Any tricks to get this shaft straight again?

[mistamikel]

So I got this cue in a trade yesterday and didnt really pay any attention (my fault) to it except to shoot a few games last night, well I took some time today to actually check it out and noticed that when I roll the shaft the top and bottom stay flat to the table but the middle is raised. Any ideas to get it flush again or am I hooped ?? Sorry for the crappy pics but all I have is my celly fone.

 

[JMW]

I know this does not answer your question... but read all the posts in this thread regarding shaft wobble. Yours should play just fine.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=211683&highlight=Wobble

 

[mistamikel]

I know it "shouldn't" affect playability, but just knowing the fact thats its like that makes me loco in the coco.

 

[JMW]

I have a similar issue myself. I have been thinking about trying one of these hangers from Muellers.

http://www.muellers.com/Cue-Hanger,1748.html

 

[mistamikel]

I have a similar issue myself. I have been thinking about trying one of these hangers from Muellers.

http://www.muellers.com/Cue-Hanger,1748.html

I was thinking the same thing but just wanted to know if its worth it or just to suck it up lol

 

[Quesports]

great post!

I know it "shouldn't" affect playability, but just knowing the fact thats its like that makes me loco in the coco.

OMG THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I NEVER ROLL MY CUE!! I do not want to know!!!!

 

[bjones72751]

I was thinking the same thing but just wanted to know if its worth it or just to suck it up lol

I think it would help if you left it hanging for quite a long time, but it might just warp back after a couple days off of it.

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk

 

[mistamikel]

I think I'll call it a wash and get a new shaft sometime down the road

 

[lorider]

i am going to tell you what i did .... but 1st i want to say no i am not crazy lol.

i bought a meucci gambler that had the shaft warped worse than yours. it played pretty darn good as it was, actually it was probably the best playing cue i ever owned. got to be something about those whippy shafts.

anyway back to the subject.

i am sitting at the house one weekend watching one of those wood working shows on history channel or pbs or whatever.

they showed where they use steam to soften wood up then bend it in a frame and when it dries it holds that shape .

i got to thinking if you can use steam to bend wood why cant you use steam straighten it ?

i put a big pot of water on the stove and hung my shaft over it vertically, adding water every time it got low. i did this for about 4 hours.

before i go any further let me tell you why i did this. i got the cue dirt cheap. i figured if i messed it up i could buy a shaft and still not have much in the cue. or at the least sell it for what i paid for it.

after 4 hours i dried it off and laid it on my pool table. i rolled it until i found the high spot and laid a thick telephone book on top of it. i then laid a 15 bar bell weight on top of the book to hold the shaft down flat. i left it there for 5 days waiting for it to dry. when i removed the weight and rolled it it was almost perfectly straight. it did not lift at all and has stayed that way for the last 3 years.

i know they say water and wood dont mix but i thought what the heck if a wood worker did it why not try it.

 

[leehayes]

OMG THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I NEVER ROLL MY CUE!! I do not want to know!!!!

It's funny...I just said this to a friend the other day. He's freaked out over this little tiny roll out and he has a hard time playing with his cue. I told him not to roll and he won't know! What difference does it make anyway. Not going to change a thing being that slight.

 

[Fast Lenny]

The cue hangers will work, if the butt is straight and its a minor warp in the shaft which yours appears to be then give it a shot, it will take some time obviously. I hang mine from time to time in my closet but I play so often that I do not get to do it all that much.

 

[mistamikel]

i am going to tell you what i did .... but 1st i want to say no i am not crazy lol.

i bought a meucci gambler that had the shaft warped worse than yours. it played pretty darn good as it was, actually it was probably the best playing cue i ever owned. got to be something about those whippy shafts.

anyway back to the subject.

i am sitting at the house one weekend watching one of those wood working shows on history channel or pbs or whatever.

they showed where they use steam to soften wood up then bend it in a frame and when it dries it holds that shape .

i got to thinking if you can use steam to bend wood why cant you use steam straighten it ?

i put a big pot of water on the stove and hung my shaft over it vertically, adding water every time it got low. i did this for about 4 hours.

before i go any further let me tell you why i did this. i got the cue dirt cheap. i figured if i messed it up i could buy a shaft and still not have much in the cue. or at the least sell it for what i paid for it.

after 4 hours i dried it off and laid it on my pool table. i rolled it until i found the high spot and laid a thick telephone book on top of it. i then laid a 15 bar bell weight on top of the book to hold the shaft down flat. i left it there for 5 days waiting for it to dry. when i removed the weight and rolled it it was almost perfectly straight. it did not lift at all and has stayed that way for the last 3 years.

i know they say water and wood dont mix but i thought what the heck if a wood worker did it why not try it.

