Choosing a cuebuilding lathe.

jcaction2587 said:
oK...eric I have personaly heard your are a good guy so I will make this short....your right about the useing of the word jesus.....I apologize.....on this lathe subject yes this "conversations" is clearly to run custom cue lathes name in the ground.....clear and simple no matter how you say it.....that is unethical.....let the guy sell his stuff and give him a chance....no one has yet......bassel has anwsered alot of questions by phone and saved me a few dollars......I have also had chris give me free adivse so I can vouch for both......he is just another guy trying to offer a product....he does care about his customers and wants to make a good product.....he is being inventive.......but so many people blindly attack him because of owning a hightower.....I hope people don't meet me with the same attitude about my cues as I am a newer cue maker......I am using desgins and ideas that were thought of a 100 years ago in cue making but it doesn't mean I have any less pride in my work or that I am not trying to get the best possible cue for the money in the hands of my customers...I am......this argument is pointless......
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JCACTION: You are so right! All they are doing is, trying to run his name in the ground. You know I have heard alot of bad & good things about the hightower lathes. And yes; I have seen and used a hightower deluxe lathe, and I didn't have a problem with it. It seems to work good. And I have used the Model B lathe from Porper. I still own the Mini Q lathe by Porper,I also own the Custom Toolbox Lathe from Custom Cue Lathes. As far as the perfect traveling cue repair lathe on the market today. I would have to say that title goes to Bassel Elshaar, because of the Custom Toolbox cue repair lathe. It is just an awesome machine. Very quiet, very stable, and priced right.I can't wait till he proves to you all in philly; just what his cue lathes can really do. Then maybe, all you AZer's will give him the credit he deserves. Then you all can APOLOGIZE to him here on AZ. Bassel & Chris , both designed great machines.... Thanks Dave!
 
jcaction2587 said:
oK...eric I have personaly heard your are a good guy so I will make this short....your right about the useing of the word jesus.....I apologize.....on this lathe subject yes this "conversations" is clearly to run custom cue lathes name in the ground.....clear and simple no matter how you say it.....that is unethical.....let the guy sell his stuff and give him a chance....no one has yet......bassel has anwsered alot of questions by phone and saved me a few dollars......I have also had chris give me free adivse so I can vouch for both......he is just another guy trying to offer a product....he does care about his customers and wants to make a good product.....he is being inventive.......but so many people blindly attack him because of owning a hightower.....I hope people don't meet me with the same attitude about my cues as I am a newer cue maker......I am using desgins and ideas that were thought of a 100 years ago in cue making but it doesn't mean I have any less pride in my work or that I am not trying to get the best possible cue for the money in the hands of my customers...I am......this argument is pointless......
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I think you have me wrong. I have never once said anything foul about Bassel. I want him to succeed as much as you do. He needs to revolutionize machinery & offer up things that no other machine builder has. Ideas are nothing without substance. Seeds are nothing if no fruit is produced. Competing with the other machine builders is a fast track to failure. He needs his own stuff that nobody else offers & he says he has it but has yet to show it. I for one have given him ideas & tips and I know others who have as well. But thus far he's done nothing but tried pushing his version of already existing machines. You can lead a horse to water but can't make him drink.
 
cueman said:
I was not saying Leonard invented the cue lathe. The Billiard encyclopedia shows a very old large bore headstock for building cues. But Leonard was the first to market simple repair lathes to the general public. Before that you had rapid top sanders, taylor machines for ferrules and a few other cumbersome tools to use.
He was also the first to market the CNC machinery to the general public for cue making.
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Ok, how about a little lesss literal? My post was specifically to commend your acknowledgement of Leonard -
nowhere did I accuse you of saying he invented the cue lathe.

My 10th grade English teacher taught me that when illustrating a point,
it is helpful to provide a concrete example - like the fact that Blud was
repeating something that had been done long before.
Whether or not he was aware people had been using modified wood lathes
for decades, or not, I have no way of knowing.

FWIW - this is all about timing - if someone had offered
cue building/repair lathes to the general public in 1964 - they might have
sold 2 or 3 a year.

Dale<who didn't learn about the Law of Supply and Demand 'till Freshman year>
 
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qbilder said:
I think you have me wrong. I have never once said anything foul about Bassel. I want him to succeed as much as you do. He needs to revolutionize machinery & offer up things that no other machine builder has. Ideas are nothing without substance. Seeds are nothing if no fruit is produced. Competing with the other machine builders is a fast track to failure. He needs his own stuff that nobody else offers & he says he has it but has yet to show it. I for one have given him ideas & tips and I know others who have as well. But thus far he's done nothing but tried pushing his version of already existing machines. You can lead a horse to water but can't make him drink.
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Well then I think we are in agreement on the compition thing....I have also talked with bassel and given what limited suggestions I can.....he has told me of a few things in the works and If he brings these works to light he will do as you say and have something no one else will have thought of....I think he is trying to get thru the testing phases and he might have jumped the gun on speaking of them on the forum.....inocent mistake as this forum is a unique and crazy place to deal with......so I understand you better and I ment no ill will as again people I have spoke with attest to you being a great guy.......on the subject of this thread.....I think it can only keep going down hill from here but I could be wrong
 
