Sunfly Polyclay custom molds (1 Viewer)

Toby

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I didn't realise that Sunfly offers a custom mold option for its Polyclay line:

Sunfly Polyclay custom mold


Stanfard OTS mold offerings:

polyclay_02.jpg


Example custom mold:


polyclay_custom_07.jpg


polyclay_custom_11.jpg



I seem to remember favourable reviews of the Polyclay chips.

I dropped Sunfly a line - cost of a custom mold is $4k

The custom mold comes with exclusive use, as you'd expect.

It could make for an intresting GB on a community exclusive mold.

Custom scrown mold and Mapes cash set tribute with extra denoms, e.g. a frac?

Interesting possibilities... Now just to pay for it...
 
How much are chips after the mold cost? It's a cool idea, but trying to get everyone in a gb to agree on a mold? That's where I think the concept would die.
 
In 2013 (I think?), I ran a group buy on CT for sample sets of Sun-Fly's Lucid Diamond chips (polyclay on their house diamond mold). Custom molds are $4000, and custom chips were around 60c depending on quantity ordered, if memory serves correctly. Pics and reviews on CT (don't have a link handy). You can also order custom hybrid chip molds, with outer ring markings on a chip with recessed center that takes a laminated label (might be a better fit for some tribute choices).
 
Tommy just needs to secure Sunfly as a sponsor and negotiate a PCF-exclusive mold as part of the deal. ;)
 
In 2013 (I think?), I ran a group buy on CT for sample sets of Sun-Fly's Lucid Diamond chips (polyclay on their house diamond mold). Custom molds are $4000, and custom chips were around 60c depending on quantity ordered, if memory serves correctly. Pics and reviews on CT (don't have a link handy). You can also order custom hybrid chip molds, with outer ring markings on a chip with recessed center that takes a laminated label (might be a better fit for some tribute choices).
http://www.chiptalk.net/forum/threads/lucid-diamond-polyclay-sample-sets.85295/
 
How much are chips after the mold cost? It's a cool idea, but trying to get everyone in a gb to agree on a mold? That's where I think the concept would die.

This is a case where I think it would have to be one cook that builds the mold and chip, much like the Tower & Spear mold and final design on the CPS chips. Once you open the door to "I like this, but can we do that instead, you wind up burning far more time and effort than you would if you just ran an idea up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes.
 
I have a few samples of the Lucid Diamonds, and I'm not a fan. To me, they are very plastic-like. I personally prefer china clays and other ceramics over these. To each their own, though.

At some point, I have to put my non-custom sample sets in the classifieds. I don't need'em...
 
This is a case where I think it would have to be one cook that builds the mold and chip, much like the Tower & Spear mold and final design on the CPS chips. Once you open the door to "I like this, but can we do that instead, you wind up burning far more time and effort than you would if you just ran an idea up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes.

Srsly. One only needs to browse the many chip mold design threads on CT to quickly realize what an uncontrollable mess it becomes with multiple cooks involved.

I suspect that with a good mold design and artwork, a group buy order of 30,000 chips would be easily attainable. That puts the mold cost at around 13c each. Based on 60c/chip base price, adding artwork and shipping costs (~$2500) puts the final chip price somewhere around 80c each (plus re-shipping costs).

Scrown mold, Mapes artwork, or Sands mold, Sands artwork....

Or something original: Fruit mold, with appropriate artwork and colors (apples, limes, plums, lemons, oranges, peaches, bananas, blackberries, blueberries, etc.)

Color_wheel_fruit-300x300.png


- - - - - - - - - Updated - - - - - - - - -

I have a few samples of the Lucid Diamonds, and I'm not a fan. To me, they are very plastic-like. I personally prefer china clays and other ceramics over these. To each their own, though.

Below are our respective reviews from CT.

