Smelling Dunes Commemorative Chips (1 Viewer)

[TheSchmiddi]

Hello,

I recently purchased a set Dunes Commemorative Plastic?! chips. Although the chips look great, they smell extremely like smoke. Is it possible to clean these chips without the stickers peeling off or the print on the sticker being removed?

I am not sure which version of these chips I have, but after reading in I think it is the plastic version? (Weight depending on the value between 8 and 9.3 grams)

Thanks in advance for any recommendation.

 

[KarateMaster72]

Did you get them from a private owner? Right now the only retail place that sells them that I know of is spinetti's. Regardless, I believe those are the nexgen type material. I have cleaned China Clays but I've never cleaned NexGen. Depending on how many you got you could just do it each chip individually to make sure you don't mess up the labels. I usually getting microfiber towel or cloth, with whatever you use to clean your chips, pinch it between the thumb and forefinger and rotate it. Cleaning just the outer edge if you're worried about the labels

 

[TheSchmiddi]

Yes, I bought the set second hand from private. I also think that it is not China Clay, but pure plastic.

Unfortunately, simply rubbing with a damp microfiber cloth was not enough to completely neutralize the smell.

Tonight I will soak a barrel more intensively in soapy water and wash it.
Am curious whether the stickers hold and get the chips fresh.

 

[upNdown]

Hopefully somebody who knows better will chime in. But until then, here are some thoughts.
Yes there have been multiple versions of dunes commemorative chips including plastic versions and China clay versions, so if you think you have plastic, you’re probably right.
As far as soaking, my suggestion would be a quick soak. Every time I’ve read about people having label or inlay problems from cleaning, I think it’s been due to the duration of the soak. So I’d try a quick soak (like literally ten seconds) in soapy water with something added to work on the smoke - maybe vinegar, maybe some product sold for that specific purpose. But anyway, I’d try a quick soak first, to make sure you don’t damage anything. If that doesn’t work, I’d probably try testing single chips in longer soaks, before I soaked the whole batch.
Good luck

 

[KarateMaster72]

Hopefully somebody who knows better will chime in. But until then, here are some thoughts.
Yes there have been multiple versions of dunes commemorative chips including plastic versions and China clay versions, so if you think you have plastic, you’re probably right.
As far as soaking, my suggestion would be a quick soak. Every time I’ve read about people having label or inlay problems from cleaning, I think it’s been due to the duration of the soak. So I’d try a quick soak (like literally ten seconds) in soapy water with something added to work on the smoke - maybe vinegar, maybe some product sold for that specific purpose. But anyway, I’d try a quick soak first, to make sure you don’t damage anything. If that doesn’t work, I’d probably try testing single chips in longer soaks, before I soaked the whole batch.
Good luck

Yes, absolutely a quick soak. No more than 20 seconds or so. Get them out immediately and dry them and then possibly do it again by hand instead. I would be afraid to use vinegar. I don't know if it would break down the glue. I'm thinking maybe a mild dish detergent

 

[LeLe]

Since these are preowned, the smoke smell could have capture from an smoking environment.

Washing with baking soda \ vinegar should help if that is the case

 

[TheDuke]

Use activated charcoal. I've used it to remove cigarette stench from paulsons. It should also work for plastic chips.

https://www.amazon.com/Purifying-El...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

[TheSchmiddi]

I tried that quick soaking now with a few chips in hot water with an bio all purpose cleaner.

Put them in for around 10 seconds and then wipe them with a damp microfiber cloth.

It seems that most of the smell is gone and the stickers still stick.

Will check it tomorrow until I go on.

I am now dreading doing that with 490 more chips. :-D

Thanks to this wonderful community for the many tips!

(Btw: Sonic toothbrush and the dirt eraser in the picture were for some really dirty paulsons)

 

[TheSchmiddi]

Short Update:

Everything ist fine with the cleaned Chips and the labels.
Now I will go on and clean the rest.

Maybe I can delegate it to my 2,5 years old daughter…

Thanks for every tip!

 

[nostan]

Very nice chips looking chips. Are they varying in thickness? Is there any height difference between the denominations in stacks of 20?

 

[TheSchmiddi]

Very nice chips looking chips. Are they varying in thickness? Is there any height difference between the denominations in stacks of 20?

The chips are pretty much exactly the same height. The $25 chips are minimally thicker here, which becomes apparent when it's hard to get a barrel of $25s into a standard rack, the other values normal.

Half a barrel of HSC $25 and all other Dunes denominations are a good 1mm less high.

Interesting is, that the weight differs between denominations.

 

[TheSchmiddi]

Very nice chips looking chips. Are they varying in thickness? Is there any height difference between the denominations in stacks of 20?

Repeated it with a full barrel. A mint barrel of ioc 5s on the right.