cue too heavy w/out weight bolt..?

OOps

I calculated the volumes incorrectly - let me rewind.

Sorry

Gary

Yeah,

Recalculating it correctly it now looks like it would take a 17-1/2" bore using a 3/4" diameter maple dowel. Unless this is a one piece or full-spliced butt, that is mostly likely not do-able nor desirable.

:embarrassed2:

Gary

FWIW A 1/2" dowel would be longer than the butt!:eek:
 
Yeah,

Recalculating it correctly it now looks like it would take a 17-1/2" bore using a 3/4" diameter maple dowel. Unless this is a one piece or full-spliced butt, that is mostly likely not do-able nor desirable.

:embarrassed2:

Gary

FWIW A 1/2" dowel would be longer than the butt!:eek:

ok thanks for all the impressive calculations. much appreciated.

Ok Dudes and Lady Dudes.. I took the rubber butt cap off which is screwed into an aluminum bolt that is screwed into the inside of the cue. The butt cap, Alan screw, and weighbolt type of bolt weighs in at a fraction over an ounce.

I NEED a rubber bumper on it of some sort because the places i play are not the greatest of flooring. I weighed the (what i presume is) aluminum bolt & it is roughly half an ounce. I weighed the rubber bumper with the allen screw and it is roughly half an ounce(obviously).

Do you guys have any idea how i could replace this system with a "buttcap" or whatever u call the thing with something lighter in weight that i could maybe glue in there or something..? idk :confused:

BTW the girth of the rubber looks to be right at 1 inch.

Thanks in advance ppl!!
 

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I didn't try to disparage anyone by questioning your figures.

I have tried to lighten a cue by drilling out ebony or purple heart and replacing it with maple. I was amazed on how little change I actually got.



Kim
 
ok thanks for all the impressive calculations. much appreciated.

Ok Dudes and Lady Dudes.. I took the rubber butt cap off which is screwed into an aluminum bolt that is screwed into the inside of the cue. The butt cap, Alan screw, and weighbolt type of bolt weighs in at a fraction over an ounce.

I NEED a rubber bumper on it of some sort because the places i play are not the greatest of flooring. I weighed the (what i presume is) aluminum bolt & it is roughly half an ounce. I weighed the rubber bumper with the allen screw and it is roughly half an ounce(obviously).

Do you guys have any idea how i could replace this system with a "buttcap" or whatever u call the thing with something lighter in weight that i could maybe glue in there or something..? idk :confused:

BTW the girth of the rubber looks to be right at 1 inch.

Thanks in advance ppl!!

That information helps.

The cavity the aluminum bolt threads into can be slightly enlarged/deepened. Then, the end of the cavity can be plugged with something much lighter than the aluminum bolt in order to receive a shorter (and hence lighter) retaining screw for the same bumper. This should drop the weight by 3/4 of an ounce. This is pretty easy work with minimal impact to the cue. The balance point will change though.

As I asked before, if the joint pin and joint collar are steel, they can also be changed to reduce weight. If they are both steel, changing those materials will get you the other 3/4 of an ounce and help keep the balance point largely unchanged. Changing the pin and collar (which would likely entail a finish spot repair) should be more expensive than the slight mod to the butt end.
 
That information helps.

The cavity the aluminum bolt threads into can be slightly enlarged/deepened. Then, the end of the cavity can be plugged with something much lighter than the aluminum bolt in order to receive a shorter (and hence lighter) retaining screw for the same bumper. This should drop the weight by 3/4 of an ounce. This is pretty easy work with minimal impact to the cue. The balance point will change though.

As I asked before, if the joint pin and joint collar are steel, they can also be changed to reduce weight. If they are both steel, changing those materials will get you the other 3/4 of an ounce and help keep the balance point largely unchanged. Changing the pin and collar (which would likely entail a finish spot repair) should be more expensive than the slight mod to the butt end.

The cavity is the size of that bolt and id guess its roughly 7-10 inches deep into the butt (the cavity).

So youre saying I could send this to someone who has a lathe and they could drill it out just a minimal width slightly bigger than the bolt and it would lighten it 3/4 of an ounce.

this sorta scares me because i know the woods and materials can get hot and swell and ughhh not good for the cue..
 
I didn't try to disparage anyone by questioning your figures.

I have tried to lighten a cue by drilling out ebony or purple heart and replacing it with maple. I was amazed on how little change I actually got.



Kim

Kim,

If that comment was to me - No Disparagement Taken!!!:grin:

I was originally wrong, and as the corrected figures show, boring out a heavy wood and filling the bore with a lighter wood doesn't gain you much.

Kelly_Guy (in the background) has been real helpful and I would remind folks that he has a program that he sells which can calculate these kinds of trade-offs - AND Get It Right The First Time!!!:banghead:

Gary
 
the 1/2 ounce of the bolt weight being gone feels a LOT better strangely. I placed just the rubber back in the whole and it feels decent. Would like to have another 1/4 to a 1/2 ounce more gone but i think i could get used to it..