Yours:
These arrived today. My initial impressions are similar to others in the thread:
  • The chips look quite classy, but I have a soft spot for solids and black labels, and the colours are distinguishable from one another.
  • As others have noted, the injection spot on the edge is noticable, but it doesn't really bother me. The edges are definitely glossy.
  • They shuffle very easily.
  • As far as feel goes, my first impression was "hard plastic", but that might have been influenced by the look of the edges. They feel like they are not as hard/solid as a true ceramic, and not as soft as a clay. Definitely closer to ceramic than anything else.
  • When riffled, the sound is not as muted as a china clay, but not as bright as a ceramic - again, somewhere in between.
  • For the 16 chips I have, they stack well.
  • Weight : 8 chips were 74g-75g, or just over 9g/chip. On the same scale, 8 Yak chips are 84g, Paulson's are 82g, Crazy Horse and Desert Palm china clays are 77g, Pharaoh china clay are 75g, and ASM Key West chips are 69g.
Overall, they are decent chips. I don't know if I would pay a premium for them over other options. Just my opinion, though.


Mine:
1. The polyclay chips are not perfect, but they are pretty darn nice chips, especially at the price point.

2. Totally uniform across all denominations, as far as I could tell. Stacks of twenty to fifty chips exhibited no visual height difference, and all denominations fit in same-mfg racks the same way.

3. The material is very difficult to break (took two sets of pliers to snap one). It appears to be a modified version of Sun-Fly's ceramic material. Imo, it's harder and less prone to chipping, has a lot more grip, with a more-muted and less-clinky sound than one would expect with a 'ceramic' based chip. They don't sound like Paulsons, but they sure don't sound like Chipcos, either. Somewhere in-between.

4. The chips are printed, and some minor surface wear and color transfer was apparent after ~severely~ rubbing two chips together (one white, one red -- figuring this was probably worst case scenario). Casually shuffling a mixed-denomination stack of eight chips for quite a bit produced no obvious wear or transfer on any of the chips.

5. There is some minor color shading differences of the rolling edges in some denominations. I think this would be less noticeable with the non-solid chip versions on this mold.

6. The rolling edge has the customary glossy-finish of most Sun-Fly ceramics, with the injection-nipple clearly evident (again, probably less noticeable if they weren't solid colors).

7. Some of the best stacking chips I've ever seen. Way above other ceramics, and even put used casino Paulson and new MD-50 chips to shame. Much closer in performance to new mint RHC chips than anything else I tested. Grip is simply incredible, given the material.

Ran two types of tests: skid test (increase angle until entire barrel starts to move due to loss of chip-to-felt friction), and a topple test (increase angle until barrel topples due to loss of chip-to-chip friction). The base chip of each stack was restrained in the topple test to prevent skidding prior to loss of chip-to-chip friction.

Below are rankings and maximum angle of the eight chip types tested (worst to best):

skid test:
~ 3rd, 11.7 degrees - new ASM MD-50 mold
~ 2nd, 14.4 degrees - new Paulson RHC mold
~ 1st, 15.3 degrees - new Sun-Fly polyclay mold

topple test:
~ 8th, 9.9 degrees - ceramic blanks (unknown mfg, suspected Sun-Fly)
~ 7th, 10.4 degrees - new Chipco ceramic
~ 6th, 10.8 degrees - new Sun-Fly ceramic
~ 5th, 11.7 degrees - used Paulson RHC mold
~ 4th, 12.6 degrees - new ASM MD-50 mold
~ 3rd, 18.0 degrees - new Sun-Fly polyclay mold
~ 2nd, 20.7 degrees - new Paulson RHC mold
~ 1st, 25.2 degrees - new Paulson THC mold

Dealing directly with Sun-Fly was trouble-free, with decent communication (confirmation and progress updates) and reasonably quick manufacturing and shipping (more than I can say about myself on either count).

I really like the chips -- and the printing -- but I will probably opt for a custom set with aligned spots if/when I order -- most issues I have with the chips would likely be resolved if not ordering solid colors.
 
I liked the polyclay but it would have to be an outstanding design for me to pay $0.75+ for a set. I actually like the stock designs but to me it's a quality comparable to China clays. I like them, I'd be happy to own a set, I'd use them, but I don't want to pay the price tag.
 
I liked the polyclay but it would have to be an outstanding design for me to pay $0.75+ for a set. I actually like the stock designs but to me it's a quality comparable to China clays. I like them, I'd be happy to own a set, I'd use them, but I don't want to pay the price tag.

the polyclays are okay. iirc i was not impressed. i would MUCH prefer to have a custom mold/colors/spots china clay set and would gladly pay .75+/each for that.
 

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