The Great Faux Clay Adventure (2 Viewers)

Daddy N · Apr 25, 2019

Some background (Skip if you don’t care):
I joined this forum back in October as I was planning to start up a poker game and immediately caught the chip bug. All of a sudden the dice chips I was playing with were inadequate. Had to upgrade and purchased a set of used ceramics off the classifieds. Hosted my first tournament in the beginning of November with 5 other guys. Won the tournament and decided to have a .25/.25 cash game a couple weeks later. Well, I couldn’t use the same chips for cash and tournament so back to the classifieds I went for a cash set. 8 people at this game maxed out my table. Fast forward to today and I am hosting twice a month, both tourney and cash and average 10 players each game. I anticipate it growing but will probably need to cap it at 18 for the space. I just finished building a second table with custom gaming cloth from T Chan. My group is mostly blue collar guys with crude mouths who are looking to get out of the house a couple times a month. There are a few teachers, an actuary and a couple white collar folks mixed in as well. $20 tournaments $40-$60 bankrolls for the cash games won't make anyone rich or blow their mortgage. The most anyone lost in a night was $70. This makes for a lot of drunken fun but hard to justify 2 sets of paulsons (which I would love) so I thought I would jump on the old faux clay nation band wagon! Back to the classifieds I went and picked up 1,900 chips.

Here is where I need advice:
What are your recommended chip values? I will be attempting different ways to label the chips later in this forum. For right now just need to break this into a cash and tourney set to accommodate up to 18 tournament players and $1,000ish bank for a .25/.25 cash set.

My initial thoughts

Cash Set:
200-Blue- .25
260-White- $1
150-Grey-$5? $10?

Tournament:
T-2,000 (Though I would prefer T10k with base T25)
513-Red-T5
389-Green- T25
190-Black- T100
100-Purple- T500
100-Yellow- T1,000

Here is what I have to work with.
Breakdown:
White 260
Red 513
Green 389
Black 190
Purple 100
Yellow 100
Blue 200
Gray 150

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Sunshine · Apr 25, 2019

I was THIS close to buying these. You've got plenty of chips to do whatever you want. You express a preference for standard T25 base, but then say you're going to do something different. Why? Cash: blue .25, white 1, red 5. Plenty of bank. Start with 8/13/x at 20 players. Tournament: green 25, black 100, purple 500, grey 1k, yellow 5k. Can support starting stacks of 8/8/4/7 for 20 players, right? Can do the yellow for 1k, but then if you actually have 20, you'll need to include a 5k in the starting stack.

BGinGA · Apr 25, 2019

Given your color quantities, I'd go with the following breakdowns:

600-chip Cash set (~ $1050 bank)
190 x black 25c
260 x white $1
150 x red $5 (or more, for bigger bank)

775-chip* Tourney set for 18 players (T10K+ stacks, 16/11/5/6/x)
288 x green T25
198 x blue T100
90 x purple T500
136 x gray T1000 (includes color-ups for T25/T100)
63 x yellow T5000 (includes color-ups for T500, plus re-buys or T20K stacks)
*minimum quantities needed to run a decent two-table tournament with T10K or T20K starting stacks (I would max out the gray T1000s and yellow T5000s)

I think it's the best use of existing quantities and still keeping pretty much aligned with standard color (or reasonable alternates).

Daddy N · Apr 26, 2019

Thanks! It sounds like gray T-1000 and Yellow T5000s are the way to go. I also like moving the reds to the cash game. I don't love subbing out the blues and blacks so the adventure continues...

I read a lot on CT about dying whites to make other colors. Given my breakdown I would like to take 100 or so reds and make them black. It seems like whites were the preferred chip to dye because you can only ever dye chips darker. But, if black is the desired result could I use some of the extra reds? Anyone have experience with dying these? Know someone who has done it? Any tips to pass on?

Irish · Apr 26, 2019

I would go mostly with the color selections that @BGinGA posted, but would swap the quarters and T100, so:

T25 Green 389
T100 Black 190
T500 Purple 100
T1000 Gray 150
T5000 Yellow 100

and

25¢ Blue 200
$1 White 260
$5 Red 513

You're covered for T10k starting stacks of 16/11/5/6 for up to 17 players. If you have 18, give the last player a stack of 28/3/6/6 or 20/0/7/6 and Bob's your Uncle, done - that player will just have to make a little change the first few hands. Or you could also do 20/10/5/6. If having the odd last stack tilts you, put an add in the classifieds for a few more, there are thousands of these out there, someone can probably hook you up. I dyed a bunch of faux clays back in the day, it's a lot of fun. I don't know if the reds will work but given how many you have it won't hurt to test a few. The whites dye up perfectly. FC's are great chips considering how ridiculously cheap they were. Just a heads up on the labels, you'll need very thin labels and even then you may get some spinners, there's not much of an indentation in the center of the chip. Viva la faux!

Daddy N · Apr 26, 2019

12 people going to start showing up in 10 minutes and look what just arrived

Cidertown · Apr 26, 2019

LFRB looks almost as good as when I shipped it. Phew! I worry about dropsies with those boat anchors.

Daddy N · Apr 26, 2019

Progressive bounty tournament. Had to break out the 1s

Daddy N · Apr 27, 2019

I have color values, now onto the theme...

