Custom Cue Lathe - the video (part 1)

Guerra Cues

Guerra Cues

I build one cue at a time
Silver Member
Hey folks,
I was never tailored for TV sessions so... With the help of my IPhone 4, here is a shot of Bassell's Custom Cue Lathe.
This was filmed on my shop (in my garage) right after I've assembled it and tested it.
Super smooth carriage and the adapter for the PorterCable router works extremely well and gives you plenty of room to cut wood depending if you have 1.5" squares or 2".
Very solid machine in my opinion. Right now I have the butt taper bar set for compound taper but I am having another taper bar being built to have a straight taper in the butt and handle.
The video (part 1) shows basic functionality of the lathe and I am expecting to show this weekend the part 2 of the video that includes tapering a shaft and some african blackwood that I am working on a cue with walnut handle.
Sorry for the mess in my shop guys but the cleaning lady did not came in today.
Next week I will have a 13x40 Enco Lathe that will give me a bit more freedom and power to do other things like coring :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkLIHpOQLbY
Cutting square to round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXPkeHBovpA
 
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hangemhigh said:
Cut the corners off your squares or that P/C won't last long.
Click to expand...

Correct! Tony I'd never attemp to turn any wood with corners. On the super cheap you can make a box with plexiglass lid to run your squares over a tablesaw....spin the squares with a drill & push it across the blade. Presto...15 seconds & then you have nice smooth round stock to start tapering. That'll be MUCH easier on your equipment & save you from buying many routers. :wink:
 
Varney Cues said:
Correct! Tony I'd never attemp to turn any wood with corners. over a tablesaw....spin the squares with a drill & push it across the blade. Presto...On the super cheap you can make a box with plexiglass lid to run your squares 15 seconds & then you have nice smooth round stock to start tapering. That'll be MUCH easier on your equipment & save you from buying many routers. :wink:
Click to expand...
Got any picture of that ?
Not that I'm getting shaft squares soon as I get them rounds now.
 
It's only a little bit easier on the router, but if not worried about wasting the corners, and no other way to cut them off, then the square can be indexed on each corner, and cut the corners down without the headstock turning. That will make them into more of a octagon, and will stress the router slightly less when the headstock is turning, and taking them to a round. A octagon does not knock quite as bad as a square.

Greg
 
BENFICA said:
Hey folks,
I was never tailored for TV sessions so... With the help of my IPhone 4, here is a shot of Bassell's Custom Cue Lathe.
This was filmed on my shop (in my garage) right after I've assembled it and tested it.
Super smooth carriage and the adapter for the PorterCable router works extremely well and gives you plenty of room to cut wood depending if you have 1.5" squares or 2".
Very solid machine in my opinion. Right now I have the butt taper bar set for compound taper but I am having another taper bar being built to have a straight taper in the butt and handle.
The video (part 1) shows basic functionality of the lathe and I am expecting to show this weekend the part 2 of the video that includes tapering a shaft and some african blackwood that I am working on a cue with walnut handle.
Sorry for the mess in my shop guys but the cleaning lady did not came in today.
Next week I will have a 13x40 Enco Lathe that will give me a bit more freedom and power to do other things like coring :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-cK45rbNBo
Click to expand...
Looks like a well built/engineered lathe. I have his repair lathe, with nearly all the options, ordered and soon to be delivered. Bassell seemed very knowledgeable and was very easy to deal with.
 
Charlie Edwards said:
Looks like a well built/engineered lathe. I have his repair lathe, with nearly all the options, ordered and soon to be delivered. Bassell seemed very knowledgeable and was very easy to deal with.
Click to expand...

Charlie
Your lathe is shipping out today, you can check it out on my "New 1.4" bore Repair Lathe holiday sale" thread, that's your lathe. It turned out great, I am sure you are going to love it
Regards
 
I turn everything from square to round & have never damaged a router's bearings except for one of those Bosch Colts, which was an expensive mistake because that thing sucked. I use the older style DeWalts & replace brushes as needed but in 11 years that's only been twice. I have about a half dozen of those & a 3-4 of the newer ones that are the same model as the Porter Cable. I have one Porter Cable & a couple Ryobis. Each router is equipped for a specific task. For cutting squares to round, I use a newer DeWalt made by Porter Cable & I go from square to round in a single pass. I have never had an issue except for that Colt. Hardware store routers are cheap enough that they can be replaced as needed, at least that's how I always looked at it. But thus far I have not had the actual need to replace one.