Now i realize i need a longer rubber cap though because the thing is not very protective.. but then its gonna gain more weight haha.. i hate this.
 
It would work, it wouldn't weigh much, very inexpensive, not at all invasive.


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It would work, it wouldn't weigh much, very inexpensive, not at all invasive.


View attachment 242911

That's awesome. Never thought about using those on a cue before and you can stack them for a bigger bumper to provide a bit more protection at least as long as the adhesive holds :thumbup:

Good shooting to you!

Kevin

There's always the option of a plastic/nylon bolt if you want a bolt in there that weighs almost nothing. I did a very minor modification on a toilet seat bolt to alter a cue's weight and balance. It actually looked pretty nice and at the size of the bumper hole you have I don't think you would have to alter the bolt. You can get them at home depot or lowes for a couple bucks and they look just like cue weight bolts. Make sure to bring the bolt from your cue to get the ones of a similar thread type. You can always put a stick on rubber or felt pad or two on the super light bolt as well.
 
I just went through the math for you and here's what I got:

Densities of woods vary alot, but if we use 65lbs/cu.ft for ebony and 44lbs/cu.ft for maple, then one way of looking at it is that you lose 21lbs for every cu.ft of ebony you replace with maple.

For a 1.5oz weight loss:

If you wanted to bore the handle out with a 3/4" drill and fill that hole with a 3/4" maple dowel, the hole would have to be about 4.366in long - call it 4 3/8".

A 1/2" dowel would have to be 9.822" long (about 9 7/8").

Hope this helps,



Gary

Very helpful!!!!!! I would have guessed he had to go longer. Great post! :grin:
 
The cavity is the size of that bolt and id guess its roughly 7-10 inches deep into the butt (the cavity).

So youre saying I could send this to someone who has a lathe and they could drill it out just a minimal width slightly bigger than the bolt and it would lighten it 3/4 of an ounce.

this sorta scares me because i know the woods and materials can get hot and swell and ughhh not good for the cue..

I was saying a slight enlargement of the hole AND the removal of the aluminum bolt AND a shorter cap screw retaining the bumper will get you at least the 3/4 of an ounce, based on the numbers you provided. More if the diameter is increased a little.

Honest, don't be scared. Yes, any competent cuemaker with a lathe should be able to do this. Given you ALREADY have that hole, this was essentially already done to reduce weight. That hole is probably threaded the entire depth. A drill removing a small amount of material is not going to generate much heat. It can be step drilled removing only a small amount of diameter each time creating very little heat if any. Drilling a hole from scratch will generate some heat, but still not enough to compromise the cue if the cuemaker handles it correctly.

There could also be a weight deeper in the cavity. Talking to the original cuemaker is always the best policy regarding this type of thing. All of this is speculation, though the information you provided sounds pretty accurate and fairly typical.

On a miscue or hard hit, it is possible that bumper could become dislodged without a retaining screw holding it in. It just depends on how recessed it is and how much of an interference fit there is holding it in.
 
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... On a miscue or hard hit, it is possible that bumper could become dislodged without a retaining screw holding it in. It just depends on how recessed it is and how much of an interference fit there is holding it in.

If the bumper (with no retaining screw) is a bit too loose, it can be tightened up by putting some masking tape or 2-sided tape around the portion inside the butt cap (or by putting the tape inside the butt cap rather than around the bumper). I've done that on cues of my own to eliminate both the weight bolt and the retaining screw but keep the bumper.
 
If the bumper (with no retaining screw) is a bit too loose, it can be tightened up by putting some masking tape or 2-sided tape around the portion inside the butt cap (or by putting the tape inside the butt cap rather than around the bumper). I've done that on cues of my own to eliminate both the weight bolt and the retaining screw but keep the bumper.

Agreed. But, without the aluminum bolt in place the OP described the bumper as now not sticking out far enough for it to do its job. Apparently, the aluminum bolt was setting the depth of the bumper instead of a counterbore. Given that, something should replace the bolt to set the bumper depth in this case. Since that needs to be done, might as well thread the new depth stop and use the shortest possible cap screw to retain the bumper, IMO.
 
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I don't know if this has been brought up, but a plug bumper or threaded bumper could also be used. Then you can bore as deep as you want into the back and not fill it. There is a big-name supplier that sells a plug bumper for a .625 hole or a 3/4-10 threaded bumper as well (not sure of posting rules but I'm sure most of you can figure it out). There is also one that threads into a 3/8-16 hole. This might go in where the weight bolt was with little or no machining at all, depending on the weight bolt.
 
Very helpful!!!!!! I would have guessed he had to go longer. Great post! :grin:

Well, I hope you read further down in the thread because I was mistaken - it is necessary to go much longer in reality.

But Thank You!

Gary
 
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