Outsville......... Q and A: Everything Pool.....
- Thread starter The Renfro
- Start date
I got Mike to give me "his" trick for a perfect install of the Ki-Techs....
From the installer of the tips in the picture: "As you've stated in earlier posts. The softs require a new blade. I also wet the sides of the tip to help keep the heat down. I use a wet paper towel. After it's cut flush I lightly sand. I've been just using saliva then burnish and use french lacquer and burnish. I have also tried the liquid burnishing stuff and it does fine as well."
Soft
Medium
From the installer of the tips in the picture: "As you've stated in earlier posts. The softs require a new blade. I also wet the sides of the tip to help keep the heat down. I use a wet paper towel. After it's cut flush I lightly sand. I've been just using saliva then burnish and use french lacquer and burnish. I have also tried the liquid burnishing stuff and it does fine as well."
Soft
Medium
This is great news, Chris. I expect this US open to be filled with great breaks and great reviews for the accu rack.
Blue mako label is excellent. Love the shark theme.
Great White is back in stock this weekend in small Quantities Magnetic and Non-Magnetic....
We modified the formula to make it a little firmer... I originally wanted it to go on easily but it was too easy and it was easy to transfer too much chalk which was causing it to be a messier than needed....
So far the reviews coming in on the formula change have been stellar....
We are also doing a promo on the Diamond 9 template with a piece of the Great White or a Tip of your hardness for a discounted price....
US Open Setup video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bumddH-zTOk
The tips are still doing well and the wet paper towel trick seems to be working well to cut down on the install issues from heat... THANKS PALMETTO!!!!!
Hammerheads have replaced almost all other break tips locally.. We are still doing money back guarantees and noone has taken us up on it yet =)
Yes it jumps....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCCWipQHutM
You can find us at Outsville.com as usual and we have some videos up now of the rack templates....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqDeO3meeD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUIvXHcRsrU
We modified the formula to make it a little firmer... I originally wanted it to go on easily but it was too easy and it was easy to transfer too much chalk which was causing it to be a messier than needed....
So far the reviews coming in on the formula change have been stellar....
We are also doing a promo on the Diamond 9 template with a piece of the Great White or a Tip of your hardness for a discounted price....
US Open Setup video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bumddH-zTOk
The tips are still doing well and the wet paper towel trick seems to be working well to cut down on the install issues from heat... THANKS PALMETTO!!!!!
Hammerheads have replaced almost all other break tips locally.. We are still doing money back guarantees and noone has taken us up on it yet =)
Yes it jumps....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCCWipQHutM
You can find us at Outsville.com as usual and we have some videos up now of the rack templates....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqDeO3meeD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUIvXHcRsrU
We are now officially moving to an installer/maker model on the Ki-Tech tips... What this means is that if you are a DIY guy you can only buy upto 5 at a time in the store.. It also means if you are not a DIY guy we will have listings of all of the installers/Cue Makers by City/State/Country that will have the Ki-Techs available....
We are growing and to move into OEM markets with cuemakers we need to build a network of installers...
If you are an installer or you have a local installer that you think would be part of the network the Installer details can be emailed to you if you will send your inquiry to Outsville@hotmail.com
Chris
We are growing and to move into OEM markets with cuemakers we need to build a network of installers...
If you are an installer or you have a local installer that you think would be part of the network the Installer details can be emailed to you if you will send your inquiry to Outsville@hotmail.com
Chris
What does it mean to seal a shaft? What is the process and what are the benefits?
Also what is the best way to remove chalk from a shaft? Specifically the ferrule too?
Also what is the best way to remove chalk from a shaft? Specifically the ferrule too?
Sealing a shaft is simply filling the grain of the wooden shaft with a sealing agent.. In the old days we never had sealers on hand and we would burnish the shafts with a piece of leather or a $1 bill... I heard the really good players used hunerts but back then I never had one and likely wasn't good enough to have any business using it.....
Today they have all sort of sealers out from all sorts of makers... Tiger, cue clean, Q-Slick are all out there but you can use a good old fashioned laquer based sanding sealer from home depot or lowes with similar results and you get way more product for your money... At least that's the word street.. Out local supply room carries the Q-Slick product so that's what I have down in the man cave....
After sealing you can add a good coat of wax... once again some use carnuba car wax and some go for the products made for pool players like Q-Wax or Cue Doctor's Cue wax which I have had a can of for at least a decade stuff lasts forever when you keep changing cues/shafts before they get dirty LOL... Other manufacturers are out there if you check Seyberts, Muellers, Pooldawg or Ozone....
As far as cleaning a shaft.... These days the magic eraser and denatured alcohol seem to be a goto for lots of people.. In the old days lighter fluid was a standard... Usually you start with a mildly abrasive piece of scotchbright or something similar... You only want to remove the hand oils and dirt you don't want to sand the shaft so you hit it a few times to raise the grain and then go after it with the magic eraser....
20 Years ago when I did repairs I always preferred Fast Orange hand cleaner with Lanolin for cleaning shafts because it was mildly abrasive and had the chemicals that cut thru oils and the lanolin let me burnish the shaft to a high luster without any other products... I always carried a small bottle of it in my case but times changed....
Now these are my own opinions and I am sure there are almost as many ways to clean, seal and wax a shaft as there are players so keep that in mind...
The biggest moral of the story is however you clean it do not use anything super abrasive as you only want to clean it not turn it into a toothpick...
