McDermott Joint Question

This joint is on my H series cue. The joint on the butt is a bit loose and there is a tiny gap where it meets the top of the butt. It appears to be tight when the shaft is screwed on but it turns slightly (maybe 1/10") when the shaft is screwed on and off. I'm assuming the joint is screwed on to an insert in the butt. My question is this.
Can I unscrew this to inspect it to see what the problem might be or should I just send it to McDermott or some other cue maker? Thanks!

H2951 joint1.jpeg
H2951 joint.jpeg

Is there a material used in cheaper cue balls that make them behave like a permanently waxed cue ball?

I needed a new cue ball for my table and purchased a set of two of them on Amazon. One is a measles cue ball and the other is one of those training cue balls that is similar to the old Jim Rempe training ball.

Both of these cue balls behave like they are permanently waxed, it’s very weird. I thought maybe the seller had waxed them for some strange reason so I cleaned both multiple times but they still react very strangely, similar to cue ball behavior from that ‘waxgate’ controversy. I was over drawing everything with little effort. When I switched back to my older cue ball I wasn’t having that issue.
I find the training ball that I have is very tricky for my opponent to handle. they hate it whenever we use it and felt it was throwing off some different spin. I did fine with it.

Testing Kicks and Banks on Diamond Brand Tables, and How to Adjust Aiming

FYI, I just posted a new video that shows how to test a table to determine if kicks and banks go short or long compared to typical pool tables. I also tests new 7’ and 9’ Blue Label Diamond brand tables with new cloth to see how they perform, and he shows how to make aiming adjustments when a table is banking short. Check it out:


Contents:
  • 0:00 - Intro
  • 0:53 - Background
  • 2:31 - 7’ Diamond Kicks
  • 4:01 - 9’ Diamond Kicks
  • 4:45 - 7’ Diamond Banks
  • 6:28 - 9’ Diamond Banks
  • 7:31 - Conclusions
Supporting Resources:
As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments, questions, complaints, and requests.

Enjoy!

Well, "there is always one...", and today is my day to be the one. So, here goes:

Consider a perfect cushion: angle in = angle out. Because of the 3 11/16 inch setback of sights, the aim geometry of sighting through the diamonds differs from that which would result from aiming using the cushion nose or rail groove. Using the sights, I estimate the angle of incidence for the 7 foot table to be 11.8 degrees for the 20-10 kick, and 22.7 degrees for the 40-20 kick. For the 9-foot table, the incident angles would be 12.29 and 23.54 degrees respectively.

Using this, the impact points on the banking rail for the 7-foot table would be short by about 0.77 inches (20-10), 1.54 inches (40-20). For the 9-foot table: short by 0.8 inches (20-10) and 1.61(40-20). This is all attributable to the geometry of aiming through the diamonds, and correction would be required for any "perfect" table. These would be slightly larger for rail-groove impact.

The golf tee "correction" in your experiment sure looks close to the predicted 0.77 inches for a "perfect" table.

Assuming rail "pushback" is negligible, and given that the CB is rolling pretty slowly this is probably reasonable, is there any evidence that Diamond tables require any correction beyond that required by the (flawed) through the sights aiming?

CJ & Mcready

Was wondering.... in their youth did these two ever match up?
Often back in the day, when two players both played at their speed they had enough respect, they often chose to become friends instead.
I don't know who I'd pick, probably depended on the moment.... what do you think?

Pool Ball Collecting.

Well this explains the conversation on the dynospheres and how my numbers were so different.

I'll have to study it a little further, but can I be the only one using the difference from heaviest to lightest method as a gauge to measure quality?
IMO, the important part is the consistency amongst the entire set and the cue ball weight in relation to the object balls. My Dynaspheres Bronze and Rhodium sets (all phenolic) are the tightest of all the sets I own including Aramith Tournaments. Cyclops Skittles and Hyperion are right there as well which makes sense being as Cyclops evolved into Dynaspheres. I believe the Dynashperes set you are referencing is one the their Dynaphex resin sets. I don't have any experience with those.

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