in play. To my surprise, they are the same height per barrel!
9.JPG


I wondered how that could be? So then I tried to put the barrel of purple into the oversized rack that the orange chips wouldn't fit into initially, and they fit great (not too tight at all). For some reason, I guess the 44mm chips are ever-so-slightly thicker than the 39mm chips, and modifying them like this makes them the exact same thickness as the 39mm chips.

Here is a barrel of un-modified brand new 39mm chips. They fit perfectly into the over-sized rack (width-wise).
10.JPG


So, a little before and after:

Here is a video showing trying to put stock CPC 44mm chips into the rack that don't fit:

Here is a video showing how nicely they go in after modifying them:

IMG_8712.JPG


IMG_8713.JPG
 
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call me crazy..... but I think i'd either modify the actual rack or have a custom rack made.
Yea, it's not for everybody. Call me crazy, too :p, but I'd rather do this and have a rack that matches all the rest of my chip's racks, esp when you cant even tell anything was done to the chips, and they are now the same height as all the others anyways. Personally, I don't like the look of wood racks, or the solid-colored 3D-printed racks, mainly because they don't match any of my other racks in my set, and I think they look a bit cheesy. To each his own. Figured I would share my experience for anybody else who may want to do this.
 
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Always each to his own !

On re-reading your post is the material your removing on the very outer edge?
 
A lot of the racks I've tried have middle barrels slightly wide than the end barrels. Was that the case with these racks?

My experience has been that trying to slide a 20th chip into an end slot with 19 others is sometimes impossible. This might be due to very slightly uneven chip surfaces, particularly those that are textured.

In many cases, I've found that a stack of chips that fits perfectly in the middle will not fit at all in the end barrels unless I form the stack perfectly -- often using the middle barrel as a form -- and then insert the perfectly formed stack into the end barrel.

You probably tried all that, but I thought I'd mention it just in case...
 
I noticed on the Paulson 24010 racks that people were upset that their new Paulson chips didn't fit perfect. Some not at all.
I noticed the same but found they did fit in the winter time, maybe humidity played a part,
 
My first thought as I was scrolling through the pictures was "how is he going to sand down the barrels of the rack with that large, awkwardly shaped stone?".

Well, you really showed me! :jawdrop:
 
A lot of the racks I've tried have middle barrels slightly wide than the end barrels. Was that the case with these racks?

My experience has been that trying to slide a 20th chip into an end slot with 19 others is sometimes impossible. This might be due to very slightly uneven chip surfaces, particularly those that are textured.

In many cases, I've found that a stack of chips that fits perfectly in the middle will not fit at all in the end barrels unless I form the stack perfectly -- often using the middle barrel as a form -- and then insert the perfectly formed stack into the end barrel.

You probably tried all that, but I thought I'd mention it just in case...

20 chips didnt fit in any slot of the rack, end or middle, without pressing super hard and scraping the chip, and even then, all 20 wouldn't seat all the way in to the bottom.

Now, 20 fit easily in each row, ends and middle, with no problem.
 
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I asked about the outer edge thing because I could see if the manufacturing process left a burr on that edge it wouldn't be horrible to remove it.
Especially if that burr would disappear after a ton of use anyway.
 
Always each to his own !

On re-reading your post is the material your removing on the very outer edge?

All this process did was knock down high spots on the thicker chips, mainly from the edge/rim. The center didnt get touched at all. And once I washed the dust off the chip, it still looked new and had strong cross-hatching. We are talking about (literally) a fraction of a human hair on average.
 
All this process did was knock down high spots on the thicker chips, mainly from the edge/rim. The center didnt get touched at all. And once I washed the dust off the chip, it still looked new and had strong cross-hatching. We are talking about (literally) a fraction of a human hair on average.

Yeah it think my initial reaction seeing a new chip and a sanding block was yell STOP! but I can see now it may not be that bad.
 