Usually they get 8 bucks for cleaning and sealing a shaft at the local pool room on the lathe which takes like 5 minutes... That may be the other reason I still have a ton of cuewax =D
Thank you very much for your response! It's very helpful.
I have some more questions if you don't mind! A few months ago, I went to a local repair shop to get some dent removals done. When he gave my shaft back, I noticed the wood was significantly more bare than it was before, the dents were gone and the shaft was relatively warm upon return. What did he do? Remove my seal? I've noticed after a few days of playing, I haven't noticed the bare wood anymore due to the accumulated hand oils, chalk etc. But whenever I wipe my shaft with a damp cloth and water, it's back to being how it was before. How do I return it to how it was when it was brand new? My local repair man said to use only water and damp cloth. I told him I previously used a Q slick to clean my shaft but he told me to stop doing it because it dries up my shaft.
My other question is, can you please provide a step by step guide on how to seal and wax your shaft with materials I need? At home, I have wax and a Q-Wiz that was given to me from a friend, both products I do not know how use.
Just want to say... all this info is about the best in terms of info/time I've read on AZB.
Chris,
FYI, I did careful testing of a range of chalks from "cheap" to "premium." The main conclusion of all of the testing was:
The brand of chalk doesn’t really matter much, unless you don’t chalk often or well enough, in which case the premium chalk might help; although, they can result in more-frequent cling.
For those interested, the full set of tests can be viewed in the following online video:
NV F.1 - Pool Chalk Experiment - Does the brand really make a difference?
And all of the results are concisely summarized in the following article that will appear in Billiards Digest soon:
"Does the Brand of Chalk Really Matter?" (BD, July, 2015)
If you send me a cube or two of your Great White chalk (I would prefer blue so I can better see the chalk marks on the CB), I would be happy to put it through my tests, as I did for Magic Chalk on the chalk comparison resource page. In case you want to do this, I'll PM you my mailing address.
Regards,
Dave
PS: Excellent thread.
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Dave,
I think the blue would be a better fit as well to evaluate transfer on the cue ball... We are still trying to color match Simonis Tournament blue and it's been a bear so far... Am hoping to have it completed by July 1st... Will save your address and send you some of the blue as soon it's formulated....
Chris
Could you not just use another coloured ball (8 ball for instance) as the cueball so the white chalk shows up easily.
Usually to remove dents or dings the repairman will either steam the dents out or they will microwave a wet papertowel and lay it over the dent to raise the dent back by raising the grain of the wood... They then will follow up with a glass rod to smooth the wood back down... They likely didn't get a good sealer and wax job over the repaired dents if you can feel them vs the rest of the shaft... Those spots are going to get dirty first as well....
The Q Wiz has 2 sides one is rough but not too rough and is used to open up the grain of the wood and get rid of dirt and grime.. You don't want to over do it just use it a few times to get the dirt out and grain open...
The 2nd side of the Q-Wiz is to burnish the shaft... You use it to buff the shaft and it will burnish the shaft and seal the grain instead of using a sealing product... Sealers in my opinion do a better job but it you are going to be using a wax your results on a burnished shaft should be almst as good as on a sealed shaft... The wax you treat just like you would on your car... apply it to the shaft wait for it to dry and buff off the residue with a nice soft cloth....
Fiberglass or graphite clad shafts you are on your own tho... I haven't owned one so I have zero experience on them...
Chris
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Good point, but I prefer not hit my object balls with a chalked tip, especially if I plan to push the miscue limit. I don't want to create surface damage on my object balls if I don't have to.
Regards,
Dave
I have a question!
When are you going to get some regional distributors?!?! I know I could get some cue makers on board with the break tips, and probably the Ki techs as well!
When are you going to get some regional distributors?!?! I know I could get some cue makers on board with the break tips, and probably the Ki techs as well!
We tried using the 5ball when we did our transfer tests to get a better comparison but it really would have been better if both chalks were blue..
We have revised the formula to make it firmer so it should transfer less than in the photo... I may have to dig around and find all of the chalk brands I have and redo these for the Outsville site....
As you can see on the top of the Great White I wasn't using anything but a towel to wipe off the tip between tries so there was some cross contamination... I think Dr Dave was smart enough to avoid that completely.....
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We are now in the process of signing up installers/repairmen as authorized installers and creating state by state listings... This is the next step we need to take to go into any OEM deals with Cue Makers... We won't get to distributors until after this phase of growth... We have to have excess capacity before we move into the next step...
Thanks Colin that is appreciated... I have been a fan of many of your posts for years and have been enjoying the recent discussion on outside vs inside...
I know some people here think I am only here to sell things but I was here before we even had a thought of making our first product and have always been a tinkerer and researcher.. That was the whole reason for the Q and A thread... I didn't want to make everyone feel like I was always trying to sell things but I didn't want to stop getting information and ideas out there.
I think everyone benefits from an educated consumer including our competition except for the guys that are trying to sneak in the back door with knock offs with brand new names.. Watching people buying pigs in polks has never made me happy....
The one thing I find AZ invaluabe for is feedback.. Since we make things we can always make improvements on the fly.. Sometimes I think it would be way easier to place a monthly order than start a monthly run.. The thing is I love the R&D phase and process/product improvements so I am where I think I need to be...
I've been addicted to this game and have tried to be a student of it for over 30 years now... I hope to be healthy and keep playing for another 30.....
Chris