Circumcised Counters

Started by GJK, June 30, 2012, 12:09:28 PM

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GJK

For you counter clippers out there; or maybe even for you previously non-counter clipping naturalists - a nice tool that will put beautfully rounded corners on your counters:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.boardgamegeek.com%2Fthread%2F822240%2Foregon-laminations-2mm-clippers&h=nAQGAyJgK

I ordered the 2mm version last night and can't wait to give them a test run!
Clip your freaking corners!
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"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

bob48

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

TheCommandTent

"No wants, no needs, we weren't meant for that, none of us.  Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is."

GroggyGrognard

Looks awesome for a perfectionist counter clipper. Personally, I can't justify dropping 35 dollars for one of these tools--just for the sake of clipping counters. I'll stick with my pair of Walgreens nail clippers!
"Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government."
-Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

"The owners of this country know the truth: it's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."
-George Carlin

GJK

"Tidying" up my games has become an obession for me.  I spent the weekend working on my Up Front/Banzai set and some ASL counters:

I applied errata to the Up Front cards using a labeller.  I then rounded the corners using a fiskar.  Next I heat laminated all of the personality cards and then trimmed off the excess plastic on each card.  I now have a very sturdy and nicely rounded set of cards for Up Front (which ain't a cheap game these days!).  I'm thinking about ordering a set of the newly redone action deck/personality cards/counters from Artscow.  I'd be repeating this whole process and with a bunch more cards so not sure I'll go there yet (but boy, the artwork sure looks great - see: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/796102/up-front-redesign-jerry-rigged-edition

On both Up Front and several countersheets of ASL and ASL SK, I've applied to coats of Krylon clear coat (matte).  This will help reduce finger oils and dirt from getting on the counters.  I'll start clipping all of these once my fancy new corner rounding tool arrives.  My fiancee is sooooo excited!  Not.

I also laminated all the of the CRT's and charts for 1776.  My son is wanting to play it when he gets back home from his summer vacay so I have that game all ready to go (laminated the cards and sticky back laminated the mounted maps too).

I spend WAY more time making my games look good (while preserving them) than I do actually playing but I really enjoy it.  I guess it all goes along with the hobby.
Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

Rekim

Quote from: GJK on July 01, 2012, 10:44:29 PM
"Tidying" up my games has become an obession for me.  I spent the weekend working on my Up Front/Banzai set and some ASL counters:

I applied errata to the Up Front cards using a labeller.  I then rounded the corners using a fiskar.  Next I heat laminated all of the personality cards and then trimmed off the excess plastic on each card.  I now have a very sturdy and nicely rounded set of cards for Up Front (which ain't a cheap game these days!).  I'm thinking about ordering a set of the newly redone action deck/personality cards/counters from Artscow.  I'd be repeating this whole process and with a bunch more cards so not sure I'll go there yet (but boy, the artwork sure looks great - see: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/796102/up-front-redesign-jerry-rigged-edition

I highly recommend the homebrew action cards from Artscow (for UpFront). I ordered a set because of the difficulties I had with sourcing sleeves for the original action card deck (not a prob for Artscow edition). I've been playing regular games them for two years now and have no desire to ever use the originals again.

Like you, I clipped my Up Front counters, but (luckily) was able to resist the urge with my ASL collection (way too much clipping). Personally, I find that 1/2'' counters do not look as sharp when clipped compaired to 5/8'' counters.

Wish I had the gear to laminate my personality cards and other gaming materials (great for those many CRTs). I also like to clear-coat my counters for games that use chit pulling.

GroggyGrognard

#6
Quote from: GJK on July 01, 2012, 10:44:29 PM
"Tidying" up my games has become an obession for me.  I spent the weekend working on my Up Front/Banzai set and some ASL counters:

I applied errata to the Up Front cards using a labeller.  I then rounded the corners using a fiskar.  Next I heat laminated all of the personality cards and then trimmed off the excess plastic on each card.  I now have a very sturdy and nicely rounded set of cards for Up Front (which ain't a cheap game these days!).  I'm thinking about ordering a set of the newly redone action deck/personality cards/counters from Artscow.  I'd be repeating this whole process and with a bunch more cards so not sure I'll go there yet (but boy, the artwork sure looks great - see: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/796102/up-front-redesign-jerry-rigged-edition

On both Up Front and several countersheets of ASL and ASL SK, I've applied to coats of Krylon clear coat (matte).  This will help reduce finger oils and dirt from getting on the counters.  I'll start clipping all of these once my fancy new corner rounding tool arrives.  My fiancee is sooooo excited!  Not.

I also laminated all the of the CRT's and charts for 1776.  My son is wanting to play it when he gets back home from his summer vacay so I have that game all ready to go (laminated the cards and sticky back laminated the mounted maps too).

I spend WAY more time making my games look good (while preserving them) than I do actually playing but I really enjoy it.  I guess it all goes along with the hobby.

