Building a lathe for cue work from scratch is silly....... you will just end up spending loads of time and more money than an already purposed lathe for that work.
Get a small one that fits your needs........ call Todd at Midamerica or Chris at Cueman and tell them what you want to do and listen to them.....................
What ever you do....................... DO NOT GET THE SEWING MACHINE MOTOR..................get a DC variable speed that fits your needs..........
Kim
actually i totally would agree with you in general but not this time
he only wants to do tips....thats it
we know he more than likely knows nothing about machining.
so he will get a lathe spend a 750 or a grand and put the shaft in and use the cutter or dremel and
hummmm why the hell is the tip even on this side after turning down but its hanging over on the other side? but the shafts centered?
dammit every time i try to get the tip to be flush i have to end up sanding the ferrule because i knicked it with the tool or i have to sand in the tip side but its not perfect
the edges are close to even but one is off a little and the tip of the tip seems to be an odd egg type shape that leans a little in its dome.....barely
so homie gets advice to use a razor blade because thats better
when he just had no idea about tool push off....how to sharpen or keep bits sharp, about steadying centers or warps or lack there of a steady causing shaft end flutters.
all because he knows nothing of machining but has a grand to blow
bro....buy an arbor that fits the shaft and a drill that will chuck inot the back of it. get a footpedal to plug the drill into and then the wall.
mount the drill to a board
and after trimming the tip some with a razor blade off the rig
put it in the drill press the pedal and wear a leather glove on your back hand to steady the shaft and use a razor blade in the other hand and cut the tip sides flush.
he probably got a drill lying around and just needs a razor and an arbor and one oj simpson glove from goodwill.
seen it happen dozens of times every egg head with no knowledge and money to spend on a lathe basically does exactly this.
buy a machining for dummies book first for a few bucks before you spend hundreds on a tool you know squat about from people you dont know from slim. or buy hightowers book on cue building......crash course on cue building just to do tips is overkill but why the hell not lol. at least specific to task and wont get lost in the machine jargon and other industry info.
Disclaimer* Todd and Chris hightower are both awesome guys with good products. They have good customer service and are always helpful. I dont know anyone who would talk bad about either of them.
as yall was.....