Yeah it think my initial reaction seeing a new chip and a sanding block was yell STOP! but I can see now it may not be that bad.
Yea, this stone is very fine, and feels almost like glass. In fact, my fingers were touching the stone around the edge of the chip while I was holding the chip moving it back and forth, and it didnt irritate my fingers at all having them rub back and forth on the stone. Thats how smooth it is. It surprises me that the stone even removes any material from the chip at all being this smooth. Imagine rubbing your chip on your car window. Thats almost what this feels like to your hands.
 
I asked about the outer edge thing because I could see if the manufacturing process left a burr on that edge it wouldn't be horrible to remove it.
Especially if that burr would disappear after a ton of use anyway.
Exactly. All I did was simulate a little bit of use. But these pumpkins aren't going to be in play like that really, with people having stacks of them that are getting shuffled, like my $25 chips are, so these wouldn't naturally wear themselves down. I had to assist. Haha.
 
You might want to try the Matsui knock off's from Apache. They are 69.5mm deep (I just measured with my calipers).

I only have 3x 44mm CPC's to test with but I was able to close the lid snugly around the 44mm (I used 17 IHC to fill out the rest of the row).
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Edit:Added Pics
 
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Exactly. All I did was simulate a little bit of use. But these pumpkins aren't going to be in play like that really, with people having stacks of them that are getting shuffled, like my $25 chips are, so these wouldn't naturally wear themselves down. I had to assist. Haha.
All's well that ends well! (I read that somewhere...)

I was reading something the other day about someone using a 7000 grit block -- can't imagine how smooth that is!
 
You might want to try the Matsui knock off's from Apache. They are 69.5mm deep (I just measured with my calipers).

I only have 3x 44mm CPC's to test with but I was able to close the lid snugly around the 44mm (I used 17 IHC to fill out the rest of the row).
No need. My chips fit perfectly into this rack now.

And, a lid? I dont want chip trays with lids anyways :p
 
Sanding chips? Lmao.
sounds sooo wrong. But admittedly have tried this with a few extras. I found two things. It’s a ton of work and it gives you a good “broken in” feel instantly. It was the voice in my head that screamed while I was doing it that stopped me from contemplating doing it across the board.
 
No need. My chips fit perfectly into this rack now.

And, a lid? I dont want chip trays with lids anyways :p
It was more for the next guy that thinks "there is probably a better solution then sanding new chips" but hey, to each their own :tup:
 
I recently received my 44mm chip order from CPC, and bought a rack online for them, and I couldnt fit 20 chips in each barrel of the rack.

View attachment 635811

After searching online, and some back and forth with @David Spragg (and some members here), I learned that there aren't any chip racks on the market that will hold 44mm CPC chips. My only option is custom wood racks, or custom 3D-printed racks, neither of which I like the look of.

These generic chip racks are 67.87mm interior width.
View attachment 635813

And a barrel of CPC chips average about 68.26mm thick (too thick for the racks)
View attachment 635815

So after some thought and some math, I realized that these chips weren't too far off from fitting, and only a small amount would need to be removed from each chip for them to fit. With my calipers, I was averaging 3.41mm per chip from CPC, but they only needed to be down around 3.39mm to fit, so I would only need to remove .02mm on average (a human hair is about .06mm). The 3.41mm from the factory is "average" though. Some chips were below the 3.39mm already, and some of them were as high as 3.48 or even 3.52mm.

View attachment 635810

I emailed David to ask him if the center of the chip was lower then the rim, and he said it was, but only slightly. So I decided to use my 1000 grit wet stone (made for knife sharpening) to remove a small bit of material. This is a very fine grit, and the stone feels almost like glass -- This isn't rough and coarse like your typical sand paper you buy at your home improvement store.
View attachment 635816

I measured each chip with my calipers and made sure I got each chip down to 3.39mm (removing a little bit evenly from each side). Here is an example: This chip started at 3.45mm thick
View attachment 635817

Here is a video showing the method:

We are really only knocking off the high spots from the rim of the chip. The center doesn't get touched.