Tournament:
Green T25- Hulk
Black T100- Spider man (with a red label)
Purple T500- Dr. Strange
Gray T1000- Thor
Yellow T5000- Thanos (Not a hero)

Cash Game:
Blue .25- Captain Marvel (Haven't seen the movie yet)
White $1- Captain America
Red $5- Iron Man

Am I missing anyone who should be there? Do you think they are in the right color? Do I want to mix in some DC like batman or the Joker? I am going to see Endgame tomorrow so I'll probably want to change all these after the movie anyway.

espehrson · Apr 27, 2019

like the colors. i would not mix mavel and dc. Couple of suggestions

Black 100 – Black Panther
Grey 1000 – Valkyrie or Groot/Rocket
Yellow 5000 – Thor

Blue .25 – Ant Man
Red 5 – Spider Man

Captain Marvel – meh movie (imho), better comic book hero

Daddy N · Apr 28, 2019

Time to decide if I can Mill and label or if I need to do the laser etching. These don't have much if any space for a label so off to the workshop!
I don't have a drill press or a router mount but I do have a router and some creativity.

I cut a few large circles as guides and tried it out on some old dice chips to find the right size. This one was a little to big. I was surprised to see a gear pattern when you take off the top layer.

After a few adjustments I moved on to a couple faux clay chips.

I only took off a little more than the texture on top to see if it will work and I am happy with the results. Once I know how thick my labels will be I can adjust the depth. This is where I need some more help.
I know gear makes great labels but if you haven't noticed I am doing this on the cheap and for 1,800 plastic chips I'm going to explore other options first. Has anyone printed and laminated their own labels? Here is what I have read about it.

Use full size shipping label paper
Laminate with clear film
Punch out 1" circles (I could really use 1.2")
Enjoy labeling 1800 chips

Also, still open to feedback on the theme. I switched captain Marvel with Ant-Man.

Beakertwang · Apr 28, 2019

Daddy N said:
Time to decide if I can Mill and label or if I need to do the laser etching. These don't have much if any space for a label so off to the workshop!
I don't have a drill press or a router mount but I do have a router and some creativity. View attachment 281635 View attachment 281636
I cut a few large circles as guides and tried it out on some old dice chips to find the right size. This one was a little to big. I was surprised to see a gear pattern when you take off the top layer.View attachment 281637
After a few adjustments I moved on to a couple faux clay chips. View attachment 281638
I only took off a little more than the texture on top to see if it will work and I am happy with the results. Once I know how thick my labels will be I can adjust the depth. This is where I need some more help.
I know gear makes great labels but if you haven't noticed I am doing this on the cheap and for 1,800 plastic chips I'm going to explore other options first. Has anyone printed and laminated their own labels? Here is what I have read about it.

Use full size shipping label paper
Laminate with clear film
Punch out 1" circles (I could really use 1.2")
Enjoy labeling 1800 chips

Also, still open to feedback on the theme. I switched captain America with Ant-Man.

@zo121179 has some input on inexpensive labels.

Daddy N · Apr 29, 2019

Made a little knob to move the chip around during the milling. Once I figure what labels I'm using I can set the depth and get to work.

Daddy N · May 1, 2019

On to the design! Printed off a bunch of ideas. Let's get to work!

All sorted out. Definitely some winners and some loosers.

Here are the finalists from round 1

Couple questions for the veteran chippers.
1) I was thinking of having 2 sides to each chip and having 2 versions of the back side. Would that drive you crazy or be fun to see who you get?
2) I'm playing with different milling depths. How do you determine how deep to go? I am printing onto shipping label paper and putting laminate on top. Do I want the label flush with the rim? Thank you!

allforcharity · May 2, 2019

1) It's like having a primary and secondary set in play at the same time, and no edge spot mistaken identities. I say GO FOR IT!
2) You want to go just as deep as necessary to have your laminated sticker sit without causing spinners. The top should be ever so slightly deeper than the rim.

Daddy N · May 3, 2019

Round 2 finalists. Only ones I plan on changing now are the $5 shield and the T100 spider. (These were printed on regular paper and not laminated for design purposes)

Daddy N · May 4, 2019

Started milling. 179 in and I've run into a issue with cleaning. The rack on the left is what they look like after milling. The rack on the right is what happened when I scrubbed them a little to hard with a green sponge. The barrel on the right was wiped with aerospace 303. This is what I use for detailing plastics and rubber on my boat, camper and cars.
Question. I know you don't usually oil plastic chips or do you? What would you use?

Highli99 · May 4, 2019

Prob just a tiny bit of mineral oil will do the trick.

allforcharity · May 4, 2019

No oil on plastic.

Daddy N · May 5, 2019

For all you DIY chippers. This milling process takes an average of 6 minutes a barrel. My best time was 4:45. I did forgo some basic safety and move the chips around with my hand instead of the knob. Had to put on a glove for better grip.

Irish · May 5, 2019

Very cool. What kind of a router bit are you using?

And FYI someone just posted some FC whites for sale: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/faux-clay-original-and-dyed.41686/

Zmasterben · May 5, 2019

Irish said:
Very cool. What kind of a router bit are you using?

And FYI someone just posted some FC whites for sale: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/faux-clay-original-and-dyed.41686/

This thread is what inspired me to post them for sale BTW. Let me know what you need OP

Daddy N · May 5, 2019

Irish said:
Very cool. What kind of a router bit are you using?

And FYI someone just posted some FC whites for sale: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/faux-clay-original-and-dyed.41686/

Thanks!! Balls deep into this project right now, might consider some browns as Thanos bounty chips or orange as showem chips. Here is the bit I'm using.