Actually I was thinking allmost the same thing, I was gonna leave it in the bathroom and take a super hot shower, then roll it till I found the high point and add weight on it. I thought its all ready kinda messed why not go all the way........But Im a chicken and being piss poor ATM I cant really afford to go and mess up a decent shaft

 

[thefonz]

try working it out

by the looks of it i wouldn't even worry about that. but if it's bugging you that bad......

i sometimes can get warps out by placing a towel on a rounded rail (like a brunswick anniversary, and not on the rubber side either. take your cue and sight down it to determine the direction and beginning part of the warp, mark it with a pencil, then take the shaft and while bowing it on the table against the direction of the warp, work the shaft back and forth lengthwise, starting from the thickest end of the shaft to the thinner but don't go past the point where your shaft runs straight. this takes a lot of practice and touch to be able to get it right. the idea is, that if the wood was cut properly and the shaft was stable for a long time, and the warp developed out of a change in storage conditions, there's a good chance that the wood will want to revert back to it's original shape, but needs a little help.

i did this on rack cues while working at a poolhall for 5 years, probably was successful most of the time in getting cues to go straight again. be careful though if you try, you've got to be patient and accurate when bending the shaft back against itself or else you could warp it in more than one direction.

i'm sure you should be able to find someone else who's done it before, but if you want to attempt it yourself, i'd advise trying it on some house cues first.

p.s. i try not to check the straightness of a cue by rolling it on a pool table, i do it by sighting down the shaft like a rifle. if i do roll it, i'll do it on multiple tables in different directions.

 

[mistamikel]

by the looks of it i wouldn't even worry about that. but if it's bugging you that bad......

i sometimes can get warps out by placing a towel on a rounded rail (like a brunswick anniversary, and not on the rubber side either. take your cue and sight down it to determine the direction and beginning part of the warp, mark it with a pencil, then take the shaft and while bowing it on the table against the direction of the warp, work the shaft back and forth lengthwise, starting from the thickest end of the shaft to the thinner but don't go past the point where your shaft runs straight. this takes a lot of practice and touch to be able to get it right. the idea is, that if the wood was cut properly and the shaft was stable for a long time, and the warp developed out of a change in storage conditions, there's a good chance that the wood will want to revert back to it's original shape, but needs a little help.

i did this on rack cues while working at a poolhall for 5 years, probably was successful most of the time in getting cues to go straight again. be careful though if you try, you've got to be patient and accurate when bending the shaft back against itself or else you could warp it in more than one direction.

i'm sure you should be able to find someone else who's done it before, but if you want to attempt it yourself, i'd advise trying it on some house cues first.

p.s. i try not to check the straightness of a cue by rolling it on a pool table, i do it by sighting down the shaft like a rifle. if i do roll it, i'll do it on multiple tables in different directions.

Thanks for the advice, too bad your not in Calgary or I might have to get you to try it lol, I think Im just gonna leave it and later on get a second shaft and use this one as a back up.

 

[lorider]

Actually I was thinking allmost the same thing, I was gonna leave it in the bathroom and take a super hot shower, then roll it till I found the high point and add weight on it. I thought its all ready kinda messed why not go all the way........But Im a chicken and being piss poor ATM I cant really afford to go and mess up a decent shaft

i really dont think what little time it is subjected to steam during a shower would work.

if i had been in the financial shape back then that i am in now i dont think i would have tried what i did either.

but all i can say is it did work on my shaft.

 

[TATE]

So I got this cue in a trade yesterday and didnt really pay any attention (my fault) to it except to shoot a few games last night, well I took some time today to actually check it out and noticed that when I roll the shaft the top and bottom stay flat to the table but the middle is raised. Any ideas to get it flush again or am I hooped ?? Sorry for the crappy pics but all I have is my celly fone.

If I'm reading what you wrote correctly, this does not indicate a warp at all. If the gap changes when you roll it, then that would be a warp. What we are seeing in the pics is a pro taper. There is alway a gap in a pro taper (or it is indeed warped).

By the way, that's a nice little room for a table you have there, but change the cloth man ~

Chris

 

[mistamikel]

The gap does change during roll.

 

[lorider]

The gap does change during roll.

you are in good shape then if it is a pro taper. i was under the impression it was a warp.

like he said , you got a nice room. that table cloth looks kinda busy though.:wink:

 

[mistamikel]

I need new cloth I know lol, I bought the bud cloth from a member on here a while back because I had a tare in mine. I ended up changing the cloth myself as an experiment lol.
Its time for some decent cloth though hahaha

 

[JB Cases]

i am going to tell you what i did .... but 1st i want to say no i am not crazy lol.

i bought a meucci gambler that had the shaft warped worse than yours. it played pretty darn good as it was, actually it was probably the best playing cue i ever owned. got to be something about those whippy shafts.

anyway back to the subject.

i am sitting at the house one weekend watching one of those wood working shows on history channel or pbs or whatever.

they showed where they use steam to soften wood up then bend it in a frame and when it dries it holds that shape .

i got to thinking if you can use steam to bend wood why cant you use steam straighten it ?

i put a big pot of water on the stove and hung my shaft over it vertically, adding water every time it got low. i did this for about 4 hours.

before i go any further let me tell you why i did this. i got the cue dirt cheap. i figured if i messed it up i could buy a shaft and still not have much in the cue. or at the least sell it for what i paid for it.

after 4 hours i dried it off and laid it on my pool table. i rolled it until i found the high spot and laid a thick telephone book on top of it. i then laid a 15 bar bell weight on top of the book to hold the shaft down flat. i left it there for 5 days waiting for it to dry. when i removed the weight and rolled it it was almost perfectly straight. it did not lift at all and has stayed that way for the last 3 years.

i know they say water and wood dont mix but i thought what the heck if a wood worker did it why not try it.

Actually this IS a time honored way of reshaping wood. And many people don't know it but many cue makers bend the shafts to straighten them before shipping. Some use steam and some do not.