But back on topic, nice lathe, Bassel.
 
qbilder said:
I turn everything from square to round & have never damaged a router's bearings except for one of those Bosch Colts, which was an expensive mistake because that thing sucked. I use the older style DeWalts & replace brushes as needed but in 11 years that's only been twice. I have about a half dozen of those & a 3-4 of the newer ones that are the same model as the Porter Cable. I have one Porter Cable & a couple Ryobis. Each router is equipped for a specific task. For cutting squares to round, I use a newer DeWalt made by Porter Cable & I go from square to round in a single pass. I have never had an issue except for that Colt. Hardware store routers are cheap enough that they can be replaced as needed, at least that's how I always looked at it. But thus far I have not had the actual need to replace one.

But back on topic, nice lathe, Bassel.
Click to expand...



I use the Porter Cable, and Dewalt routers too. They are basically the same routers, so I can use the same mounts when needed, and that saves me from making bit changes between tasks. I spun the bearings out of a Porter cable one time, but they aren't too difficult to put new ones in. I don't remember for sure, but It seems like they went out while going square to round, although I could tell by the sound that the bearings were going bad well before that.
 
That 14" Ridgid Band saw has a table you can tilt at 45*.

Or a router table with a convave bit. Just watch for kickbacks.:eek:
Nice lathe btw.
 
qbilder said:
I turn everything from square to round & have never damaged a router's bearings except for one of those Bosch Colts, which was an expensive mistake because that thing sucked. I use the older style DeWalts & replace brushes as needed but in 11 years that's only been twice. I have about a half dozen of those & a 3-4 of the newer ones that are the same model as the Porter Cable. I have one Porter Cable & a couple Ryobis. Each router is equipped for a specific task. For cutting squares to round, I use a newer DeWalt made by Porter Cable & I go from square to round in a single pass. I have never had an issue except for that Colt. Hardware store routers are cheap enough that they can be replaced as needed, at least that's how I always looked at it. But thus far I have not had the actual need to replace one.

But back on topic, nice lathe, Bassel.
Click to expand...



Damn Eric, a .500 pass? LOL, you must be mad at your router.
 
JoeyInCali said:
That 14" Ridgid Band saw has a table you can tilt at 45*.QUOTE]

Make a jig with a v groove cut that fits in your table slot, tilt the table to the right angle for the amount of wood you want to remove. A quick and easy way to get rid of them corners.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the nice comments guys.
I will try to make a video this weekend and will be turning some squares.
Thanks for the positive input and suggestions.
 
BENFICA said:
Thanks for the nice comments guys.
I will try to make a video this weekend and will be turning some squares.
Thanks for the positive input and suggestions.
Click to expand...

Benifical, if you are going to test the machine then put it through its pases. I am curious as to how it handles 100 or so passes. How well did it hold tolerance? It should hold to within +- .001". What kind of feed rates where you using and did you get chadder on shaft wood. If it can hold up to all of that then it should do well for you.

Jim.
 
Mc2 said:
Benifical, if you are going to test the machine then put it through its pases. I am curious as to how it handles 100 or so passes. How well did it hold tolerance? It should hold to within +- .001". What kind of feed rates where you using and did you get chadder on shaft wood. If it can hold up to all of that then it should do well for you.

Jim.
Click to expand...

I looked at one of Bassel's lathes when he was here in Grand Rapids, it looked really well made. He made some very nice upgrades to his machine.

The only thing that I think would make it better would be a steel bed which would be costly or a double anodized bed.

Bassel has put together a very nice setup at a very economical price.
 
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Looks like a nice lathe Ben. A second video of the lathe in action would be cool.

Speaking of bowling alleys, they just demolished one not far from my place.
By the time I realized what was going on, I wasn't able to find out whether
the alley wood was salvaged or not. I saw the crane with a large wrecking ball on it and the next day it was crushed. I couldn't see any wood that might have come from the alleys in the rubble. The alley itself had a second floor so there would have been a lot of wood.
Day late and a dollar short as usual.
 
Mc2 said:
Benifical, if you are going to test the machine then put it through its pases. I am curious as to how it handles 100 or so passes. How well did it hold tolerance? It should hold to within +- .001". What kind of feed rates where you using and did you get chadder on shaft wood. If it can hold up to all of that then it should do well for you.

Jim.
Click to expand...

What are you saying is kind of crazy. I am not going to do 100 passes on purpose just to test the lathe out. I am sure that during the time I will be home on my Christmas vacation the lathe will have done quite a bit more than that. I am sure the lathe will test itself out and so far I had no issues at all. The wood cuts so far are super smooth.
This lathe looks like a good product and with a couple more tweaks will be the best small cue making lathe out there.
One of the things I like about it is the ease of use and operation.
The only thing I need to work on is my taper bar for the shafts. That is not done yet.
 
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