sorry if there's already a thread i could look at, but when would you mill/murder a chip for a relabel vs just labelling-over?
That's what we're all here for! I don't think there's a wrong approach (barring the specific chip you're talking about having problems with one method or another). There are benefits and drawbacks to each approach; I personally prefer murder, but as you can see from @Coyote's post, a label-over can also turn out awesome.wow this is all helpful especially the links to discussions that have been had on this topic - thanks for the help!
I think chips that have been murdered (whether inlay-removed or milled) look terrible if the original chip is something like a THC or RHC where the chip's mold already has a recess. Removing the inlay or milling out an inlay or hotstamp creates a second recess within the molded recess. Putting a label inside that second recess never has the same result as the original inlay, because the original inlay is an actual inlay that's pressed into the surface of the molded recess. The inlay is perfectly flush with the surface and has no gaps between the inlay and the chip. Putting a decal on the milled-out second recess can never be perfectly flush and never be without gaps.
Maybe most people don't notice, but I do. Or maybe most people don't care, but I do.
If I were going to relabel a chip that had a significant recess molded into it (including THC, RHC, and many but by no means all old-school molds) I would always choose an overlabel and never mill or do an inlay replacement.
But that's just me.
Well you do you, but there are disadvantages of doing the overlabel and in a lot of cases those disadvantages are pretty bad. I would argue, in a lot of cases, that those disadvantages are worse than the imperfect fit look. They create spinners/ wobbly & uneven stacks, thin labels where whatever is under there can be seen, labels that look cheap and/or have no laminate so they do not hold up well etc, etc & on and on.I think chips that have been murdered (whether inlay-removed or milled) look terrible if the original chip is something like a THC or RHC where the chip's mold already has a recess. Removing the inlay or milling out an inlay or hotstamp creates a second recess within the molded recess. Putting a label inside that second recess never has the same result as the original inlay, because the original inlay is an actual inlay that's pressed into the surface of the molded recess. The inlay is perfectly flush with the surface and has no gaps between the inlay and the chip. Putting a decal on the milled-out second recess can never be perfectly flush and never be without gaps.
Maybe most people don't notice, but I do. Or maybe most people don't care, but I do.
If I were going to relabel a chip that had a significant recess molded into it (including THC, RHC, and many but by no means all old-school molds) I would always choose an overlabel and never mill or do an inlay replacement.
But that's just me.
Most of the time the labels will come off without damage, but there are times when taking up/removing the overlabel will pull up the laminate or damage the laminate/inlay in some way. I personally have not had this happen, but I have heard others say that this can happen. There are some chips (like some of the HSI & JACK Cinci chips) where the laminate pulls off/up/loose pretty easily. I can imagine that if you put a overlabel on any of those chips there would be a decent chance of damaging the chip if you tried to remove the label after a while.it seems like maybe one very helpful deciding factor is whether you want to be able to undo the relabeling, otherwise it’s a mixed bag or depends on the chip, etc
sorry if there's already a thread i could look at, but when would you mill/murder a chip for a relabel vs just labelling-over?
So there you goWhen you want to do it right.