|
|
|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Casino Chip CleaningSubtitle of announcementSeptember 18, 2006 -- So, what to do, and how to do it, is, or should be a serious issue for every collector, right? Truth is, most of us are so scared to try, that we just give our dirty chips sorrowful looks and put them back in the boxes where they hide in peace. Sadly, we spent good money and invested heart and hope in finding chips worthy of display, but often dirt due to normal wear and use has dulled their once lovely glow. OK, first of all, credit where credit is due ... Charles Kalpan has written an excellent article on Casino Chip Cleaning, that you might well read to great profit ... http://www.ccgtcc.com/cleaning.html Many contributed to that article/page ... and it is EXCELLENT If you have not joined the ccgtcc (what a mouthful that is!) you might want to do so: http://www.ccgtcc.com/membership.html Great information, great convention annually (so I am told, we have never had time to go) ... OK, back to topic ... We are not going to duplicate Charles information here, but rather try to augment it with our experiences ... Cleaning chips is, at best, an experimental science, really an art ... and so if you are going to proceed yourself, do so with great caution ... it is usually better to end up with a nice chip that is still a little dirty than one that has dissolved, warped, broken in half, or had all the ink disappear ... remember, it can get TOO clean, and not have any identifying marks left at all! We put a chip in an ultrasonic cleaner one day to "gently" clean it (hey it works for diamonds, right?) ... and left it for 15 minutes ... came back to find the cleaning solution had gotten "milky" and after fishing around in it for the chip, found the chip was MISSING ... oops, the ultrasound had vibrated the chip into little tiny particles that were now suspended in our cleaning solution ... ouch ... well it was only a $5 chip and not rare, so we laughed a little and decided to see if the solution still worked for jewelry ... wow, not only did it work, but the presence of a nice fine clay abrasive (the chip) did wonders to speed up cleaning! Moral of the story ... even the most sensible experiments, can often surprise you ... Oh ... by the way, the center disk label was really clean and nice and floated up for us to keep ... lol ... alas, without the chip ... it seems that flexible things survive ok in ultrasound, but rigid ones made up of particles (like clay) disassemble rather fully ... A friend in Reno swears by his ultrasound, but when we asked him if he did not have the same problem he said "lowest setting, and no more than 20 seconds, don't use ultrasound cleaning solutions of any kind, only baby oil." So there you have it ! Alas our ultrasound was made for cleaning rather robust things (gyroscopes) and has power settings like "make your teeth ache from 20 feet" and "destroy the state with ultrasound earthquake" ... so probably is not suitable for chips, though it does a great job on rings and carburetors! If anyone has specific successful experience with ultra-sound cleaning units ... please tell us exactly what you have and how you use it! For cleaning we use a "metrology flat" ... a ultraflat piece of granite that is normally used as a flat in calibration labs for tools that measure heights or the like ... you can often get these cheap at local aerospace surplus joins or surplus machine tool vendors ... even if they are not totally flat anymore, they are more than flat enough for cleaning work ... I think we paid $100 for ours, but we have seen ones that had a few blemishes for as little as $20. Lift with care, they often weigh far more than you expect, remember, they are solid stone. We would encourage the use of silicone oils rather then baby oil or baby gel to put back luster, but have noted that baby gel works nicely. Once the chips are nice and clean, one of the silicone mountain boot sealants (penetrant types) ... that polymerize once they penetrate, can make the chip look almost like new. Remember not to dip it, just gently brush on or work in with fingers. We get ours are North Face stores ... works great ...
For More Information Contact: |
|
Send mail to
webmaster@casinochipcollection.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
|