Here is the same chip after about 1-2 minutes of evenly removing material from each side
View attachment 635818

And here is the face of that same chip after sanding it from 3.45 to 3.38mm. The cross-hatching is still strong and looks great.
View attachment 635819

So after I did 20 chips down to at least 3.39mm, I washed the dust off and tested them in the rack. PERFECT! And looking at the face of the chips, you cant even tell they were sanded.
View attachment 635820

So the next thing I thought was, hmm, now these barrels of pumpkins will be slightly shorter than all the barrels of my 39mm. So I got a brand new barrel of my $500 39mm purple chips that have never been in play. To my surprise, they are the same height per barrel!
View attachment 635821

I wondered how that could be? So then I tried to put the barrel of purple into the oversized rack that the orange chips wouldn't fit into initially, and they fit great (not too tight at all). For some reason, I guess the 44mm chips are ever-so-slightly thicker than the 39mm chips, and modifying them like this makes them the exact same thickness as the 39mm chips.

Here is a barrel of un-modified brand new 39mm chips. They fit perfectly into the over-sized rack (width-wise).
View attachment 635824

So, a little before and after:

Here is a video showing trying to put stock CPC 44mm chips into the rack that don't fit:

Here is a video showing how nicely they go in after modifying them:
So basically you are sanding off a "bee's dick" worth of clay from each side of the chip.
 
I'm not a fan of the idea of sanding. But it looks like it worked for you.

Sanding chips? Lmao.
sounds sooo wrong. But admittedly have tried this with a few extras. I found two things. It’s a ton of work and it gives you a good “broken in” feel instantly. It was the voice in my head that screamed while I was doing it that stopped me from contemplating doing it across the board.

It was more for the next guy that thinks "there is probably a better solution then sanding new chips" but hey, to each their own :tup:

For all the shock from people who cant imagine the thought of sanding a new chip, I get it. But I think you just hearing the word "sanding chips" and that's ruining it for you :D

We aren't talking about taking chips to a belt sander here. This is a stone that feels almost as smooth as glass. Again, I sanded an average of .02mm off of each chip, and a human hair is about .06mm thick, so I took 1/3rd of a human hair off each chip on average, and thats divided across both sides of the chip. So 1/6th of a human hair per side. And its not the entire face of the chip. The edges are slightly higher than the rest of the chip. And, the chips don't come out of the mold at the factory looking the way they do when you receive them new either; They are sanded at the factory to finish the edges. With a much more aggressive sander than this 1000-grit stone.

If I were take 10 "sanded" chips and 10 mint chips, and mixed them together, and asked somebody to separate them into two piles of modified and un-modified, I don't think they could get most of the chips in the right pile. I couldn't. At least not without a magnifying glass, and even then, I'm not sure I could get them all correct. This really isnt a crazy solution :wow:

Here is a picture of the final results with the chips in the rack. It's difficult to even tell the chip has been modified in any way. I will leave the photo at full resolution that is *zoomed* in. In real life, it is even harder to tell. The chips look no different now missing 1/6th of a human hair from each rim. In fact, my used $25 green chips I got 6 months ago look worse after being used 20x than these new sanded chips do.

IMG_8710.JPG
 
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You're kidding, right? There was not a whit of criticism in my post at all.
I was saying there was shock and hate from a few people. You may have been one of the "shocked" or just didn't like the idea. Haha. Not in a bad way. I welcome all opinions. I'm just trying to say, this isn't really a crazy idea. The chips dont look modified in any way :)
 
I was saying there was shock and hate from a few people. You may have been one of the "shocked". Haha. Not in a bad way. I just wanted to say, this isnt really that crazy :)

As an avowed mass chip murderer by blade and mill, I've probably lost the ability to be shocked by a light abrasive wiping.
 
This isn't rock tumbler crazy, I get it.

I think I would fall into the use a different rack crowd but if you're happy that's all that matters.

Personally I can't tell anything has been done to the 1K chip pictured other than what would look like ever so slight edge wear (if that). Amazing how little you removed to make the difference overall.
 

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