Soft finish on my cue?

Cure time

While I am not a cuemaker I have applied finishes for over thirty years and if you are smelling fumes it is still curing. The best thing to do is contact the cuemaker and bring it to their attention. Since they know what they used they are in a better position to asess the issues. Different finishes have different dry times which are different than cure times. Dry to the touch is not the same as a fully cured finish...
JMO
 
a finish never really truely cures for a long while( except uv). its odd that its that soft tho. however you want your finishes to be somethat plyable. too hard = brittle= cracking when banged
 
The finish on your cue was not mixed properly. Contack the cuemaker. If it were one of my cues I would want to know. Call him or her...JER
 
BLACKHEARTCUES said:
The finish on your cue was not mixed properly. Contack the cuemaker. If it were one of my cues I would want to know. Call him or her...JER
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or the activator has gone bad
had that happen to me once
usually after spraying, i can handle the cue within two hours, might still be a little tacky but by the next day, hard and ready to sand and spray again
if it isnt, i know i have a problem
 
Klopek said:
New cue :)
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just hang it in your closet upstairs for a week and revisit it in a bit. any warm dry place

i had a brand new cue. very high dollar that seemed tacky and stunk like hell. very strong odor. long story short i was very busy and didnt get to play with it for a week. by the time i got around to playing with it it was ok

maybe the maker wiped it down with mineral spirits. does it have leather?
 
Many catalyzed and non-catalyzed finishes are not full cured for several weeks. So a common mistake made with them is to apply the finish fairly thick and then wet sand and buff the cue within a day or so after applying. The buffing is kind of like burnishing a shaft. It seals it and slows down the evaporation process of the thinner. It traps it under the surface. If I were talking to the cuemaker as one cuemaker to another, I would suggest getting the cue back and sanding the surface with 1000 grit and let it sit a couple of weeks like that and then come back and wet sand and buff it again. That might allow it to finish curing. If it is a Epoxy finish it will take a while to harden, but it needs to be opened up by sanding the surface so it can release the vapors it needs to release.
 
Klopek said:
By the toxic smell that's stinking out my case, the vapors seem to be releasing just fine. ;)

I've hung the cue to finish curing. Will return to it in a week or two.

How and why would a cuemaker let a product leave his shop like that?. Just plain rushing due to being overworked maybe?.
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Just because you can smell it does not mean the vapors are releasing fast enough for it to cure. My guess is that the cuemaker just did not notice the problem. We normally don't press our thumbnail into the cue to see how hard it is. And he is probably too used to the vapors to smell a small amount of it coming off of the cue. If hanging it without sanding the surface does not work you need to let the cuemaker take care of it.
 
Cuemaker?

I and a couple other folks responded that you should contact the cuemaker and I am curious if you have and what the response was? Just wondering as this seems like the logical approach and the cuemaker may wish to know as his finishing may be an issue for others as well.
NOT trying to stir up any bad feelings!!
 
Thanks for the reply!

Klopek said:
I contacted the cuemaker immediately. He asked me to let the cue sit for a week or two to see if the finish cures. That time has not passed so there's no further action required on either end.

The problem is this. I had to pay hefty customs fees when the cue was delivered, (I expect this when a cue comes from another country). If I have to ship the cue back, that's even more money out of my pocket and I'll have to pay customs fees AGAIN once the cue is fixed.

I'm trying to decide (by posting this thread), whether I NEED to send the cue back or whether the finish will cure on it's own.

I don't want to get into too much detail regarding my discussions with the cuemaker but it's looking more and more like the cue needs to go back.
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Yea, I now understand where your coming from. Sending & receiving out of and into other countries seems to be getting more problematic. I had a problem with a cue from Taiwan and it is not worth the cost and risk to send it back again. I did it once and the cuemaker sent it back just as warped as it was when I sent it to them. Thanks for nothing Kao Fa!!
My only advice if you send it back is make Damn sure they will fix it completely or you'll end up wasting your time and money like I did.
Good luck I hope you can get it resolved..
 
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