DigiBall Progress on new website

Yes. It will be a 10-year project from conception to launch. I had to wear a lot of hats. I asked ChatGPT to make a list of all of the roles that I played:

  1. Inventor / Product Concept Creator
  2. Analog & Mixed-Signal Electronics Engineer
  3. RF / Antenna Engineer
  4. Embedded Firmware Engineer
  5. Wireless Power / Inductive Charging Engineer
  6. Battery & Power Systems Engineer
  7. Mechanical Engineer (mass, balance, shock survivability)
  8. Materials & Process Engineer (resins, curing, encapsulation)
  9. Test & Validation Engineer
  10. Regulatory / EMC / FCC Pre-Compliance Engineer
  11. Manufacturing / DFM / DFT Engineer
  12. Industrial / Physical Product Designer
  13. Mobile App Developer (Android & iOS)
  14. PC / Auxiliary Software Developer
  15. Tooling & Fixture Designer (robots, testers, chargers)
  16. IP Engineer (Patents & Trademarks)
  17. Program / Project Manager
  18. Supply Chain & Vendor Manager
  19. Startup Founder / Business Owner
  20. Website Designer

All while maintaining a 9-5 job making unmanned underwater vehicles and liquid chromatography machines.

As you can imagine, I deserve a vacation. My wife deserves a lot of thanks also.
Being your own boss is a lot of work, you must wear a lot of different hats including custodial engineer. 😁😁

Question about tip shape...

I've always liked a nickel radius on my playing cue and after a while, once it's settled in a little, I usually don't reshape it too much so that it does flatten out a little right in the middle of the tip, but it's still mostly a nickel radius.

On my break and jump cues though I do like it flatter, I have this weird curved piece of plastic that probably has curve that would match up to a 2-3" diameter circle, so much bigger and therefor flatter than a nickel. I shape my break and jump tips with this and then use my nickel shaper just for the shoulders. So this gives a compound radius to the tips with a pretty flat center portion but normal shoulders to help avoid any miscues on errant strokes.

Question about tip shape...

Kinda surprised that mechanical engineering hasn't responded. 🤔
P.S. I wonder if this is why snooker players like mushroomed tips... makes 'em a little wider to hold a bit more curve?

pj
chgo
Well not All. It might be majority. Mark Williams has a very hard tip. Not sure of the radius. His tip plays a distinct note on contact with white.

Roy Billiard Cue Repair Machine

There inlies the problem.
Not anything that I have found in that price range seems like a decent tip repair machine.
I have been spinning wood and metal on lathes since the 70's.
Machining, Enco, Southbend and Clausings. Jet, Delta and a host of others for wood turning.

I have a Delta Midi lathe that has two bed extensions on it and the total length is 80".
Due to the fact that I collect vintage cues and many are one piece I wanted a machine that I could work on these relics.
This same lathe is what I use to make my mini pool cues with.
I also have a Cuesmith waiting to get set up.

So, after working on so many types of lathes over the years I cant get behind these tipping lathes that have drills for motors. Risky roller wheels for holding the shaft tip.
And relying on a benchtop instead of a lathe bed.

Mid-America makes a lathe for shaft work and looks like a nice machine for around 9 bills.
Thanks for the info. I have looked at both Cuesmith and Mid-America lathes and they do look nice and are made in the USA but I just don't think I can justify spending that amount of money to just put a few tips per year on. I did try to search for used ones and there just doesn't seem to be much out there.

Question about tip shape...

The basic principle is that the tip’s surface must be parallel with the CB’s surface in order to make good non-slip contact. For that the tip must have a curved surface with an arc equal in degrees to the arc of the CB’s surface between its left and right miscue limits - i.e., at least 60 degrees. For common cue tip sizes (10-14mm), that means curvatures from a dime to a penny radius or so. Tips flatter than that will hit on their edges before reaching the miscue limits.

pj
chgo
P.S. I wonder if this is why snooker players like mushroomed tips... makes 'em a little wider to hold a bit more curve?

pj
chgo

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