Another shaft maple source...a shameless plug!

jazznpool

jazznpool

Superior Cues--Unchalked!
Gold Member
Silver Member
I have been extremely pleased with the custom grade maple tapered shaft cones I've purchased from Bill Dominiak at www.cuestockinc.com and wanted to mention them to those who might not be familiar. I've bought a few hundred pieces over the last 3 years and have been extremely satisfied with what arrived (I'll be modest and stop there). I returned some pieces once that didn't quite pass muster and they were replaced, no questions asked. IMO, the Cue Stock folks are good people. If you're in need of good shaft maple, give them a try.

Martin
 
true...

I have to agree. I am about as small time as it gets, and they are always pleasant and courteous. I have been very happy with the maple as well.


Josh
 
jazznpool said:
I have been extremely pleased with the custom grade maple tapered shaft cones I've purchased from Bill Dominiak at www.cuestockinc.com and wanted to mention them to those who might not be familiar. I've bought a few hundred pieces over the last 3 years and have been extremely satisfied with what arrived (I'll be modest and stop there). I returned some pieces once that didn't quite pass muster and they were replaced, no questions asked. IMO, the Cue Stock folks are good people. If you're in need of good shaft maple, give them a try.

Martin
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Have to agree. Have bought from them several times and they quality exceeded expectations. Honest grading
 
i bought 25 of his highest grade "custom" shafts and they all kept moving after every cut so i sent them all back.he was very nice and sent me a new batch after i returned the warping batch.the ring count was good and the weight was good.the straightness of grain was pretty good but not what i would expect for what i was paying.

again the new shafts seemed to move a lot more than my normal shafts.it seemed like they just wanted to warp,all of them.even the ones with perfectly straight grain moved.

i only got to use a few of them on actual cues and really had to end up eating the rest of them.and of the ones i used,i have already had to replace 2 of them that moved after the cue was sold.i hope that i don't have any more come back.

all in all considering the price i paid for these shafts i was disappointed.i usually pay about $7 each for shafts which is less than half what i paid for these and they almost all stay straight after the first cut and thereafter,95%+ easy.

Bill was very nice but took some convincing to get a new batch sent out after the first one was bad,and he agreed with me when he got the shafts back saying that his partner sold me the wrong stuff the first time.i just didn't want to call him again after the second batch started moving on me.i probably should have,but after 2 cuts on the first batch and 3-4 cuts on the replacement batch,i was pretty time invested already.i even had rings on some of the ones i thought would stay straight.

i am not trying to give Bill a hard time here,i am sure he would have sent me new shafts a second time,but i just didn't feel like messing with it again,high shipping back and forth and the hassle.he truly seemed like a nice guy and maybe he just had a bad run of Maple.

so i agree they are good people but myself,i wouldn't buy shaft wood from them again,i don't think the batches i got were initially dried properly.

i really hope this doesn't come across as a bash on Bill,b/c like i said above i am sure he would have given me a 3rd batch to try had i asked.i am really just trying to let cue makers here know of my experience with his "custom" shaft wood.
 
I've purchased about 50 shafts from these guys thus far and have been very happy with what I've got.
 
That's odd Mason. I've ordered around 1000 pieces from Bill over the past year or so and I find them to be the most stable of all of my suppliers.
 
Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

masonh said:
i bought 25 of his highest grade "custom" shafts and they all kept moving after every cut so i sent them all back.he was very nice and sent me a new batch after i returned the warping batch.the ring count was good and the weight was good.the straightness of grain was pretty good but not what i would expect for what i was paying.

again the new shafts seemed to move a lot more than my normal shafts.it seemed like they just wanted to warp,all of them.even the ones with perfectly straight grain moved.

i only got to use a few of them on actual cues and really had to end up eating the rest of them.and of the ones i used,i have already had to replace 2 of them that moved after the cue was sold.i hope that i don't have any more come back.

all in all considering the price i paid for these shafts i was disappointed.i usually pay about $7 each for shafts which is less than half what i paid for these and they almost all stay straight after the first cut and thereafter,95%+ easy.

