I need to touch up a point. It is black veneer what would you use?

breakin8

breakin8

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The cue is a full slice. Three points are perfect. One point is a 1/8 short. I shimed the blank but came to final size before perfect. So what do you guys use to touch in the veneer? Please don't say Eddie Wheat uses a sharpie. Thanks for the help in advanced.
 
I hate to tell you this but sell it as is and start another cue, some players don't think twice about 1/8th in but a cue collector will. Good Luck--Leonard
 
Hi,

1/8 is not to much to sand the other 3 back. Coat the forearm and veneers with shellac first and use 220 and sand with 100 psi air. 1/8 sand back should not leave flat spots if you fold the paper and be careful.

I bet if you measure back from the joint that the other 3 are not perfect with just one short one unless the end chipped out. So a least one other should be less than 1/8.

JMO,

Rick
 
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Murray Tucker said:
If my name was going on the cue then it would be in the trash.
Click to expand...

Some very good advice here.
What is more important to you the maker, is why the point is uneven in the 1st place.
I would think that that this is something that you need to discover.
 
EightballJunkie said:
If material is coming off it's going to be, if even slightly, out of round. How noticeable it is after the finish goes on is a different story. It might not be enough to feel but "sighting" down the length cue, the telltale distortions in the finish are usually easy to spot ..just saying.
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Hi,

Before the finish goes on I believe most CMs apply a substrate as a base for your clear coat but some cue makers do not use a substrate and go all clear coat. In that case your point is well taken.

When you do apply a substrate, this is where you can compensate the elevation imperfection that can be sanded concentrically and then clear coated. Sighted down the cue into a light source with only a 1/8 point run out that has been sanded, substrated and then cleared should looks a flat as a florescent light bulb it you know the leveling trick.

The OP here has painted himself into a corner and is asking for help. I don't think there is a cue maker alive or dead that has not at one point in his journey resorted to sanding a point or two. This what is called making your bones. To junk that cue only robs you of the chance to gather more experience by finishing that project to the end.

Once you have mastered getting your points dead on from the get go you don't ever paint yourself in that corner any more.

In the first 10 or so SPs I have built I was ecstatic when I could hold an average of 1/8" differential between point height. It is not an easy thing to do until you have complete understanding and control over all things that can effect the results. Concentricity is something that you must have vigilance in obtaining and maintaining in all of you equipment and control processes.

BTW, I have seen many SP cues built by some high end cue makers out there where they just leave the 1/8" difference there without fixing it. And that's cool too. Sneaky Pete's are not art cues.

JMO,

Rick
 
Once a few years ago someone had me refinish a Richard Black cue that had the finish chipped in several places which meant that the whole finish had to come off. The points were perfect. Needless to say after I took the finish off one of the points was shorter than the others and there was a shadow in the wood where the rest of the point had been. The point had been corrected with a magic marker or some other fine tipped utensil. Needless to say I had to repair the cue the same way, with a straight edge and extra fine tipped magic marker. When it was finished you could not tell one was shorter than the other. I still told the guy about the problem. Don't know if it came from Richard Black this way or if it had been refinished at some other time and somone else screwed up.

Sometimes these things happen. You have 4 choices: Inlays on top of the points, draw in the short point, sell the cue at a discount, or throw it in the trash and start over.
 
To me, coloring it in IS the Eddie Wheat way. Either leave it and move on, or throw it in the burn pile. Coloring it in is not an option I would support. Later down the road someone will discover it and then your name gets put into the same pile as Eddie's, IMO.
Dave
 
I guarantee that you would be totally amazed at the number of points that are 'penciled' in.
As long as you can get away with it and go undiscovered, you're a hero for doing such incredible point work.
Once outed, you get to spend time in Eddie's world.
I'm not summarily dismissing the practice. Like I said, you'd be amazed at the list of who's who.
Nor am I all that impressed with the attitude that, if it's off by .005" it's not leaving my shop.
I mean, it's very noble and all but here's the difference.
One guy is selling a cue that he's got substantial hrs & effort in and he's going to put some money in his pocket.
There other guy, because of his personal sense of perfection, is filling his dumpster with expensive wood.
There's is nothing wrong with striving for perfection but here's the problem; it doesn't exist.

KJ
 
It's your hand work and it is what it is. Leave it alone. I do know that if you paint in an end you are cheating and sanding isn't any better.

This examining every detail of a cue for any tiny flaw is something that came along in the last 20 years or so. My feeling about that is it is okay as long as the person who is doing that microscopic looking doesn't mind of his boss does the same to him and his work every time payday comes along.

My goal is to keep trying new things and try to make every new cue better than the last and if that becomes impossible, it's time to stop.

