Not I. I'm quite satisfied with getting 2 cues- a butt and pool + carom shaft- for around $400.
I am having a bit of difficulty adapting to the black shaft and the butt isnt as visually acceptable as what I'm used to...but see prior paragraph.
Rhino shaft buyers, let 'er rip.......
- Thread starter garczar
- Start date
I am having a bit of difficulty adapting to the black shaft and the butt isnt as visually acceptable as what I'm used to...but see prior paragraph.
I bought the Komet break cue to see how it stacks up.
The tip that came on it is softer than the tip on my playing cue.
It takes half the power out of the break.
My Little Monster with a White Diamond tip can give it the 6 ball.
I ordered a Taom break tip for it and will report back.
-I don't care one way or another about a wrapless butt. I prefer a rubber sport wrap but I can always slide one over it.
The tip that came on it is softer than the tip on my playing cue.
It takes half the power out of the break.
My Little Monster with a White Diamond tip can give it the 6 ball.
I ordered a Taom break tip for it and will report back.
-I don't care one way or another about a wrapless butt. I prefer a rubber sport wrap but I can always slide one over it.
A soft tip on a break cue is a no no. I liked Odega break tips. Very hard leather and seemed to give me a bit more control especially on the cut break. I hit the cue ball between 7 and 8 o’clock o that shot.
Ok, got my $30 Shore Type-D durometer from Amazon, and to my surprise it's a well-built, functional tool. Very consistent readings (within 1-2 points every time on the same tip), and gave an expected range of hardness readings across a variety of tips. I measured all the tips I have on hand, and listed the avg reading below.
From this limited assortment, I'd have to say the stock Rhino tips in Medium are closer to a Soft, unless they firm up significantly with play. (I wish I had an unplayed Kamui Black Soft on hand to test).
From softest to hardest
Rhino Crystal Medium - mounted, cut down, shaped, unplayed: 66.5
Rhino Crystal Medium - unmounted and unshaped: 66
Pooldawg Milk Dud - unmounted: 71
Kamui Clear Black Soft - cut 2 layers off, mounted, and heavy play: 74
Pooldawg Milk Dud - mounted and medium play: 75
Taom v2.0 Break/Jump tip - mounted and medium play: 86
Samsara break tip - mounted and medium play: 87
Phenolic Jump tip - came stock on Pechauer jump cue: 91
Pics of the durometer in action - simply press it down firmly into tip until base is flush. The Type-D conical probe is sharp on the end, vs Type-A which is rounded and made for softer materials (accd to my research, Type-D is most common type used for tips - see similar results with a $350 type-D bench-mount durometer at https://billiards.colostate.edu/faq/cue-tip/hardness/chart/).
Kamui Clear Black Soft:
Rhino Crystal Medium:
From this limited assortment, I'd have to say the stock Rhino tips in Medium are closer to a Soft, unless they firm up significantly with play. (I wish I had an unplayed Kamui Black Soft on hand to test).
From softest to hardest
Rhino Crystal Medium - mounted, cut down, shaped, unplayed: 66.5
Rhino Crystal Medium - unmounted and unshaped: 66
Pooldawg Milk Dud - unmounted: 71
Kamui Clear Black Soft - cut 2 layers off, mounted, and heavy play: 74
Pooldawg Milk Dud - mounted and medium play: 75
Taom v2.0 Break/Jump tip - mounted and medium play: 86
Samsara break tip - mounted and medium play: 87
Phenolic Jump tip - came stock on Pechauer jump cue: 91
Pics of the durometer in action - simply press it down firmly into tip until base is flush. The Type-D conical probe is sharp on the end, vs Type-A which is rounded and made for softer materials (accd to my research, Type-D is most common type used for tips - see similar results with a $350 type-D bench-mount durometer at https://billiards.colostate.edu/faq/cue-tip/hardness/chart/).
Kamui Clear Black Soft:
Rhino Crystal Medium:
Is the Rhino CF break shaft the same long taper as their CF playing shaft? Very surprised the Komet break tip was that soft. When did you order the cue?
Fwiw , my white vault plate/ferrule started spinning in place while scuffing the tip . Ive contacted rhino, and although they will exchange the faulty shaft for a new 1 , Im responsible for shipping.
Just something to be mindful of,
Could be a 1 off experience with the vault plate/ferrule, then again it could be quality control/craftsmanship.
Never had this issue with any other shafts I own, Im hoping this isnt a case of "you get what you pay for'.
Just something to be mindful of,
Could be a 1 off experience with the vault plate/ferrule, then again it could be quality control/craftsmanship.
Never had this issue with any other shafts I own, Im hoping this isnt a case of "you get what you pay for'.
Last edited:
All i can tell you is that the med. tip on mine is nowhere near that soft. closer to med/hrd imo. My usual tip is a Ultraskin med. and this F1 is as firm if not a tad firmer.
Last edited:
dendweller
Well-known member
Shouldn't pay shipping on manufacturer defects.