Well.
Let me say this... Next week my 2 lathes from CCL are being shipped and they all add to the Hightower setup I already have.
I will add a honest review when I get the lathe and since I got the IPhone4 I will post some video in HD on YouTube so everybody can see the lathe turning some shafts and some butts and even doing points.
The lathe has a few tweaks that I asked Eric Crisp for his input and if everything is done the way it will be, I think we have a winner.
Like other people said here, there are a few more upgrades and tweaks being made and when we are all set and done I am sure it will be a solid product.
The lathe I am getting is strictly for tapering, therefore it will not do anything else.
Before the lathe ships out, all the features and bells and unique whistles will be listed and some of the features are unique to this lathe.
I have Chris Hightower in my highest regards. Being a pain like I am, I ask lots of questions because I have a lot to to learn. Chris has always answered my questions with his infinite patience even when he thought I was picking his brain, which I never did and will never do.
Another thing that Chris Hightower forgot to mention was his DVD, when I asked him something he always replied, have you watched my DVD? Only when I watched it closely I noticed he already had that question addressed.
I do feel that there is space for everybody, each lathe maker has his owns pros and cons, nobody is perfect, only GOD.
I am not a wanna be cuemaker but will start messing with it. If anything starts coming out the way I would like, then we'll see what direction I'll take. For now I am just a wood turner wanna be.
For now guys, let's just be friends a give a bit of slack to each other.
 
hangemhigh said:
This is excellent advice if you have the room.
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It is a good advice if the budget is somewhat unlimited. But since the need is for several lathes, that would be a challenge. That is the reason why you have several people offering different types of cue lathes at affordable prices. Also, you can not just put a metal lathe on the back of your car and move it that easy either...
But no doubt, a metal lathe well tooled and well tooled and tuned up is the way to go...
 
Thank you again everyone. I do have 2 metal lathes. The idea was to get something I do not have to pay $2000 to move to a new location. I decided to go with eastpoint cues lathe. I will post feedback after I try it out. Should be getting it within a month or so...
 
BKB said:
Thank you again everyone. I do have 2 metal lathes. The idea was to get something I do not have to pay $2000 to move to a new location. I decided to go with eastpoint cues lathe. I will post feedback after I try it out. Should be getting it within a month or so...
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That is a good choice and for the price you can't argue with that.
 
Offset

If you have enough length between centers on your lathe, simply chuck up a boring head with a live center in your tail stock. Then offset the boring head to get your taper, and leave the tail stock dead center.

WHERE CAN I FIND THIS OFFSET?????????
 

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Its a boring head. Not terribly exotic at all.

That one happens to have a straight taper shank to be chucked in a drill; some have a Morse taper to go straight into the tail stock, and some are collets to be drawn into a knee mil.

Rather than a cutter, as you would normally have in a boring head, I found that small live center from little machine shop I think. It also has a straight shank.

That's it.
 
Where could this be found

"Its a boring head. Not terribly exotic at all.

That one happens to have a straight taper shank to be chucked in a drill"



THAT'S WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR
 
I spent 6+ months researching all the different lathes I could find before I purchased mine. This included searching all the websites to find out what other people's experiences were with each lathe. I looked at Brianna, Hightower, Porper, Unique, The Toolbox lathe, Sherline, Taig, a bunch on Ebay (mostly junk) and several others that slip my mind including a few CNC machines. I had a spread sheet made up of all the lathes, construction, options, thoughts, etc.. unfortunately, it appears I left it on the computer at my last contract. If I find it, I'll post it.

The Cue Smith Deluxe was the most versatile cue lathe I found. It will do pretty much everything. So far I've been able to do everything with that lathe. The only things I've haven't tried yet are cutting short points and coring (which you would do on your big lathe anyway). I have only called Chris a few times about the lathe or how to do something. He always returned my calls and spent a fair amount of time helping me. Support has always been a concern of mine no matter what I buy or who I buy it for and the support Chris have given me has been excellent.

If I decide to buy another lathe I'd go through the whole process again and give everyone a fair shake.

The only other cue lathe I would consider right now is the Toolbox Cue Lathe III. And only if I was going to travel around repairing cues. I've only seen prelim pics so I can't speak a lot on that lathe or what all it can do but it looks like an nice repair lathe.

I don't think you will find a cue lathe that will drill 10 inches unless you mount a chuck on the carriage. With the Cue Smith you just slide the speed drilling tailstock forward, lock and continue drilling... pretty easy and quick.

I know people generally try to justify why they bought something. But, I have no regrets on buying the lathe and if I were to do it over again I would still buy it. Even though I can be unbiased, I don't want to list the shortcomings of any lathe and seem like I am bashing anyone. If I find that spreadsheet I'll post it.

My suggestion is to get the lathe that best suits your present and future needs, even if you have to wait a little longer to save up the money. Measure twice, cut once :)
 
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