Milk Duds

Flex

Flex

Banger
Silver Member
Not the chocolate kind, with the caramel center, but Elkmaster tips that have been soaked in room temperature milk for 24 hours, and then pressed in a vise or a C-clamp.

I recently made one of those duds, and here's what happened and my assessment of the results.

First thing that happened was the tip grew in size, it was probably almost twice as tall as when I tossed it in the milk 24 hours earlier.

I used a C-clamp and squeezed the tip as tight as I could get it. What the heck, I'm going to screw this thing down as tight as possible. I let it stay in the clamp for 24 hours and when I unscrewed it found it to be mighty hard, and probably 1/2 as tall as the original Elkmaster tip.

Installed it a few days ago, and shaped it to a dime radius.

Have played with it probably 6 hours or so, including breaking with it.

Plays great, holds chalk very well. Feels like a soft tip, plays with plenty of english, etc. And has not mushroomed one bit. Sucker's doggone hard...

Well worth the trouble to prepare.

Anybody else tried milk-dudding a tip?

Flex
 
txspaderz said:
Where did you put the glass of milk while it soaked? Was the smell bad?
Click to expand...

I just left it in on the kitchen counter. 24 hours probably wasn't enough for a stench to really develop, although the milk had curded and was sickly looking... sure wouldn't want to taste or drink that stuff!

Rinsed it off in water, towel dried it, and clamped it down. Washed my hands after the ordeal.
 
I put another 5 hours of nine ball on my "hammered" Elk Master yesterday so now have a total of about 15-20 hours with it. Had a slight mushroom the first day I used it and I removed it, but no more since. Holding shape and chalk and playing good.

The hit is very similar to the Sniper on my other cue. Have not tried the milk procedure yet and probably won't until I need another tip change.
 
I've tried the milk dud thing before, just felt like the tip would feel after a few hours of playing and packing down a bit. Same result can be achieved by putting a conical taper on the tip during install and just let it seat naturally. The whole process seemed like a giant waste of time IMHO. My days of experimenting are over, now I just buy extra hard tips and they feel right from the moment I install them. No muss no fuss. :)
 
Try soaking the ElkM in Mineral Spirits. Then put it in a vise and hammer it tight. That will never mushroom...and you can fuzz it up so it plays nicely.
 
Flex said:
Plays great, holds chalk very well. Feels like a soft tip, plays with plenty of english, etc. And has not mushroomed one bit. Sucker's doggone hard...
Flex
Click to expand...
Thanks for the report Flex. Please let us know how it evolves over the first 20 hours or so.
Your description sounds about the same as how Corey described the Sniper.
 
Flex said:
I recently made one of those duds, and here's what happened and my assessment of the results.

First thing that happened was the tip grew in size, it was probably almost twice as tall as when I tossed it in the milk 24 hours earlier.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info... but I was just wondering, what kind of milk did you use?
 
did you?

I really hope you used milk from a cow that was not treated with steroids!
Or else your cue may start having its period when its 8 years old. :eek:

Mack
 
I've got a friend who has been using a "Milk Dud" for a few weeks now, and he swears by it. It plays every bit as hard as my Talisman Hard tip, and like the Talisman, it hasn't mushroomed.
 
DougT said:
Thanks for the report Flex. Please let us know how it evolves over the first 20 hours or so.
Your description sounds about the same as how Corey described the Sniper.
Click to expand...

Doug,

I've put more than 20 hours on the tip, and it hasn't changed a bit. Hasn't mushroomed, plays great, I've never been able to draw so easily and well with any other tip. It's effortless now, at least for most shots. Table length draws no longer intimidate me. What a find.


Flex
 
Sweet! I have a 'pressed' elkmaster, but not certain if it was 'soaked'. Seems medium to me. I have a Sniper that I'd describe as a soft tip, altho Corey measures it as a hard tip.
Sounds like a pressed Elkmaster is medium, and an Elkmaster milk dud is hard.
 
Flex said:
Doug,

I've put more than 20 hours on the tip, and it hasn't changed a bit. Hasn't mushroomed, plays great, I've never been able to draw so easily and well with any other tip. It's effortless now, at least for most shots. Table length draws no longer intimidate me. What a find.


Flex
Click to expand...

It's now been almost two months since I installed the tip. It continues to play great.

One thing I tried the other day was jumping balls with my full length cue with this tip on it.

The cue is a full-splice Excalibur sneaky pete cue, with an Ed Young shaft (Chicago) that was turned down by Ed for me several months ago. It's a 12mm shaft now, and has the above-mentioned milk dud on it. The cue weighs 19.2 ounces, and the shaft has a very stiff spine. With a little practice I was jumping over 3/4s of a ball at a distance of 18-20 from the cue ball. The other day I tried jumping over a full ball and surprised myself: give me 24 inches and I'm over the ball. Not exactly a jump cue, but for some shots it does the trick. If the tip weren't as hard as it is, it'd be much more difficult. And the tip holds chalk extremely well.

Flex
 
Why milk?

Just wondering why milk would be used to do something like this? Surely something non-organic like distilled water or some form of alchohol would be better long term?

Or is there some kind of magic organic interaction going on between the milk and the leather of the tip?
 
Well.. I tried this method and the tip did swell up... but so did my shaft. I've got a 16 millimeter shaft with an inch tall tip leaking milk... I used goat's milk...
 
txspaderz said:
Where did you put the glass of milk while it soaked? Was the smell bad?
Click to expand...

Actually it is not supposed to be an entire glass of milk. Just an ounce or two, enough for the tip to soak it up.....:D
 
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