nataddrho said:

I purchased parts to make a homemade tip changing lathe. There are a couple other threads similar to this but their picture links are broken.

I already made a speed controller out of spare parts that I had, which generates 270 oz-in (1.4 ft-lbs) of torque from 100 to 1000 RPM... I think this is enough for tip shaping work...

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I am planning on directly coupling the motor to a chuck. I'll use cloth or electrical tape on the joint end of the shaft. The tip end of the shaft will fit though a pillow bearing with collets. My amazon order is under $101 including shipping.


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The bearings have set screws in them which I hope will allow me to adjust them using a dial caliper (which I don't own yet). I just plan on using a block of wood with a razor blade screwed into the top as a tool, or maybe just a block of sand paper.

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Is there anything I am missing?

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Those bearings are dandy for farm equipment or off road vehicles, but for fine or semi-fine woodwork? Those set screws are intended to hold your shaft key in place or bore a bit into the side of the shaft. If you screw them into the plastic collet, you may end up with a ding in the collet, and little else. If put in softly to avoid drilling the plastic, they may back themselves out.

Are you using one pillow block bearing or two? If you are using two, they should be self centering, although using a cue shaft to self center them could be risky, as it may take some force to get them out of their seating. If they self center, and the collets give a snug fit, that may be the best you can do with this system, and it may well be enough.

Your stated torque is consistent with about 0.33 HP at 1000 rpm, which is about what some prepackaged cue lathes come with.

Suggest you buy some half inch dowel and cheap tips to practice on.

Ref missed a 3 foul rule by Wu against Vogel. Wu still won the rack.

rexus31 said:

What monsters are going to Yuma?

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One can hope for a few but it doesn’t really matter if 10 or all 64 show up. This is going to fun for me either way.

SSDiver2112 said:

I did this ^^^ and it helped me tremendously to find my stroke issues. The first time I spent hours making 10-20% until I found my issues.

Another thing that helped was to see if I was even addressing the ball correctly. Aim looks good, get in position and the tip is hitting center, then... miss! Why? because the cue wasn't falling on the aim line. It looks good but isn't.

Here is the check I used. Ball on the spot. Aim to hit the diamond. Get down on the ball, then just look down at the cue. Is it directly over the diamond? I was slightly off which meant it looked like I was right, but the stroke was slightly angled. Then do the shoot back to the tip as Garczar said. Then move to the long back rail.

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With follow thru to make both balls I'd say the stroke is pretty good and accurate. I line up the shot, take 4-5 waggles (strokes) then close my eyes and take 3-4 more waggles before hitting the CB. I can feel the cue/arm being relaxed and smooth.

nataddrho said:

My budget is $100

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Check with Chris hightower for some ideas. Even if you don't end up buying anything from him just looking at his website is food for thought.

Good job from Seo Seoa, that's a big win after she let her last opportunity against Jasmin slip away.

kingwang said:

Happens all the time in NYC! It's one of the nice things about living in a major metro area. They'll just randomly drop by and play our local tournaments, both handicapped and unhandicapped.

Francisco Bustamante just dropped by a couple weeks ago and took down one of the open ones. Here's me "beating" (aka shitting in the 9 ball a few times ) Moritz Neuhausen a couple years ago in a $80 handicapped tournament: Login to view embedded media
Just in the past two years, I've played 4 players that were rated 790+ just in these tournaments, and I don't even go to that many of them.

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Lol, was it very cold in there, or did he just not think it was worth the time to remove his sweatshirt? That is so cool though. Neuhausen is a great player.

You are very good too, I see.

SSDiver2112 said:

Got a couple more rods of Tomahawk. Great stuff!!

Another Rino fixed with Tomahawk.

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A much improved Rhino.
Very nice work.

middleofnowhere said:

I want to tell you from experience I've got seven lathes sitting in a shop. Forget the Rube Goldberg setup. To start just go by yourself and inexpensive mini lathe. With a few simple mods it'll do what you want. If it turns out you like what you're doing and want to go with something even bigger and more capable. Surprisingly you won't get rid of the mini lathe cuz it'll still have uses. making ferrul and various things.

And that's all I'll say on the subject i know you're going to do what you want but I hope other people who have mini lathers and have had a lot of fun with them working on cues will chime in. Also you can get an inexpensive wood lathe long enough to put a cue between centers for rewrapping finishing polishing and a whole bunch of other things.

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My budget is $100