Take all of the weight out of your break cue

[George the Greek]

I usually make more balls w a cut break. That being said, I'm old school and there's just something immensely satisfying about clocking the head ball and sending that anemic bastard upstairs for a second or two towards a squat landing dead center of the runway.
How I decompress. My nerve pill.

I had to slow my break down to stop giving the CB a headache lol

 

[336Robin]

I'll let you in on a secret. If you get one of those Elite brand breakers, the ones with the wood pin, they can make an excellent break cue. They are $240 now but used to be about $150. Anyway... take out the ridiculous weight bolt. The thing is probably 3/8" diameter and 8" long. Then face off the phenolic tip/ferrule combo until it's flat on the end. Put on something like a hammerhead 2 or a white diamond. You will have an absolute beast of a break cue.

They are super light without the weight bolt, probably 16 oz and they will obliterate a rack.

I have a break cue that works well 18oz. However its not a great jumper, until I filed it flatter like my jump cue and
now I only carry it. It has a G 10 tip. When curved it dances off the cue ball a lot. The jump cue was almost flat and it
jumps as well as the Propel and that is saying something.

 

[hello]

Cool

Anyway, back to the point of the thread, light break cue is working for me. Able to break nicely in each format with speed relative to the game played

How very interesting...

 

[Mensabum]

I had to slow my break down to stop giving the CB a headache lol

Be a nice problem to have to deal with however!!

 

[Mensabum]

No

I have a break cue that works well 18oz. However its not a great jumper, until I filed it flatter like my jump cue and
now I only carry it. It has a G 10 tip. When curved it dances off the cue ball a lot. The jump cue was almost flat and it
jumps as well as the Propel and that is saying something.

No reflection on your game, but I worked the piss out of my jump tip until it had a nice dome on it. I don't care for a flat tip. When I checked my my tip after jumping, it always had a spot in the middle of it, not on the outer edge. That told me where it was striking the CB. Dome vs flat also seems to make draw and spin easier to do and control than with a flatter tip. That's just my stroke tho. Results may vary.

 

[Mensabum]

How very interesting...

My break speed varies according to game as well. My 14:1 break is like watching paint dry.

 

[336Robin]

No

No reflection on your game, but I worked the piss out of my jump tip until it had a nice dome on it. I don't care for a flat tip. When I checked my my tip after jumping, it always had a spot in the middle of it, not on the outer edge. That told me where it was striking the CB. Dome vs flat also seems to make draw and spin easier to do and control than with a flatter tip. That's just my stroke tho. Results may vary.

I took just enough off to have a flat spot in the center. I took off the tip of the dome.
The flatter place is no larger than an eraser and probably smaller.

 

[boogieman]

I have a break cue that works well 18oz. However its not a great jumper, until I filed it flatter like my jump cue and
now I only carry it. It has a G 10 tip. When curved it dances off the cue ball a lot. The jump cue was almost flat and it
jumps as well as the Propel and that is saying something.

I like a flatter break and jump tip too, probably a quarter radius.

I was talking about actually completely flattening the round part and gluing a better tip onto it. Those cues have a 1 piece ferrule/tip and I'm not a big fan of the phenolic tip that it comes with. I just faced it off flat like you would with a regular ferrule and went from there.

 

[hello]

My break speed varies according to game as well. My 14:1 break is like watching paint dry.

To clock my one pocket break speed you need an hourglass ;-)

 

[336Robin]

I like a flatter break and jump tip too, probably a quarter radius.

I was talking about actually completely flattening the round part and gluing a better tip onto it. Those cues have a 1 piece ferrule/tip and I'm not a big fan of the phenolic tip that it comes with. I just faced it off flat like you would with a regular ferrule and went from there.

I've been thinking of flattening the G10 like that and installing a Taom (red) over it. The G10 breaks well, but its slick as glass
and I like just a little more grip for jumping.

 

[boogieman]

I've been thinking of flattening the G10 like that and installing a Taom (red) over it. The G10 breaks well, but its slick as glass
and I like just a little more grip for jumping.

That was my problem. The phenolic broke hard as hell, but any accidental deviation and I was miscuing. Too slippery. I know us serious players aren't supposed to miscue on break, but sometimes it can be hard to hit the microdot when adrenaline rears it's head. Muscles fire wrong or clench, raise up on the shot, etc. More grip less slip.

I put an Outsville Hammerhead 2 on mine and love it. It's very similar to how a White Diamond breaks and jumps, but the hit feels slightly less muted. It holds chalk very well and is harder to miscue if your stroke goes a bit wonky once in a while.

 

[DeeDeeCues]

Force = Mass x Speed Squared, so speed (squared) is more important, but weight (mass) plays a a significant part. It takes less speed to deliver the same amount of force with a heavier cue, so there's a tradeoff - stronger players might be able to move a heavier cue at the same speed I can move my lighter one, getting more cue ball speed without more speed-related inaccuracies.

pj
chgo

Close. It's Kinetic Energy = Mass x Velocity Squared. This is the the formula that drive the energy available from the moving cue stick. The energy imparted to the cueball is that multiplied by the efficiency of the system (i.e. what percentage of the energy is lost to compression of the cuestick parts, bending of the shaft, noise, etc.).