I tend to agree but you kinda have to look at these cases from their perspective too. They do not know how the shafts have been used/abused. Someone could easily hit the tip on the table/floor/chair etc knocking it loose. Not saying that's what happened here but i think you see the point. They aren't the only manuf. that makes buyer pay shipping in these cases. Pretty common actually.
Long taper for sure. I haven't seen a playing shaft but I imagine it's the same.
Ordered it 12/21/23.
Taom tip arrived yesterday. I'll throw it on today if I have time.
Update:
The Komet with a Taom break tip has much less power than the Little Monster with a White Diamond -imo.
The sound, speed, and spread are all better with the LM.
I need to weigh them because with no weight, the Komet still seems to be a heavier cue.
I will try a White Diamond tip on the Komet before I write it off.
Last edited:
I purchased a Rhino CF playing shaft and really liked it. After using it a while I was curious how a CF break shaft would perform (not enough that I’d spend $350 to find out). I’d been using a J&J break cue but was now not happy with the tip (very hard phenolic) and was curious if a carbon fiber shaft would have enough “less deflection” that I would even notice. The J&J is 14 mm and pretty stiff.
Rhino released a carbon fiber break shaft for around $200. It came on sale with free shipping and I had a 5% off coupon. For $170 with tax, I was going to give it a try. 13 mm, special Rhino tip, pro taper, 4.0 to 4.5 oz.. It came well packaged like my playing cue and had no carbon fiber dust as others had issues with. This was the case with the first and second shaft I received (read on).
I set up for an evening of breaks. It had more control than the J&J but the tip was harder than I expected. Later I learned it was phenolic. I’m not sure if I missed that in the on-line description or if it was left out. It doesn’t matter, that tip has been discontinued, the newer tips are not phenolic. The shaft felt stiffer but I think the biggest difference I was feeling was the tip. It was an improvement for me except I only got about 15 breaks in when the tip came out.
This was a weekend evening and I sent a message to Rhino. I’m not sure what day or time it was in Vietnam, but I got a response in about 15 minutes. An impressive response time that anyone who’s ever tried to contact support, can testify to. They informed me there is a known issue with the tips. They offered to send me a replacement tip, the newer “Komet Break” tip. As with all tips, it was over sized and would need trimming and shaping, nothing I wanted to do with a brand new shaft. I asked if I could return my shaft and get another with the new tip installed. That was not an issue, they sent a return shipping label and when the new shipment of shafts with the Komet tips arrived in the US, it was shipped to me. I racked up and this time got 6 breaks in before the tip flew off. I’m a hard breaker but considering the J&J has held up to my breaks and every other person that has used it here, with no issue for about 9 months, I don’t think this would fall under the category of abuse. I sent about 5 e-mails to Rhino with pictures and asking what happened? what’s going on?, did I get a shaft with the older tip?, what can we do now? (no swearing, insults or rude comments!). All I got was 2 return shipping labels and a promise to refund once they received the shaft.
My plan was to return the shaft but after some thought, I decided I’d try one more thing. I did like the feel of the shaft and tip. I was either going to install a new tip on my J&J or purchase a different CF break shaft. The later was probably never going to happen! I now had a CF shaft for $170 with no tip. Maybe it was worth spending a bit more to see what could be done. I hated the idea of throwing money away if nothing could be done. After all, if the manufacturer couldn’t get the tip to stay on (even after a tip redesign) what could I or a shop do? I started calling around and e-mailing shops to get some feedback. I finally reached California Billiard Supply (Lens) about 45 miles away. He had had some experience with tips coming off of the less expensive carbon fiber shafts. He had several suggestions: Add a vault pad if there was not one already, 2 part epoxy, change the ferrule if it was made from a less desirable material (I can’t remember what that material was). He would need to see the shaft and suggested I bring it down on a Saturday when he had a pair of tournament players who moonlighted as techs. They were also interested in demoing the shaft if they could keep it in one piece! I went in with the shaft, the tip that came off, a new Komet Break tip that was sent to me and an UltraSkin Black HH break tip. The 2 techs scrutinized the shaft and tips. The ferrule was of good material, the tips had vault pads, the tips looked good. Their conclusion - poor prep of the shaft end and tip before assembly. I asked what they suggested doing. They said let’s rough and score the shaft and old tip and reattach with Cyanoacrylate glue. I asked if they wanted to use 2 part epoxy or switch tips. They said no. I reminded them it’s an 1 ½ drive there and back for me if this doesn’t work. They offered to fix it right then and said we could use it there until I felt comfortable the tip was staying in place and if it came off during play, they could move on to plan 2. They did just that and 4 of us used the shaft for about 45 minutes. The techs suggested doing a few jump shots to really stress test the repair. It held up. I took it home and did some more breaking with it and it seems to be “fixed”. I’ll update this if I have any more issues.
