Sweet! What time should we come over?

Patrick Johnson said:

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is that Jeremy Jones?

I built my first cues on a wood lathe without a center steady. Drilling and boring was done with the cue being fed using the tailstock and a centering jig, which in some regards is a great way to do it--the rotation, vibration and flex of the cue are eliminated. Points were cut using a hand fed router sled.

They weren't perfect, but for a 19 year old kid who had never even met another cuemaker, I was happy. I still pull out the first cue with points I ever made... Plays fine nigh thirty years on.

I'm just curious, is everyone talking Butts or shafts? Sounds like both.

Badpenguin said:

It is exactly because of the gambling issue. Pool is highly tainted by the reputation around dirty gambling, probably more than any other sport, and it can destroy any chance the sport has to grow. These guys probably didn't learn to wax balls playing for fun.

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Exactly what do you mean by “dirty gambling”? Are you referring to cheating? Because gambling by itself isn’t inherently dirty. It is the cheating or manipulating outcomes that’s the issue. I’ve never actually heard the term “dirty gambling” used. Gambling hasn’t ruined any sport unless the participants themselves were involved in betting on the games or manipulating outcomes. Like in boxing, baseball, or even football scandals.
If you’re talking about people using silicone or other substances to gain an edge, that’s cheating and cheating is a separate issue from gambling altogether. Let’s not confuse playing for money with corrupting the game. Pool’s reputation doesn’t suffer because people bet on it. It suffers when unethical players cross the line, and others blur that line by lumping gambling and cheating together.