Bill was very nice but took some convincing to get a new batch sent out after the first one was bad,and he agreed with me when he got the shafts back saying that his partner sold me the wrong stuff the first time.i just didn't want to call him again after the second batch started moving on me.i probably should have,but after 2 cuts on the first batch and 3-4 cuts on the replacement batch,i was pretty time invested already.i even had rings on some of the ones i thought would stay straight.

i am not trying to give Bill a hard time here,i am sure he would have sent me new shafts a second time,but i just didn't feel like messing with it again,high shipping back and forth and the hassle.he truly seemed like a nice guy and maybe he just had a bad run of Maple.

so i agree they are good people but myself,i wouldn't buy shaft wood from them again,i don't think the batches i got were initially dried properly.

i really hope this doesn't come across as a bash on Bill,b/c like i said above i am sure he would have given me a 3rd batch to try had i asked.i am really just trying to let cue makers here know of my experience with his "custom" shaft wood.
Click to expand...
 
That's odd Mason. I've ordered around 1000 pieces from Bill over the past year or so and I find them to be the most stable of all of my suppliers.
Click to expand...


it is odd.it seems everyone else has been getting good stuff from him,guess i just got unlucky.to like SK said,it just wasn't meant to be.
 
masonh said:
it is odd.it seems everyone else has been getting good stuff from him,guess i just got unlucky.to like SK said,it just wasn't meant to be.
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You're not alone here, Mason. I paid top dollar for horrible wood & shabby treatment from him. But that was at least 10 yrs ago. Maybe he's changed and you were truly unlucky.
 
I think things have changed. He calls us at least once a month to see how things are going or if he has new wood that is being processed. Yes, he's calling to see if we need to buy wood but, nevertheless, he has always been good to deal with.
 
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masonh said:
i really hope this doesn't come across as a bash on Bill,b/c like i said above i am sure he would have given me a 3rd batch to try had i asked.i am really just trying to let cue makers here know of my experience with his "custom" shaft wood.
Click to expand...

Nope, sounds like you are trying to give honest feedback and bending over backwards not to offend anybody. World could use more of that!

Larry
 
I use to buy from Bill and his wood was some of the prettiest and whitest wood of all the suppliers I ever dealt with. The maple he was selling many years ago was lighter in weight than the Michigan maple and I had some complaints on the weight from other cuemakers who bought tapered blanks from me. About the same time I found a supplier in Michigan who made me a deal I couldn't refuse and I started going there. The only time I had any stability issues was when I bought some partially tapered shafts. I suspect he took too much off too fast and made them unstable. Now this was back when he had only been doing it a short time. I am sure he has corrected that now that he started making cues and got more experience turning shafts all the way through the process. But when I got dowels from him they were stable and turned straight with no problems.
 
The only time I had any stability issues was when I bought some partially tapered shafts.
Click to expand...


that is what i bought.tapered cones of custom grade.he didn't offer the dowells in the custom grade.
 
shafts

masonh said:
i bought 25 of his highest grade "custom" shafts and they all kept moving after every cut so i sent them all back.he was very nice and sent me a new batch after i returned the warping batch.the ring count was good and the weight was good.the straightness of grain was pretty good but not what i would expect for what i was paying.

again the new shafts seemed to move a lot more than my normal shafts.it seemed like they just wanted to warp,all of them.even the ones with perfectly straight grain moved.

i only got to use a few of them on actual cues and really had to end up eating the rest of them.and of the ones i used,i have already had to replace 2 of them that moved after the cue was sold.i hope that i don't have any more come back.

all in all considering the price i paid for these shafts i was disappointed.i usually pay about $7 each for shafts which is less than half what i paid for these and they almost all stay straight after the first cut and thereafter,95%+ easy.

