That sounds like rogue points, not a failure to find center. For a plethora of reasons, it's pretty common for a full splice to have at least one rogue point that CANNOT be made even with the others by manipulating centers. It could be cut deeper or shallower, the wood could have warped or come of round, the two pieces not glued together on perfect center line, etc.
I know you are famous and have built tons more very highly respected cues than me, which are coveted anywhere people play cue sports.
However, the statement above bothers me. The only way that it would be true is if the blank maker is cutting poor joints, and forcing, rather than tuning the fits. Otherwise, using a "dialable" chuck (Independent 4 jaw or Adjust-tru) at both ends of the cue to dial the points in will make a simple 4 splice, or 4 splice with veneers come in. If one point is short (or long) the cue builder did not understand (or take time) centering it at both ends of the splice. A full splice dowel may have to be re-centered as it is cut and tapered, even well aged wood still moves as stress is relieved. It is a lot of extra work.
All the geometry in a WELL CUT long splice forces it to be centered. The joint won't go together without gaps if it is not centered about itself. Unless there was serious fudging like incorrectly, but individually tweaking one rogue prong significantly to force a fit the poor geometry did not support. This could occur (the need to tweak) if the blanks of both parts of the joint were not perfectly square. Having the Vee cutter perfectly on center makes better joints, but slightly off won't change the length of the Vee's, for instance. Not having square blanks for both parts will change the lengths of the Vee's. Rectangular will set up a situation where both sets of opposite points are the same length, if the butt is centered when turning it. Rhomboid will lead to stair steps. (This is for conventional method of making full splices referenced off the faces. If an index arrangement is used, less than perfectly square blanks could be used, but thin-end support becomes non-trivial for non-squares).
If only one end of the blank is dialed to center, then there will always be a short point after the next cut even on a perfect blank.
The above does not apply to 360 blanks or set ups. With more than one full splice in a single blank, it may only be possible to average out differences between two sets of points unless the blank builder is extremely conscientious, skilled, and lucky.
He might make a perfect blank, but if any of the sections move a bit with turning and aging, it will throw the points off as Qbilder described such that making one end perfect would cause the other to be "way off". On very long splices, some fudging (maybe 1/16" to 3/32") can be accommodated by sanding such that gaps won't show and very few could discern without mic'ing the shaft all around.
This is probably why most of the pictures( at leas the ones i've seen) of original 360 type cues have some very divergent points and butterflies.
Most of the above does continue to support Qbilders initial point that making full splices is a wasteful endeavor for anyone who does not want or can't set up the equipment to do it perfectly, leave it set up, and understand how to tweak it as necessary. This may even include building your own tooling (cutters).
Sunmmary: setting up to do full splices without full commitment and with partial measures will probably lead to poor joints no one can dial in. I doubt many blanks are made that way just because it is harder and more time consuming to always have to tweak and bend them to fit. Full splice joints made to go together well can only be made that way if centered about the joint. It would be up to the cue maker to dial both ends in, maybe several times, to maintain that orientation. Or to send the blank back if poor joinery is discovered.
smt