Wow. You really go the whole 9 yards.  The Up Front redesign photos look fantastic! I have a perfect copy of Up Front w/ the Banzai expansion and Desert War expansion. I should look into Artscow because I have put all of the action cards and personality cards in individual card protectors. The action cards fit perfectly in the card protectors, but there is excess card room around the personality cards. I can't bear to clip the counters for my Up Front game, just because I want to keep it in its original condition.

I, too, also like to preserve any CRT and player aid charts that come with any wargame I've bought. Most of the time I've found that individual page protectors work well--unless of course the charts are too big for the page protectors. In that case, I will take them down to Kinko's and have them laminate the charts. Same goes for wargame maps. Oh, how I love laminated wargame maps!

Also...great idea with preserving counters by using Krylon clear coat. In my 25ish years of wargaming, I don't think I've ever done that to preserve my counters.

Thanks for the info and your ideas, GJK. (^and Rekim's input also.)

Groggy
"Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government."
-Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

"The owners of this country know the truth: it's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."
-George Carlin

GJK

A few years ago I bought a heat laminator at Walmart that was fairly cheap in price.  This is the exact same model:

http://www.amazon.com/Duck-9-Electric-Laminator/dp/tech-data/B004MWLO9I

It has done more laminating than I ever thought that it would do and it continues to work wonderfully.  I laminate charts, CRT's, scenario cards, playing cards - anything that is just flimsy cardboard or paper.  I used it to laminate the Personality Cards for Up Front as I mentioned and they came out wonderfully!  I buy the A9 sized lamination pouches and put as many cards as I can inside, leaving a half inch or so inbetween each.  I then carefully feed the pouch through the laminator.  The material inside the pouches keeps the cards in place no problem.  I thenk cut each one out without a border (and surprisingly, the lamination doesn't peel).  The cards come out feeling like a plastic credit card (not quite that thick, but close!). 

I'm excited to try out this new counter clipper - it should arrive in the mail tomorrow or Friday at the latest.  That means a weekend of clipping coming up!

The Artscow redesign looks great and I'll spring for it some day.  My set(s) of Up Front look and play wonderfully and I'm very satisified with the way that they came out.

I also recently picked up this tackle box from Plano for my ASL set (to travel with for playing).  It has the thin cased Plano boxes (4 of them) plus a couple of medium sized and two more smaller Plano's:

http://tinyurl.com/89hj55v

That is my next project.  I've already begun spraying clear kote on the thousand of countersheets that I have.  Next will be sorting and then corner clipping.  I've laminated 30 or so scenario cards but that can get expensive with all the scenarios that I have.  I'm also thinking of binding my ASL Rulebook - the two gigantic binders with page protectors is just too much to carry around.  Of course, I do have my own eASLRB that I put together years ago (needs errata however).  That works pretty well on my tablet. 

If only I was retired and had a HUGE game room to play with all of this stuff every day!
Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

GroggyGrognard

#8
Quote from: GJK on July 04, 2012, 06:45:33 PM

I also recently picked up this tackle box from Plano for my ASL set (to travel with for playing).  It has the thin cased Plano boxes (4 of them) plus a couple of medium sized and two more smaller Plano's:

Nice model. An ASL gamer buddy of mine also uses Plano stowaway boxes for his ASL counters.

Quote from: GJK on July 04, 2012, 06:45:33 PM
That is my next project.  I've already begun spraying clear kote on the thousand of countersheets that I have.  Next will be sorting and then corner clipping.  I've laminated 30 or so scenario cards but that can get expensive with all the scenarios that I have.  I'm also thinking of binding my ASL Rulebook - the two gigantic binders with page protectors is just too much to carry around.  Of course, I do have my own eASLRB that I put together years ago (needs errata however).  That works pretty well on my tablet. 

Good luck!
Quote from: GJK on July 04, 2012, 06:45:33 PM
If only I was retired and had a HUGE game room to play with all of this stuff every day!
Amen...I hear ya...
"Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government."
-Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

"The owners of this country know the truth: it's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."
-George Carlin

bayonetbrant

how did Barth never yell at anyone in this thread?
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mirth

I love my Oregon Laminations Counter Circumciser!
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JasonPratt

Quote from: bayonetbrant on December 19, 2017, 06:45:06 PM
how did Barth never yell at anyone in this thread?

This thread has something to do with Chanukkah, right? Maybe he was just being polite to fellow travelers carrying light this winter season.  O:-)
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DennisS

Circumsized counters will be smaller than the other counters, and less able to spawn additional counters. That's the risk you run.

JasonPratt

But they'll also be cleaner and safer for the hexes they go into, and arguably better fun for the game by being a better fit.

...what does this have to do with Chanukkah...?
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Crossroads

Here in the Nordics we only clip counters :timeout: But we do that with vengeance  :smitten:

O:-)
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