The REAL Cost of CF Shafts

Cost is commensurate with raw materials costs combined with the time and financial investment in research and development of the product. R&D costs are probably more that you can imagine so they set their pricing to recoup their investment in a reasonable amount of time. I'd be curious how many shafts Predator had to sell to break even and make a profit. The shafts continue to sell at the current pricing so why would they decrease the pricing (cheapen) once the project is profitable. That makes no sense and is counterproductive to the purpose of being in business: To make money (profit). Smart companies reinvest their profits into R&D of new projects and the cycles starts over again.

Could you make a CF shaft for less than buying? Maybe. But remember, you are piggybacking on the company's (Predator's, Cuetec;s, etc.) investment in R&D to ensure your product functions similarly so you never realize those costs.
 
Fatboy said:
CF is super expensive on car parts break rotors or as trim packages. The wings on my Lambos are $40k each or some crazy number.

Idk why CF is so expensive. It’s not new, been around since the late 80’s on Ferrari’s

Maybe it’s expensive to manufacture.

Carbon is super cheap. Why CF is expensive Idk. Probably a quick search and the answer is there

Best
Fatboy
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Brake rotors are carbon, not the carbon fiber variety. They make them by some kind of strange material transfer that takes like 6 weeks per rotor then they have to go in an Autoclave to get baked. If you bump a wheel on the rotor while taking the wheel off its very easy to break the brake rotor, we usually mount the calipers at the 12 o'clock position to try to alleviate the risk.
 
fastone371 said:
Brake rotors are carbon, not the carbon fiber variety. They make them by some kind of strange material transfer that takes like 6 weeks per rotor then they have to go in an Autoclave to get baked. If you bump a wheel on the rotor while taking the wheel off its very easy to break the brake rotor, we usually mount the calipers at the 12 o'clock position to try to alleviate the risk.
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I didn’t know that. They look different. They really work great. Sooooo much better than anything else. They don’t fade when they hot, maybe they don’t get as hot and way less dust. I’m not much of a mechanic, ok I don’t know shit about cars. Other than carbon breaks work amazing😵‍💫 and are triple expensive. They are worth it tho on fast cars.
 
Willowbrook Wolfy said:
I just want to know when people are going to start calling fouls on all the double hits that cf’s cause on a daily basis. Check Dr Dave’s write up on deflection. High English shots with cf shaft can and does result in double hits on occasion. That could be quite costly.
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There has to be a grey area on these hits….some finesse hits with players like Efren fall into that area…he decelerates and the tip lingers on the cue ball IMO.
I believe every massé shot is technically a foul, the cue ball is trapped between the tip and the cloth….
but we allow it.
If no leeway was allowed, a ref would need complicated equipment to call shots…and I would not play under those conditions.
 
Pt109 I was just giving some **** to everyone using cf shafts. Aren’t they using slo-mo cameras in snooker now to check on fouls? Carbon fiber balls are coming next.
 
Another analogy - when the titanium golf clubs first came out (think Callaway Big Bertha) they were very expensive; eventually every manufacturer was making titanium clubs, and the prices gradually went down. The same thing will happen with CF shafts. Endnote - when finally, everyone who would ever buy a titanium "Big Bertha" style driver finally got one, Callaway came out with their new line: The Steel Heads! Ha Ha!
 
erle flad said:
Another analogy - when the titanium golf clubs first came out (think Callaway Big Bertha) they were very expensive; eventually every manufacturer was making titanium clubs, and the prices gradually went down. The same thing will happen with CF shafts. Endnote - when finally, everyone who would ever buy a titanium "Big Bertha" style driver finally got one, Callaway came out with their new line: The Steel Heads! Ha Ha!
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Used to be in the golf biz. Prices on titanium headed clubs have done nothing but go up since they were introduced in '97-'98. Every new model/year the prices went up. New drivers today routinely cost $600. Crazy. Cost to make them is pretty cheap. Marketing/ad campaigns, etc is what raises the price.
 
garczar said:
Used to be in the golf biz. Prices on titanium headed clubs have done nothing but go up since they were introduced in '97-'98. Every new model/year the prices went up. New drivers today routinely cost $600. Crazy. Cost to make them is pretty cheap. Marketing/ad campaigns, etc is what raises the price.
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I have friends in the brewing (beer) industry. The product is the cheapest element. Packaging. distribution and marketing are 3X.

Looking at the sum of the parts only tells you half a story.
 
JoeyInCali said:
It wasn't all that hard in the 90's and early 2000.
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I remember when Jerry @ SW started having problems, I just don’t recall the year. Each time he got a load of shaft wood in less & less of it passed the “test”. Was a gradual decline in A+ shaft wood.

These days Idk what’s available. I have some amazing wood that hasn’t been turned. Just hanging there last 10 years I’ve had it. Someday I’ll get it to a cue maker to start turning down.

I’ve never hit a ball with a CF shaft. I’m not opposed to the idea, just haven’t been playing. Which is another thing I’m changing soon.

Best
Eric
 
There is good quantities of quality maple available in the right parts of the country. When I first retired, I purchased a sawmill, for some part time income, and mainly to have access to my own lumber to make arts and craft furniture. Ended up going in a different woodworking direction, but sawing my own lumber was quite fun for the few years I did it, and I accumulated quite a bit of quality maple, cherry, ash, oak, and various other woods from my land and others. After a few years my interests switched to woodturning and was always on the hunt for burls. when asking a logging friend if they came across much burl, he said yes, he loved it as it made such good firewood for their outdoor burner. As to maple, for the folks in my area, it would be a sin to think of it as anything other than firewood. When moving my last time, I left probably 3000 or so board ft of stickered and dried maple as I didn't have a use for it. I can guaranty that it was cut up for firewood. There was some really quality businesses selling kiln dried hardwoods, mostly burls and figured woods near where I used to live. Actually, in the area I am now there are many sawmills selling hardwood, mostly boards though, but I am sure they must come across burls at times. The farmer that rents some of my acreage where I am at now, dropped off some burls last year that he was going to use for firewood. It would make some people amazed at how prized burls are for firewood in my area. As to getting quality wood, after owning my own sawmill, you learn there is a lot more to it than just drying it right. If the tree had any lean in it, or wasn't cut right, there will be stresses that will show up after drying or machining. It's tough to really know what you really have if you weren't part of the sawing process.
 
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garczar said:
Used to be in the golf biz. Prices on titanium headed clubs have done nothing but go up since they were introduced in '97-'98. Every new model/year the prices went up. New drivers today routinely cost $600. Crazy. Cost to make them is pretty cheap. Marketing/ad campaigns, etc is what raises the price.
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Yea that, and the Fusion is CF and expensive as hell when it came out. Ask me how I know,,,,,,,,,,,
 
JoeyInCali said:
It wasn't all that hard in the 90's and early 2000.
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Trouble was the suppliers. They had to be your eyes and select for you. You would pay top dollar and still get a mix of above average to very good.

I forget the name it was something like Dominick, they may still be around. . I got some really nice wood from them. It was impossible to just buy from a wood supplier who didn't know cuemakers. Their A1 stuff was best used for table legs.
 
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