Question about sanding down a shaft

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Ok here goes. Flame suit on. I have reduced and retapered a lot of shafts. I own three cue lathes and a metal lathe as well as a CNC shaft taper machine.

I do it with sand paper and a cordless drill after first reducing the ferule in one of my lathes. There are a number of reasons I prefer a drill to my lathes for this job.

The reason to reduce the ferule first is because it's harder than the wood and is difficult to get to the size you want without taking off too much wood behind it.

If I'm taking off a fair amount I will start with 220 grit.
 
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Zerksies said:
I'd stay away from that lathe tool. How are you going to work and control the speed at the same time
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I used a variable speed foot pedal. The harder you press the faster it goes. Works really well. My drill has a lock setting where you can lock the trigger on. It was a cheap $25 1/2" drill from menards, the trigger fell out just leaving the switch so it's on permanent bench mounted duty. Those foot switches work great, it's similar to the ones on sewing machines.
 
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I would recommend the op find (if he can) a competent cue repair person unless he has extensive wood working skills.

I’ve sanded so much in my life my fingerprints are destroyed. While getting a CC in Illinois they were going to refuse my application because they could not get ‘acceptable’ fingerprints. After five attempts they called the supervisor out.

He looked at the mush and asked me what the hell happened to my hands. I told him what I did for a living and he told them to pick one and give me my permit. Lol

I’ve done my own shaft reductions and done some for others as well. If the OP is going on his own he needs to start slowly with a reasonable grit knowing every time he puts paper to wood he will be taking something off. Then he better know how to reseal and finish the shaft afterwards. It’s not just about the grit of paper!
 
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Quesports said:
I would recommend the op find (if he can) a competent cue repair person unless he has extensive wood working skills.

I’ve sanded so much in my life my fingerprints are destroyed. While getting a CC in Illinois they were going to refuse my application because they could not get ‘acceptable’ fingerprints. After five attempts they called the supervisor out.

He looked at the mush and asked me what the hell happened to my hands. I told him what I did for a living and he told them to pick one and give me my permit. Lol

I’ve done my own shaft reductions and done some for others as well. If the OP is going on his own he needs to start slowly with a reasonable grit knowing every time he puts paper to wood he will be taking something off. Then he better know how to reseal and finish the shaft afterwards. It’s not just about the grit of paper!
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Sounds like you may have the sandpaper upside down.



JK, I sand a lot also. Very hard on the fingers. Glad you got your permit.
 
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Cuebuddy said:
Sounds like you may have the sandpaper upside down.



JK, I sand a lot also. Very hard on the fingers. Glad you got your permit.
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I could squeeze blood thru the tips of my fingers after a long day of hand sanding.

Then we would use masking tape on our fingertips so the pain wasn’t as bad.

I always wore a mask which a lot of coworkers did not.Doing yacht refinishing we worked with lots of teak and other more exotic woods.
 
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Coos Cues said:
Ok here goes. Flame suit on. I have reduced and retapered a lot of shafts. I own three cue lathes and a metal lathe as well as a CNC shaft taper machine.

I do it with sand paper and a cordless drill after first reducing the ferule in one of my lathes. There are a number of reasons I prefer a drill to my lathes for this job.

The reason to reduce the ferule first is because it's harder than the wood and is difficult to get to the size you want without taking off too much wood behind it.

If I'm taking off a fair amount I will start with 220 grit.
Click to expand...

Do you do this for all shafts that you reduce/retaper including the ones you've made, or only shafts where you don't know the specific taper profile?
 
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Quesports said:
I would recommend the op find (if he can) a competent cue repair person unless he has extensive wood working skills.

I’ve sanded so much in my life my fingerprints are destroyed. While getting a CC in Illinois they were going to refuse my application because they could not get ‘acceptable’ fingerprints. After five attempts they called the supervisor out.

He looked at the mush and asked me what the hell happened to my hands. I told him what I did for a living and he told them to pick one and give me my permit. Lol

I’ve done my own shaft reductions and done some for others as well. If the OP is going on his own he needs to start slowly with a reasonable grit knowing every time he puts paper to wood he will be taking something off. Then he better know how to reseal and finish the shaft afterwards. It’s not just about the grit of paper!
Click to expand...

Just a fingerprint comment. When they couldn't get prints from me after a couple tries a few weeks apart they sent me to an optical scanner, worked just fine.

Hu
 
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Ģüśţāṿ said:
Do you do this for all shafts that you reduce/retaper including the ones you've made, or only shafts where you don't know the specific taper profile?
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All shafts. If you're changing the taper that's one thing. Following existing is another. At any rate you should measure and map out what you're dealing with first.
 
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Quesports said:
I could squeeze blood thru the tips of my fingers after a long day of hand sanding.

Then we would use masking tape on our fingertips so the pain wasn’t as bad.

I always wore a mask which a lot of coworkers did not.Doing yacht refinishing we worked with lots of teak and other more exotic woods.
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I use adhesive backed sand paper. It sticks to your hand and reduces the pressure you need to apply and keeps it from rolling up and stubbing your fingers.
 
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sh--t years back we all just used fine sandpaper and did it ourselves. take time take a break and shoot with it, and stop when you get it right.
finish with 600 crocus cloth

you cant ruin the shaft unless you get stupid. if you did just buy another
 
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mikemosconi said:
I think that almost anyone without lathe experience or other significant wood working experience trying to properly turn down a cue shaft to a new dimension is probably going to regret it.
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I concur and thank you for bringing back a treasured memory. 😉
I had taken a job in Redmond WA making high end office furniture. The owner had a request for a huge bowl the size of a tire. He had it mounted to the lathe looking just like the tire shop. A large obviously unbalanced hunk of wood chucked up when I saw that he was going to turn the lathe on, I interrupt and try to educate him, as I had tried a similar project in high school shop. On a 1/2 scale of his turning. I knew from experience what would happen. He had a Huge ego and dismissed me without consideration. Soooo I went to the other employee in the shop and made sure he was out of danger and ready for the show. Kind of like "hold my beer and watch this." Without the beer. 😉 The lathe walked half way across the shop before he could shut it off. He didn't get hurt, well other than the bruise to the Ego. It was my first week on the job so turning and covering my mouth as I stiffled the giggle was required. 🤷‍♂️
 
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If it’s a nice custom cue leave the shaft alone and buy a new shaft made to your specifications
Why ruin someone else’s work

If you really need to modify a shaft sanding on a lathe is the only way to do it
We are building some nice Cues, but I’ve never turned down a shaft
I’ve been told that you start in the back with 220 maybe 320 and go up gradually to 1000 and I would finish at 1500

I have seen and heard of some real horror stories as a result of turning down shafts
 
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