Preferred tip radius
- Thread starter joelpope
- Start date
me too!
I don't know if you are joking or not but I have found a very tight radius to work well on my playing cue, about a 6 or 6.25mm radius. Unfortunately I have found that to be a very high maintenance radius to try to keep on a tip. In play my tip usually winds up between a nickel and a dime. I'm too cheap to spend half my time sharpening my tip so after awhile I just live with the radius that the tip wants to stay.
For whatever reason it seems to me that soft shots with a lot of side get better bite with the more rounded tip. It's a killer one pocket tip. I guess I could go to the screw on tips and swap to whatever I need for each shot! :thumbup:
Hu
I don't know if you are joking or not but I have found a very tight radius to work well on my playing cue, about a 6 or 6.25mm radius. Unfortunately I have found that to be a very high maintenance radius to try to keep on a tip. In play my tip usually winds up between a nickel and a dime. I'm too cheap to spend half my time sharpening my tip so after awhile I just live with the radius that the tip wants to stay.
For whatever reason it seems to me that soft shots with a lot of side get better bite with the more rounded tip. It's a killer one pocket tip. I guess I could go to the screw on tips and swap to whatever I need for each shot! :thumbup:
Hu
The half moon shaper does a good job of taking unnecessary mass off it after its beat down. Initially I like a dime or nickel radius.
Last edited:
Thanks, working with a diamond abrasive company right now & have my first run of aluminum pieces at the the machine shop. hope to have some prototypes in a few weeks
4 way with shaper, scuffer, mushroom trimmer & burnisher & smaller than a roll of nickels
I guessed about right, doing 60% dime & 40% nickel and the poll has it at 60/40
hence the saying "there's one in every crowd"
I usually go for dime, sometimes nickel, but really I am unsure which one is my most comfortable because I don't know exactly how to tell weather its a dime or nickel sometimes, in our country we call them "Half moon" and "quarter moon" anyways, I been meaning to ask a question for a guy who create those tip tools and here's what always been happening to me.
I buy a shaft, comes from the factory, the tip is in good shape, I don't touch it, it plays really good and I don't miscue that much, if any once a week.
then when the tip starts to mushroom or go out-of-shape, I use some tip tools to attempt to fix it, and once I do this, I have officially ruined my tip, it doesn't look bad, but I start miscuing like crazy, Maybe 3 or 4 times a day, and it really annoys me to death, I go to youtube to check on how to use them tools.
but really when I use the tools and look at the tip, it looks OK, it looks just good, but what is exactly is happening , I have no idea.
sometimes I feel that I want to buy a new shaft whenever my tip is ruined, help me if you know why this is happening to me, what exactly i have to pay attention to.
I buy a shaft, comes from the factory, the tip is in good shape, I don't touch it, it plays really good and I don't miscue that much, if any once a week.
then when the tip starts to mushroom or go out-of-shape, I use some tip tools to attempt to fix it, and once I do this, I have officially ruined my tip, it doesn't look bad, but I start miscuing like crazy, Maybe 3 or 4 times a day, and it really annoys me to death, I go to youtube to check on how to use them tools.
but really when I use the tools and look at the tip, it looks OK, it looks just good, but what is exactly is happening , I have no idea.
sometimes I feel that I want to buy a new shaft whenever my tip is ruined, help me if you know why this is happening to me, what exactly i have to pay attention to.
will do
I'm trying to develop several price points...
