A long time ago a player told me to stroke through the mouth of the coke bottle laid on the table, to touch the bottom without touching the mouth or sides. An interesting Challenge that can help develop a straight follow through.

Matt51001 said:

I plan on just keeping them I like how they look. Thanks for the info, I just looked at the Kao cues and I am 100% positive it is not one of those. There was not 1 single thing about their designs that was similar. Every feature was different. Joints, points, buts, but caps, bumpers, and overall styling, all different. I am about 80% certain the first cue is an Adam. The 2nd cue though, I have my doubts.

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These guys know what they are talking about. They have seen a billion cues over the years, and been here for ages.

I can tell you, with certainty, that neither of those cues are Adam cues. Most Adam cues would have higher precision, with their inlay work, I believe.

On the 2nd cue for example, the points are very uneven. On the 1st cue, the inlays do not look very good. Not very straight. Not very well done.

I believe that Adam, for the most part, always made a much higher quality cue, then what I see in these pics.

Plus, the rubber bumpers are wrong (I believe) for Adam cues. At least, the ones from Japan.

There is also the chance that I am just making myself look like a fool, yet again, lol.

The more I think about it, I do know that some of the Chinese made Adam cues, like the late 90's Helmstetter cues, for example, had lop sided inlays, and uneven points, and some of the Adam cues from the 70's, that I have seen, had lop sided (not perfectly straight) inlays.

So, I understand that Adam cues did not always look that good, with their inlay work, and Point work, but the ones from Japan, that I know of, have always looked very high quality. Like the 86, and 87 Series Helmstetter cues, for example. Very nice work, they did on them.

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.