dendweller
Well-known member
I think string tension and truss rod combination is so strong that it negates any force put on it by being horizontal. But who knows.
Cues inside cases stored horizontally, will they warp?
- Thread starter iusedtoberich
- Start date
Zerksies
Well-known member
humidity or tempuature can make a neck go off .001
Necks need a natural bow so the strings can clear the frets. Even though the truss rod should hold the shape it's still bowed in favor of the strings. I've heard that strings should be slack in storage. I can't recall if I've done this but I don't now.
dendweller
Well-known member
Yeah, a perfectly straight neck would play pretty poorly. I never leaned them on a wall, course I wouldn't a pool cue either.
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I lean mine in the closest corner in play. At home all the cases and bags are standing but leaning.
Well, my expertise is wood.
Baseball bats are made from splits. NOT lumber.
The grain is critical in how the wood responds to changes in humidity.
The density and size of the growth rings varies with the weather. Different species provides a hardness scale. The flexibility of maple vs the stiffness increase of ash (pool cue vs snooker cue).
The maple shafts that Bill Stroud created were most likely from splits. So changing humidity should not effect. Adding moisture is taken in by the soft rings so changes will happen with factory made.
Unless of course the right guy is running the factory operations.
The effect of gravity on a naked shaft lieing down would be negligible. The difference in the changes of humidity on a cue with one side exposed and the other covered could warp. I do it daily with my naughty pine.
In an hour they might curl as much (or more ) the other way.
The ones standing on side are almost normalized. Will return to the pile with a smile as it's All 70 percent off. My Homedepot weakness has crooked lumber everywhere. I better build a crooked little chair to think on what to build with all this Naughty Pine. Makes pretty stuff.
Baseball bats are made from splits. NOT lumber.
The grain is critical in how the wood responds to changes in humidity.
The density and size of the growth rings varies with the weather. Different species provides a hardness scale. The flexibility of maple vs the stiffness increase of ash (pool cue vs snooker cue).
The maple shafts that Bill Stroud created were most likely from splits. So changing humidity should not effect. Adding moisture is taken in by the soft rings so changes will happen with factory made.
Unless of course the right guy is running the factory operations. The effect of gravity on a naked shaft lieing down would be negligible. The difference in the changes of humidity on a cue with one side exposed and the other covered could warp. I do it daily with my naughty pine.
In an hour they might curl as much (or more ) the other way.
The ones standing on side are almost normalized. Will return to the pile with a smile as it's All 70 percent off.
My Homedepot weakness has crooked lumber everywhere. I better build a crooked little chair to think on what to build with all this Naughty Pine. Makes pretty stuff.
So a hinged case left open to display could lead to a shaft changing. All my cases have tubes. So vertical or upright is all the same. Keeps everything normal and protected.
Cycling helps break down the natural tensions in the shaft relaxing the grain just like relaxing the brain.
Ahhhhh Uhmmmmm
Ahhhhh Uhmmmmm
Been buying/selling cues since '79ish and the only cue that ever warped was a Schmelke sneaky i bought in '16. Both shafts warped a tad after just over a year. I gave them another chance and got a 60" sneaky. So far so good. I've had cheap box cases, Fellini's, J&J, JB, Porper. Never had a cue warp in a case and i've never thought about the case being vert/horiz.
The Old Jaybird
Well-known member
yes, my dad stored his for 50 years in a case, flat, under the bed.
RidgeRaider
Well-known member
When we store our guitars long term, musicians commonly de-tune the strings to release the tension. Then we just toss the case wherever it fits.
I've had guitars in storage for 10+ years with no strings that haven't moved.
The key is to have a case that supports the instrument. I use hard cases that are made for each guitar. It cuddles the whole guitar and supports it's weight completely. If you tossed a guitar in a soft case and threw it in a closet against other shit, it's probably going to warp a bit.
I've got a drum set that a bonehead relative put a bunch of heavy boxes on top of, and it warped the shells. $2,000 DW shells down the toilet. My fault I guess for not having them in hard cases like I should have.
I've never met a group of people that cared as much about wood "warpage" as pool players and cue makers haha. I say this as both.
I've been a musician longer than a pool player, and I've heard maybe 1-2 other musicians actually mention proper storage and warpage prevention etc. Most just buy a good case, trust it, and never check their instrument unless something terribly obvious happened.
i know that hill and area fairly well. loved going to the breakwater and tossing spoons for steelhead as well. Racine has some lovely homes overlooking the lake and there set up nice and high so the view is pretty special. Hard to talk on a pool forum of Racine without mentioning Frank Stellman, sadly he and his son Kelly are both gone. Franks shop had a ton of memorabilia, wonder were that all went??
Well Schmelke says it all. Theiy produced in numbers that had them going from the lumber pile to the mill then lathe in quick succession. Straight to assembly then finish with no seasoning along the way. A True Master like Bill Stroud seasons every step of the process. Kinda like a chef vs A cook.
A schmelke could be a schmuck or a adequate tool. Inspect the shtuff before uh okay I have never seen a schmelke I liked.
wrong weight distribution for me. Dufferin with the maple leaf makes the best sneaky And it's a very reasonable price. The Canadian Maple is done Right Plus it's Stealth,
Steal is the root of stealth.....uh Right?
I prefer to think of it as cheap lessons. Well unless they Needed an attitude adjustment.
I would think a simple string adjustment would move the neck .001. That's an awful small amount. Typical oil clearance on rod and main bearings is .002"-.0035", when the parts are torqued you cant feel any movement.
At Grand-Olive Billiards in St. Louis, regular customers stored their cues in what I would call map cabinets, that is cabinets with a lot of shallow but long and wide drawers, say 36 inches by 36 inches by 4 inches.. Many of these cues were two piece cues made out of one-piece full splice house cues. St. Louis is very humid and Grand-Olive was only a few miles from the Mississippi River. No one that I knew who stored their cues at G-O in this manner ever had a warping complaint, and many of these folks were chronic complainers. So my conclusion is that horizontal storage is ok.
I have laid my 6x12 cue case filled with 6 custom cues horizontally flat on the carpeted floor of a closet for the past 16 years. There’s never been any problems or issues whatsoever with any of those cues, shafts, enclosed stuff or the 6x12 cue case.
One of the last rooms here had those except the long way; like PO or safety deposit boxes.