- least expensive would be wood with jeweler's cloth in the $15-$20 range
- next would be aluminum with jeweler's cloth probably in the $20 - $25 range
- most expensive would be aluminum with diamond abrasive - still waiting for testing and pricing from the company that applies the diamond abrasive to the aluminum
I have over a dozen tip tools I have used over the years & finally decided to invest a few thousand bucks and develop my own... no one know's better than a dedicated player what you want in a tip tool and so far it has been "close but no cigar"
I do my own tip and shaft work on a lathe but I am very particular about my tips and being able to maintain them when I'm not around my lathe.
my biggest problem to date is holding on to my prototypes
you have a couple of different issues going on
1) shape - constant impact flattens your tip, especially if you break with it and it is a medium to soft tip. Without a lathe you need a tip tool that can create the shape you want
2) mushrooming - new tips have a tendency to mushroom. After you trim the mushroom either by cutting or sanding you need to burnish the sides of the tip in order to harden them so they maintain their shape better
3) glazing - even a well shaped, non-mushroomed tip can get glazed to where it does not hold chalk well. If you sand it or poke holes in it with the meat tenderizer styled tip tools you dramatically shorten the life of your cue
I don't care what kind of cue you use or the table / cloth you play on, the cue tip to cue ball connection can be the weakest link in the chain and is often overlooked
I got the specs for a nickel and dime. A nickel is 21.21 mm/.835 in and a dime is 17.91 mm/.705 in.
The difference between the two is 3.3mm/.13 in.
The radius are nickel 10.605/.4175 in and a dime is 8.955/.3525 in.
The difference between the two is 1.65mm/.0655 in.
I used .5 in as the diameter of a ferrule. This is about half way between 12mm and 13mm, the usual range for shaft diameters.
I drew two points .5 inch apart and then used a nickel and a dime to draw the curvature between the two points.
Very interesting drawing. The biggest difference between the two curvatures was at the center line of the tip and as the two curvatures approached the sides, the less of a difference there was between them.
The difference at the center line is about 1mm.
As the shaft gets smaller, meaning the two points move closer together, the less of a curvature there is between the points when using a nickel or dime radius. This also means there is a less difference between the two curvatures.
The opposite happens when the shaft gets larger.
If you hit the cb 1/2 tip off center , even up to a tip off center, there is not that much difference in the tip curvatures that will be hitting the cb plus will be hitting the cb on a almost a flat surface, so to speak. But as you more off center of the cb, the curvature of the cb appears to increases where the tip will be hitting the cb.
I can see where a "rounder" radius can cause squirt sooner when hitting outside of the one tip of center, then a "flatter" radius.
Drawings are fun. So, hold a nickel or dime up against your tip to check what you got. Betcha you'll be surprised.
The difference between the two is 3.3mm/.13 in.
The radius are nickel 10.605/.4175 in and a dime is 8.955/.3525 in.
The difference between the two is 1.65mm/.0655 in.
I used .5 in as the diameter of a ferrule. This is about half way between 12mm and 13mm, the usual range for shaft diameters.
I drew two points .5 inch apart and then used a nickel and a dime to draw the curvature between the two points.
Very interesting drawing. The biggest difference between the two curvatures was at the center line of the tip and as the two curvatures approached the sides, the less of a difference there was between them.
The difference at the center line is about 1mm.
As the shaft gets smaller, meaning the two points move closer together, the less of a curvature there is between the points when using a nickel or dime radius. This also means there is a less difference between the two curvatures.
The opposite happens when the shaft gets larger.
If you hit the cb 1/2 tip off center , even up to a tip off center, there is not that much difference in the tip curvatures that will be hitting the cb plus will be hitting the cb on a almost a flat surface, so to speak. But as you more off center of the cb, the curvature of the cb appears to increases where the tip will be hitting the cb.
I can see where a "rounder" radius can cause squirt sooner when hitting outside of the one tip of center, then a "flatter" radius.
Drawings are fun. So, hold a nickel or dime up against your tip to check what you got. Betcha you'll be surprised.
Imho....
Tip radius depends on Shaft diameter, and the style of stroke behind it.
If you are a person with a lot of "back hand" english, you probably want a -flatter- tip.
If you are a person with a smoother stroke, one who strokes through the ball, you will want a -more radial- tip.
Doc
Tip radius depends on Shaft diameter, and the style of stroke behind it.
If you are a person with a lot of "back hand" english, you probably want a -flatter- tip.
If you are a person with a smoother stroke, one who strokes through the ball, you will want a -more radial- tip.
Doc