Shaft Roughness Problem

A

AnesthesiaCat

New member
I use a Cuetec R360 and I took a 'tip' from az that cleaning my wood shaft with a baby wipe is a good idea. I tried it and immediately found that it doesn't feel as smooth anymore and my shaft has a slight roughness to it and it just doesn't feel the same. I've heard of using sandpaper to smoothen it but I feel like that'll ruin my r360. Any helpful tips will be appreciated. Thanks fellow pool players .
 
Burnish it. Since you probably don't have a lathe take your shaft off lay it across your lap. Take a dollar bill wrap it around your shaft with one hand. With the other hand roll the shaft across your lap back and forth quickly allowing the bill to rub (Burnish) the wood fibers smooth. You may want to apply some wax while your at it.

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Use a piece of leather, veggie or oil tanned, no glossy finish and rub up and down the shaft with firm pressure for a while.

Leather is used to put the finest edges on metal, it polishes straight razors, my knives all shave, hell my hatchet does. I use a leather strop on all of them. If it works for metal at the Rc57 neighborhood, it will certainly polish a shaft.
 
RoadHustler said:
Burnish it. Since you probably don't have a lathe take your shaft off lay it across your lap. Take a dollar bill wrap it around your shaft with one hand. With the other hand roll the shaft across your lap back and forth quickly allowing the bill to rub (Burnish) the wood fibers smooth. You may want to apply some wax while your at it.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Any specific type of wax?
 
Wax

AnesthesiaCat said:
Any specific type of wax?
Click to expand...

Any paste wax should help...............
The synthetics waxes are slightly better IMO .

Renaissance or Meguiars pure polymer is the only 2 synethic waxes I have tested ,
both seemed better then the natural based waxes.

Synthetic waxes have a higher melting point and dry harder.

If your cue has a resin finish the baby wipes might of soften the finish if so
you might want to polish out the shaft with a fine polishing cream.
 
I use cue wax from cue man billiards it came with my lathe and smells great.

A few friends around here use something called bowling alley wax.

I think I agree with mortuary Mike probably a hard car wax would work. or maybe a furniture wax something made for handling would work.

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OP no worries, get yourself a q wiz or a piece of leather and burnish the shaft as has been suggested. Sealing with wax is not a bad idea but burnishing will make the roughness disappear.
 
AnesthesiaCat said:
I use a Cuetec R360 and I took a 'tip' from az that cleaning my wood shaft with a baby wipe is a good idea. I tried it and immediately found that it doesn't feel as smooth anymore and my shaft has a slight roughness to it and it just doesn't feel the same. I've heard of using sandpaper to smoothen it but I feel like that'll ruin my r360. Any helpful tips will be appreciated. Thanks fellow pool players .
Click to expand...



Just do a few rounds of 1500 grit sandpaper and then burnish it with leather.
It'll feel better than new.

Never understood the point of constantly cleaning shafts.
But keep at it if it makes you happy.
 
Hi,

I obviously am the only one in this thread who actually HAS a R360, and has had the exact same problem.
The "roughness" comes from the 4 pieces of maple being laminated and at the sides where the wood is grain vertical (I think it's called, quartersawn is the method to achieve this).

Under no circumstance burnish or polish your shaft; you will end up with a smooth shaft when you simply touch it but as soon as you start playing it will get sticky (because of slight moisture) like hell.
Also do not use low melting point waxes like beeswax or mixtures containing that.

First clean your shaft meticulously; this is very important.
Take the rough side of a sponge and rub the rough spots for a while.
Then take synthetic wax with a high melting point and work it into the wood; let soak shortly (~30min) and remove any excess wax immediately with smooth cloth.
Let harden for 24h and polish with smooth cloth again.

Voila.

If you are nuts there can be multiple waxing / sanding / waxing steps involved, like the Ibanez velvet necks are made.

I prefer the feel of the universal shaft by far.

Cheers and good luck.
MG
 
In my experience, using leather to burnish is less than ideal. You can generate too much heat with a leather pad and not know you're doing it. Heat is not good for cue shafts. Better to burnish with a folded paper towel. Sparkle is my choice.
You may have raised enough grain to the point where sanding is necessary. Take your shaft to your nearest friendly neighborhood cue repair person and tell him what happened. He'll probably fix it while you wait and if he installs a tip, while you're there, he'll probably do it for free. :)
 
Water or any liquid on a shaft is bad... That's why it feels rough...

Never cleaned my shafts.. The oil from your hands will seal the wood when you first get it, then just keep your hands clean..

Much less maintenance than all these people with waxing concoctions, etc..

1. Wash hands
2. Wipe with clean napkin occasionally
3. Shoot pool
 
Wybrook said:
Water or any liquid on a shaft is bad... That's why it feels rough...

Never cleaned my shafts.. The oil from your hands will seal the wood when you first get it, then just keep your hands clean..

Much less maintenance than all these people with waxing concoctions, etc..

1. Wash hands
2. Wipe with clean napkin occasionally
3. Shoot pool
Click to expand...

Same here. I think I mentioned, I even order my shafts raw if I can get the maker to do it...no sealer or anything.
 
pocket said:
Personally I just don't like the blue. But I don't constantly clean it, couple times a year with wax does a good job.
Click to expand...

OK. That explains it.
If it's for personal - as opposed to functional - reasons I understand completely.
 
M.G. said:
I obviously am the only one in this thread who actually HAS a R360, and has had the exact same problem.
Click to expand...

bzzzzz, wrong answer try again! I've had my 360 for two or three years now.

The "roughness" comes from the 4 pieces of maple being laminated and at the sides where the wood is grain vertical (I think it's called, quartersawn is the method to achieve this).
Click to expand...

Definitely a laminated shaft. The roughness being described is the raising of the wood's grain from moisture, I'd swear it was on all four quarters. Happens to any wood shaft (that hasn't been sealed).

Under no circumstance burnish or polish your shaft; you will end up with a smooth shaft when you simply touch it but as soon as you start playing it will get sticky (because of slight moisture) like hell.
Click to expand...

I burnish my shaft quite a bit and have never had an issue like this.

First clean your shaft meticulously; this is very important.
Take the rough side of a sponge and rub the rough spots for a while.
Then take synthetic wax with a high melting point and work it into the wood; let soak shortly (~30min) and remove any excess wax immediately with smooth cloth.
Let harden for 24h and polish with smooth cloth again.
Click to expand...

Definitely.
 
Easy fix without any wax. What any beat or rough shaft needs is the 'treatment'. Take it to a respected repairman with a lathe and drop the $25. Then..

Buy a small micro fiber towel to wipe cue down after play. Toss a couple of small ace hardware thick brown paper bags in your case to burnish and your shaft before you shoot and it will stay slick and smooth, never sticking on you.

-Kat
 
It's simple. Woodworkers deal with this all the time. Water and sweat and wet diaper wipes raise the wood fibers like little stiff whiskers that were cut from the lathe and sandpaper on the shaft.

To smooth the shaft, sand it with 600 a few strokes, then 1000 dry. These fibers are now sanded off. If you wish, you can prevent it from being raised due to sweat by raising the grain one more time, sanding it wet, then letting it dry and sanding it dry.

I use a paper bag as burnishing material after that to smooth the shaft. This will hold a long time, even years, if the fibers were properly raised then sanded off. In other words it's a good thing to raise the grain and sand it smooth.
 
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