Shaft Ding Mystery

Cornerman

Cornerman

Cue Author...Sometimes
Silver Member
I don't remember this one ever mentioned, so here it goes. I've had problems with every shaft I've ever owned. I always get a ding, and of course it's always in the stroke area.

Now, it's not a normal ding. It's always two dings. Actually, two small straight lines, parallel to each other going across the width of the cue as opposed to down it's length.

I used to think that maybe something in my case was doing it, but it happens with every stick, every case. So, I figure it's external.

People have said that it's my ring, yet I was getting these dents long before I was married.

Someone said it's how I bridge on bar tables, since there is usually a hefty piece of metal off the corners. Yet, I've gotten those dings before I could play in bars. And why is there always the parallel double-ding?

Someone said it's how I lean my stick up against a chair. I am guilty of this sometimes, when I'm not using my cue holder, but again, why then is it always the parallel double-ding?

Does anyone else get these, and where do they come from?

Fred
 
Do the two dings go completely around the shaft?

Maybe it's to do with your case - as that's the only real consistent foreign object your shaft comes in contact with.
 
It's from leaning your cue against tables. I have one also, but luckily it's not in my stroking area of the shaft.
 
My worst offender

It's the mechanical bridge. Seems like any one that I try ends up giving me a ding to remember it by. I don't see how that would produce two parallel dings though.

Jim Eales
 
I'm always careful when I use a bridge, especially in a strange room or bar. If the bridge were to have a sharp edge on it (casting lines, etc.) and you were to rotate your cue while resting on it, as I seem to do when picking up the back of my cue and turning my wrist to shoot "overhand" style, you may be causing a ding or dent in your cue. As far as the parallel lines, maybe there's 2 sharp/rough edges on a bridge you regularly use that is giving you the parallel dings.
 
ScottW said:
Do the two dings go completely around the shaft?
Click to expand...

Nope, just on one side. I'm definitely hitting it, but the double ding is the mystery. I'd try to take a picture, but I doubt anyone could see it.
Maybe it's to do with your case - as that's the only real consistent foreign object your shaft comes in contact with.

That would mean that every case I own and have owned has the same whatever in it. I've gotten the double ding on my Mali in my Joe Porper in 1987, and now have one on my Gilbert in my Whitten.


Fred <~~~ sux
 
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Rings

Cornerman said:
Nope, just on one side. I'm definitely hitting it, but the double ding is the mystery. I'd try to take a picture, but I doubt anyone could see it.
Maybe it's to do with your case - as that's the only real consistent foreign object your shaft comes in contact with.
Click to expand...

That would mean that every case I own and have owned has the same whatever in it. I've gotten the double ding on my Mali in my Joe Porper in 1987, and now have one on my Gilbert in my Whitten.


Fred <~~~ sux[/QUOTE]


I just sent you a PM and then read your response to this post.

Also, it is not a wedding ring is it?
 
gforces1911 said:
Also, it is not a wedding ring is it?
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What's the question?

Someone had suggested to me that it could have been my wedding ring, but I used get these dents several years before I got married (and I didn't wear rings). If I was hitting my wedding ring, I would assume that I'd know it, and that the dings would look different.

Fred
 
I get lots of dings from the cue holder on the table at the pool hall. It's hard plastic so if you don't put it down gently it dings your cue.
 
After playing in bars for about 10 years straight.... I can tell you its probably the bar box. Sometimes its the corner pieces, and sometimes its the feather strips the hold the rail cloth down.... sometimes they get hammered in too deep when the table gets recovered. So any rail bridge you use is going right off a sharpish corner of the rail wood, instead of the rubber/cloth. Check the tables you play on.... Im betting the feather strip is too deep and you can feel the sharp ledge of the rail wood.
Chuck
 
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True

Cornerman said:
What's the question?

Someone had suggested to me that it could have been my wedding ring, but I used get these dents several years before I got married (and I didn't wear rings). If I was hitting my wedding ring, I would assume that I'd know it, and that the dings would look different.

Fred
Click to expand...


Just trying to eliminate through process of elimination. I did the same things when I figured out where mine were coming from. I don't rake balls with my cue either. I did that some when I first started playing. I won't rake any balls with my cue.
 
Fred, do you do your own tip work? I've seen this happen with some of the collets I have used in different lathes, and tip tools. Even though they have the protective liners, sometimes putting the shaft in or out of the piece of equipment will put a small double ding on the shaft within about 6" or so down from the tip.

Gerry
 
That's really odd that the parallel lines are just on *one* side of the shaft, and not all the way around.

If it were due to leaning your cue against a table or somesuch, it's not like you lay the cue against the table in the SAME spot every time. And it's not like you have the shaft in the exact same position when you stroke, is it?

How long is it before those dings show up after you get a new shaft, any idea?
 
Cornerman said:
...
Does anyone else get these, and where do they come from?

Fred
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They come from gnomes. Mike Webb is always giving me grief about the dings in my shaft, but I explain to him it isn't me its the gnomes.
 
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Perhaps when you put your cue on the bridge, it bounces the first time while sliding forward slightly. Then it hits the bridge again leaving the second ding. Just a WAG.
 
RiverCity said:
After playing in bars for about 10 years straight.... I can tell you its probably the bar box. Sometimes its the corner pieces, and sometimes its the feather strips the hold the rail cloth down.... sometimes they get hammered in too deep when the table gets recovered. So any rail bridge you use is going right off a sharpish corner or the rail wood, instead of the rubber/cloth. Check the tables you play on.... Im betting the feather strip is too deep and you can feel the sharp ledge of the rail wood.
Chuck
Click to expand...
^^^^^^^^^^^
DING DING DING!!! I'd bet my cue shop it's from the sharp edge of the rail where the cloth and rail meet....I've had it happen to me aswell and that's all I could come up with...
________
 
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RiverCity said:
After playing in bars for about 10 years straight.... I can tell you its probably the bar box. Sometimes its the corner pieces, and sometimes its the feather strips the hold the rail cloth down.... sometimes they get hammered in too deep when the table gets recovered. So any rail bridge you use is going right off a sharpish corner or the rail wood, instead of the rubber/cloth. Check the tables you play on.... Im betting the feather strip is too deep and you can feel the sharp ledge of the rail wood.
Chuck
Click to expand...

This would be my bet as well. I got a similar ding on one of my shafts on a bar table corner.
 
RiverCity said:
After playing in bars for about 10 years straight.... I can tell you its probably the bar box. Sometimes its the corner pieces, and sometimes its the feather strips the hold the rail cloth down.... sometimes they get hammered in too deep when the table gets recovered. So any rail bridge you use is going right off a sharpish corner or the rail wood, instead of the rubber/cloth. Check the tables you play on.... Im betting the feather strip is too deep and you can feel the sharp ledge of the rail wood.
Chuck
Click to expand...

That rail is higher on spots. I think this is the culprit, but I never catch myself. Do you think that when I put my stick down, I might "bounce" it, or do you think there are two edges there?

Fred
 
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