Bill was very nice but took some convincing to get a new batch sent out after the first one was bad,and he agreed with me when he got the shafts back saying that his partner sold me the wrong stuff the first time.i just didn't want to call him again after the second batch started moving on me.i probably should have,but after 2 cuts on the first batch and 3-4 cuts on the replacement batch,i was pretty time invested already.i even had rings on some of the ones i thought would stay straight.

i am not trying to give Bill a hard time here,i am sure he would have sent me new shafts a second time,but i just didn't feel like messing with it again,high shipping back and forth and the hassle.he truly seemed like a nice guy and maybe he just had a bad run of Maple.

so i agree they are good people but myself,i wouldn't buy shaft wood from them again,i don't think the batches i got were initially dried properly.

i really hope this doesn't come across as a bash on Bill,b/c like i said above i am sure he would have given me a 3rd batch to try had i asked.i am really just trying to let cue makers here know of my experience with his "custom" shaft wood.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem with them. Butterflycues
 
I too had problems with partially tapered shafts from this source. I had only bought a small number (20 I think, I was fairly new to cue building) but the majority of them moved enough that I couldn't use them. I was not able to resolve the problem with Bill. This was probably 7 or 8 years ago. I found another source that I am happy with and never ordered again.
 
I recently tried a batch of A grade finished shafts, as my taper setup was down, and had promised a couple of SP's to people before christmas. It was a little slow on the shipping, but I understood that. I got the batch in and was very disappointed in the quality of the shafts. They were straight, but it looked as if a beaver chewed them to size. There was barbershop pole up and down, and flatspots. They were supposed to be 13mm, but they were anywheres from 13.8 to 14.6mm. I had expected to receive shafts that only needed slight sanding, then rings ferrule, etc. I emailed him about it right away, and he responded nicely and offered a refund or replacement. He explained how it may have happened to be sent that way, and I opted for the replacements. It took about 1-1/2 weeks, and this batch was 100% better, but still very rough, it takes about 10 minutes to sand all the rough spots down.
He was very nice to deal with the issue, but if I buy from again, I'll just go for the dowels, not the finish shafts.
Just my experiance,
Dave
 
dzcues said:
You're not alone here, Mason. I paid top dollar for horrible wood & shabby treatment from him. But that was at least 10 yrs ago. Maybe he's changed and you were truly unlucky.
Click to expand...

deleted message, why bother
 
Even though I didn't really "need" them, I just received 17 tapered cones today from Bill Dominiak. They were worth waiting for and were as promised. The lowest rpi of the group was 18. All excellent to acceptable with regard to straightness of grain and little to no sugar. Bright white. More custom grade maple shaft cones are either available now or soon will be according to Bill. I'm glad Cue Stock is still around. I have no problem paying a little more for top grade maple dowels or cones. No Chinese maple for me! :grin-square:

Martin
 
Dave38 said:
I recently tried a batch of A grade finished shafts, as my taper setup was down, and had promised a couple of SP's to people before christmas. It was a little slow on the shipping, but I understood that. I got the batch in and was very disappointed in the quality of the shafts. They were straight, but it looked as if a beaver chewed them to size. There was barbershop pole up and down, and flatspots. They were supposed to be 13mm, but they were anywheres from 13.8 to 14.6mm. I had expected to receive shafts that only needed slight sanding, then rings ferrule, etc. I emailed him about it right away, and he responded nicely and offered a refund or replacement. He explained how it may have happened to be sent that way, and I opted for the replacements. It took about 1-1/2 weeks, and this batch was 100% better, but still very rough, it takes about 10 minutes to sand all the rough spots down.
He was very nice to deal with the issue, but if I buy from again, I'll just go for the dowels, not the finish shafts.
Just my experiance,
Dave
Click to expand...

I have bought 20 finished shafts and 40 cones from them. The shafts looked great and had good ring count. The finished shafts were a little oversized but that was a good thing because they were very rough. Out of the 20 only two of them moved after hanging for about 8 months. I liked the cones better because I prefer to turn my shafts on a time schedule to see how stable they remain through the turning process.
 
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