Now the F=mass x acceleration comes into effect in how much force a person needs to provide to get the cue from 0mph to impact velocity. This is where the longer backswing assists as there is effectively more time to reach maximum velocity.

if this is absolutely true, then why don't we have six, eight or ten ounce break cues??

Because there is a limit to how fast anyone can move their arm. Interestingly, tho, those weights are relatively ideal for a jump shot where the stroke is shorter and there is less time for acceleration due to the angle of the stroke and the positions a player must shoot from.

 

[skor]

I did a test of break speed using the Predator break speed app.
I used my Players J/B cue which is 17.6oz with a wood shaft with a Samsara b/j tip and my BK2 with the raven cf shaft when it had a phenolic tip (changed that to white diamond tip later) and changed the weight and tested it at 17.5oz, 18.5oz and 19.5oz.

In all cases I topped at the same speed and couldn’t get a faster break with any of the options.
I was breaking from the side rail, about a ball away from the rail.

It was surprising a bit but it means that the added weight and a swing speed eliminate each other and it’s down to personal preference.
I find a light cue to be more consistent and less tiring.

Get the app, do your own tests and find what works best for you

 

[skor]

 

[hello]

I didn't like it (or the thought of it) light either. After a year or so hitting with my PBkai/Ignite shaft, and regularly telling people who suggested to remove it that "I don't mess with cues, I work on my action"

It wasn't that I hit them poorly. WPA/MR 9ball, 8ball, 10ball. All solid. I am actually thinking at this point that playing with the weight in was a useful muscle memory training. I was able to hit the 26/27mph mark previously with weight in, and I will measure max speed later out of interest (as I rarely break full tilt in any format).

My friend took it out while I went to get a coffee yesterday as a joke. I came back and was blasting racks of WPA 9ball. made 6balls on the break twice. Was also nice nostalgic feeling for me, reminded me of when me and my friends would turn each others trucks the opposite way round when leaving skateboards unattended at my local skate store growing up haha

''MR 14-16mph, WPA 20-22mph table depending (I found I took it down to around 16mph when the table was needing it), 8/10ball 16 -18mph is suitable,''

You sure about that 26/27mph break..?

 

[Flakeandrun]

''MR 14-16mph, WPA 20-22mph table depending (I found I took it down to around 16mph when the table was needing it), 8/10ball 16 -18mph is suitable,''

You sure about that 26/27mph break..?

What’s workable, getting repeatable results, and what’s maximum obtainable, are two different things. Obviously. Very, very obviously. To the point where I literally said it… “(as I rarely break full tilt in any format)”
Currently still replying out of belief that maybe you just don’t know any better, but you can get in the troll pile if you’d like. Contribute positively or don’t. Not that complicated. Not that deep.

 

[Flakeandrun]

I did a test of break speed using the Predator break speed app.
I used my Players J/B cue which is 17.6oz with a wood shaft with a Samsara b/j tip and my BK2 with the raven cf shaft when it had a phenolic tip (changed that to white diamond tip later) and changed the weight and tested it at 17.5oz, 18.5oz and 19.5oz.

In all cases I topped at the same speed and couldn’t get a faster break with any of the options.
I was breaking from the side rail, about a ball away from the rail.

It was surprising a bit but it means that the added weight and a swing speed eliminate each other and it’s down to personal preference.
I find a light cue to be more consistent and less tiring.

Get the app, do your own tests and find what works best for you

Great share!

 

[hello]

What’s workable, getting repeatable results, and what’s maximum obtainable, are two different things. Obviously. Very, very obviously. To the point where I literally said it… “(as I rarely break full tilt in any format)”
Currently still replying out of belief that maybe you just don’t know any better, but you can get in the troll pile if you’d like. Contribute positively or don’t. Not that complicated. Not that deep.

26/27 mph for a guy that does not know what a follow through is seems highly unlikely.

And I'll do exactly as I please.

 

[Flakeandrun]

26/27 mph for a guy that does not know what a follow through is seems highly unlikely.

And I'll do exactly as I please.

Cool, sure you’re a fun guy to be around. Have literally proven this more than a year ago here. With people who were actually fun to talk to. Do as you please, hopefully that involves contributing positively, or climbing back under your rock

 

[Brookeland Bill]

A friend of mine who's a local table mechanic was selling various cues made by Mike Gulyassy - the creator of the Sledgehammer jump/break cue. One day he showed up with quite a few break cues for sale. I was able to try out a number of Orange Crusher break cues in different weights. They were otherwise identical. Previous to this, I had only used heavy break cues.

After about 30 minutes of experimenting with the different weights I chose an 18 ounce breaker. For me, the heavier cues didn't produce as much speed as the lighter ones and the cues lighter than 18 ounces were difficult to control.

But that was for me. I don't have any reason to think that others would make the same choice and for the same reasons.

Same as swinging a baseball bat. The lighter the bat the faster the swing.