1 point that is .125" shorter that the rest sounds about perfect to me
 
KJ Cues said:
I guarantee that you would be totally amazed at the number of points that are 'penciled' in.
As long as you can get away with it and go undiscovered, you're a hero for doing such incredible point work.
Once outed, you get to spend time in Eddie's world.
I'm not summarily dismissing the practice. Like I said, you'd be amazed at the list of who's who.
Nor am I all that impressed with the attitude that, if it's off by .005" it's not leaving my shop.
I mean, it's very noble and all but here's the difference.
One guy is selling a cue that he's got substantial hrs & effort in and he's going to put some money in his pocket.
There other guy, because of his personal sense of perfection, is filling his dumpster with expensive wood.
There's is nothing wrong with striving for perfection but here's the problem; it doesn't exist.

KJ
Click to expand...

Hi,

Very poignant remarks KJ. Like Machiavelli points out in "The Prince", Perception is Reality.

Part of Cue Making is learning how to work in the gray areas when you are making your bones. Once you get your equipment and processes tuned in, keeping points "on" is not a big deal or that hard of a thing, IMO.

5 years ago, I was sweating bullets when I was turning down every blank I produced.

One thing that I found that helped me over come point offsets was to put hard stops on the Y Axis of my milling table to control the exact imbedment of my cutter instead of just running up to a dial number. One for 4 and one for 5 pointers. I also have indexed dowel pins and holes for setting the slight difference in the bed angle for 5s and 4s. After doing that, bingo - repeatability as long as your concentricity is true on your tapering set up. I cut my point grooves after gluing my forearm to a 30" dowel so I don't have to deal with concentricity aberrations from the A-Joint connection.

I am a big believer in dedicated machines for most operations in cue making to eliminate adjustments between processes. When you can set it and forget it, you are ahead of the game concerning process control, IMO, you are now flying the plane and the plane is not flying you kinda thing.

Rick G
 
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scdiveteam said:
Hi,

Before the finish goes on I believe most CMs apply a substrate as a base for your clear coat but some cue makers do not use a substrate and go all clear coat. In that case your point is well taken.

When you do apply a substrate, this is where you can compensate the elevation imperfection that can be sanded concentrically and then clear coated. Sighted down the cue into a light source with only a 1/8 point run out that has been sanded, substrated and then cleared should looks a flat as a florescent light bulb it you know the leveling trick.

The OP here has painted himself into a corner and is asking for help. I don't think there is a cue maker alive or dead that has not at one point in his journey resorted to sanding a point or two. This what is called making your bones. To junk that cue only robs you of the chance to gather more experience by finishing that project to the end.Once you have mastered getting your points dead on from the get go you don't ever paint yourself in that corner any more.

In the first 10 or so SPs I have built I was ecstatic when I could hold an average of 1/8" differential between point height. It is not an easy thing to do until you have complete understanding and control over all things that can effect the results. Concentricity is something that you must have vigilance in obtaining and maintaining in all of you equipment and control processes.

BTW, I have seen many SP cues built by some high end cue makers out there where they just leave the 1/8" difference there without fixing it. And that's cool too. Sneaky Pete's are not art cues.

JMO,

Rick
Click to expand...

If he junks the cue, it's a lesson that will always be remembered.
Sharpee'd , penned or painted tips are more common than one can assume.
Spears and cloves were invented b/c wood MOVES.
Often wood moves spirally.

Fwiw, one point being off while 3 are good means one point had a shallower cavity IMHO.
 
KJ Cues said:
[...]
One guy is selling a cue that he's got substantial hrs & effort in and he's going to put some money in his pocket.
There other guy, because of his personal sense of perfection, is filling his dumpster with expensive wood.
[...]
Click to expand...

There are other options. Burton Spain used to turn mistakes into a ~ 3/4" cylinder, round off one end, and use them for handles on toilet-plungers he gave (as gifts) to friends. I doubt he even had a dumpster.

Today, one of his plungers might possibly be worth even MORE than one of his cues - being just that much more unique.

TW
 
Thanks for all the good info. I should have put pics on this is not off very much at all. I was looking for a easy way. There is no easy way in cue building.
PS: I Dont have dumpster yet. But my over sized shop trash can fills up quick. My first year of building had about 50/50 ratio. Its much better now. This is year 2 of building and year 4 of real repairs. Before that it was just easy stuff tips ferrules.
 
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breakin8 said:
Thanks for all the good info. I should have put pics on this is not off very much at all. I was looking for a easy way. There is no easy way in cue building.
Click to expand...

Hi,

You started a good thread that makes people think and react.

Rick
 
I'm pretty sure no cue I make is going be in a collectors stash so I'm Sorry to all those that think perfect points mean that much!!!!
But,I dont like perfect points therefore I'm never going try to get them perfect!!!!Why have a custom hand made cue that looks like it came out of a machine
 
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