Poker Chip cleaning - Safe and Effective (1 Viewer)

[tigon]

I just tried another batch with a slightly heavier concentration of TSP. After about 30 minutes of soaking the hotstamps started to fade to a grey color and easily scrubbed away, and the TSP didn't seem to make much of a difference for actually cleaning the base. I didn't try scrubbing the hotstamps with the more diluted batch of TSP. So +1 to those saying avoid unless you want to relabel your chips or get rid of the hotstamps.

I might try Simple Green next if I can find it.

 

[acl1904]

I've used magic erasers on Paulson inlaid chips before. My process was warm water and oxyclean plus a tootbrush to clean the gunk off the chips, and the magic eraser to take care of rack check and other marks. The magic eraser picks up a lot of color when you use it on the clay, which is a bit worrying. It does a good job getting off all sorts of streaks and marks though. It's a very mild abrasive, so I wouldn't use it for the first pass, but it's hard to do real damage if you're careful.

After cleaning, I follow up with a very light oiling. Oxy clean can make the chips look chalky after drying, but the mineral oil brings back the color.

Yep, I use this method as well...

 

[200 Motels]

I used Oxyclean / luke water soak for under 5 min for my Lucky Derby's and it hasn't impacted the hotstamp or chip. Just enough to soften up the whipped dirt. Scrub with a soft nail brush, toothpick the rim, dry, oil and dry again. Pics to come.

 

[ski_ex5]

I realize that most of you like doing this chip cleaning thing by hand, but for the few of you who might be interested, I finally updated my ultrasonic cleaning topic.

Also, the sodium metasilicate (a TSP substitute) I use to clean chips has not affected any of my hot-stamps (gold or silver) in any way.

On the flip side, if you want to remove hot-stamp foil, isopropyl alcohol works well. Use a toothbrush with isopropyl if you like manual cleaning, or put the isopropyl in the ultrasonic unit (with appropriate safety precautions!) if you don't.

 

[tigon]

When cleaning chips with Simple Green do you dilute it at all? Not sure how much I need.

Also, I still haven't been able to find the elusive sodium metasilicate anywhere, just cartons of T.S.P. with "contains trisodium phosphate" on them in different packaging.

 

[duckdrummer]

When cleaning chips with Simple Green do you dilute it at all? Not sure how much I need.

I've used Simple green. Usually start with a pretty weak solution--say 8-1. I have, however, experimented with much stronger solutions of 1-1, and recently left some Paulson Starbursts in a 1-1 solution overnight with nothing remaining but a clean and shining poker chip. Much to my surprise, it did nothing to the hot stamp. These were the gray Starbursts in the Lucky Derby sale. I thought there was fading, but when placed in a lineup, witnesses were unable to positively ID the super-soaked chips.

 

[ski_ex5]

When cleaning chips with Simple Green do you dilute it at all? Not sure how much I need.

Also, I still haven't been able to find the elusive sodium metasilicate anywhere, just cartons of T.S.P. with "contains trisodium phosphate" on them in different packaging.

It's not *that* elusive. There's a link in my "Ultrasonic" post. Or, you can search Amazon yourself. Or, if you have Ace Hardware stores in your area, check there, as the Ace close to me carries it.

I've used Simple green. Usually start with a pretty weak solution--say 8-1. I have, however, experimented with much stronger solutions of 1-1, and recently left some Paulson Starbursts in a 1-1 solution overnight with nothing remaining but a clean and shining poker chip. Much to my surprise, it did nothing to the hot stamp. These were the gray Starbursts in the Lucky Derby sale. I thought there was fading, but when placed in a lineup, witnesses were unable to positively ID the super-soaked chips.

That's great news. Thanks for sharing. I would be careful of two things if you do this again in the future:

1. You didn't notice fading with your GRAY Starbursts. The colors with which I had the most fading back when I was manually cleaning with longer (15-20 min) hotter (>120F) baths using Oxi Clean were REDS, PURPLES, and some GREENS. I strongly recommend you do a test with a small number of expendable chips before leaving anything in a cleaning solution overnight.
   
   
2. You cleaned hot-stamped chips overnight. I'd recommend caution with inlaid chips, because I'm concerned the detergent water could seep under the inlay, effectively making the inlay appear much darker. I've never left chips overnight in *anything*. However, I did once ruin 35x Paulson Nationals red $5 chips when I left them covered in regular mineral oil for a few minutes (I think it was somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes, as I was cleaning some bright yellow dye of some sort from the chips). Anyway, the oil soaked under the inlays giving them a dark (red) appearance. Your detergent water (Simple Green, or anything else) is even less viscous than the light mineral oil, which is why I'd be concerned about an overnight soak. Again, just test with a few expendable chips first.

Just a side note, but at the recommendation of an old timer, I switched from using regular mineral oil to using Johnson's Baby Oil GEL (there are scented and unscented versions). I've found it to last a lot longer than regular mineral oil, and I've left many different inlaid and hot-stamped chips "wet" for DAYS with a heavy application of JBOG with no undesirable results. The only disadvantage of JBOG is that it's rather high effort to remove the excess (I use the "bar mop" towels linked in my Ultrasonic thread). Also, at the recommendation of Puggy, BGinGA, and others, I use Kiwi brand "Foam Polish Applicators" (shoe shine applicators) to apply the JBOG. They work great!

 

[Taghkanic]

Love the Kiwi foam applicators. At my local Wal-Mart, there are two included in a cheap $5-$6 Kiwi shoe polish kit. A fine deal, since I have two pairs of work boots which are constantly in need of cleaning and polishing.

 

[Taghkanic]

Erp—looks like the price went up to more like $11 since I last bought this kit. Still a good deal, if you can use the brush and polish. Otherwise, a two pack of the applicators is only $3-$4, if they stock it that way.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/KIWI-Leather-Care-Kit/21908004