The review, and I’ll include the feedback from the techs who demoed it at California Billiard since they are much better players than myself. No one had anything negative to say about the shaft. 4 users and it seemed everyone had different preferences for what they were looking for in a break shaft. There seemed to be more interest in comparing tips and several other shafts were brought out for play and comparison (a real treat for me). The Komet Break tip is softer than a phenolic tip which is what myself and one other were looking for. The other 2 preferred harder tips. All of us agreed the shaft had good feedback. Once home I continued breaking. It’s been about 2 week now. My 9’ table is larger than what we were playing on in the shop. I’m finding I’m using more force on the larger table and am now feeling the tip is softer than I’d like. I think I might have liked the first tip better! The tip sounds different than the loud “clack” of the J&J but I guess that should be expected. I’m not too particular about the sound but it was noticeably different.
In conclusion, it’s unfortunate Rhino is having this issue. It seems like an easy fix. I wonder if others are having similar issues with the Rhino break shafts, I can’t be the only one. I’ll probably send one last e-mail to Rhino telling them what I did since I won’t be returning the shaft. I’m happy with the shaft now that the tip is staying on. Not too happy with what it took to get to this point. My total investment is $195 which is pretty good for a carbon fiber break shaft. An odd way of looking at it- if you want to change the tip after using the Rhino break shaft a few times, you’re half way there! I’ll eventually try a different tip down the road, but for now I’ll stick with the Komet Break tip.
First 2 pictures on red felt are the 1st tip failure. Next 2 pictures are the Komet tip failure. Last 2 pictures are of the new Konet tip next to the Komet tip that came off.
Rhino released a carbon fiber break shaft for around $200. It came on sale with free shipping and I had a 5% off coupon. For $170 with tax, I was going to give it a try. 13 mm, special Rhino tip, pro taper, 4.0 to 4.5 oz.. It came well packaged like my playing cue and had no carbon fiber dust as others had issues with. This was the case with the first and second shaft I received (read on).
I set up for an evening of breaks. It had more control than the J&J but the tip was harder than I expected. Later I learned it was phenolic. I’m not sure if I missed that in the on-line description or if it was left out. It doesn’t matter, that tip has been discontinued, the newer tips are not phenolic. The shaft felt stiffer but I think the biggest difference I was feeling was the tip. It was an improvement for me except I only got about 15 breaks in when the tip came out.
This was a weekend evening and I sent a message to Rhino. I’m not sure what day or time it was in Vietnam, but I got a response in about 15 minutes. An impressive response time that anyone who’s ever tried to contact support, can testify to. They informed me there is a known issue with the tips. They offered to send me a replacement tip, the newer “Komet Break” tip. As with all tips, it was over sized and would need trimming and shaping, nothing I wanted to do with a brand new shaft. I asked if I could return my shaft and get another with the new tip installed. That was not an issue, they sent a return shipping label and when the new shipment of shafts with the Komet tips arrived in the US, it was shipped to me. I racked up and this time got 6 breaks in before the tip flew off. I’m a hard breaker but considering the J&J has held up to my breaks and every other person that has used it here, with no issue for about 9 months, I don’t think this would fall under the category of abuse. I sent about 5 e-mails to Rhino with pictures and asking what happened? what’s going on?, did I get a shaft with the older tip?, what can we do now? (no swearing, insults or rude comments!). All I got was 2 return shipping labels and a promise to refund once they received the shaft.
My plan was to return the shaft but after some thought, I decided I’d try one more thing. I did like the feel of the shaft and tip. I was either going to install a new tip on my J&J or purchase a different CF break shaft. The later was probably never going to happen! I now had a CF shaft for $170 with no tip. Maybe it was worth spending a bit more to see what could be done. I hated the idea of throwing money away if nothing could be done. After all, if the manufacturer couldn’t get the tip to stay on (even after a tip redesign) what could I or a shop do? I started calling around and e-mailing shops to get some feedback. I finally reached California Billiard Supply (Lens) about 45 miles away. He had had some experience with tips coming off of the less expensive carbon fiber shafts. He had several suggestions: Add a vault pad if there was not one already, 2 part epoxy, change the ferrule if it was made from a less desirable material (I can’t remember what that material was). He would need to see the shaft and suggested I bring it down on a Saturday when he had a pair of tournament players who moonlighted as techs. They were also interested in demoing the shaft if they could keep it in one piece! I went in with the shaft, the tip that came off, a new Komet Break tip that was sent to me and an UltraSkin Black HH break tip. The 2 techs scrutinized the shaft and tips. The ferrule was of good material, the tips had vault pads, the tips looked good. Their conclusion - poor prep of the shaft end and tip before assembly. I asked what they suggested doing. They said let’s rough and score the shaft and old tip and reattach with Cyanoacrylate glue. I asked if they wanted to use 2 part epoxy or switch tips. They said no. I reminded them it’s an 1 ½ drive there and back for me if this doesn’t work. They offered to fix it right then and said we could use it there until I felt comfortable the tip was staying in place and if it came off during play, they could move on to plan 2. They did just that and 4 of us used the shaft for about 45 minutes. The techs suggested doing a few jump shots to really stress test the repair. It held up. I took it home and did some more breaking with it and it seems to be “fixed”. I’ll update this if I have any more issues.
The review, and I’ll include the feedback from the techs who demoed it at California Billiard since they are much better players than myself. No one had anything negative to say about the shaft. 4 users and it seemed everyone had different preferences for what they were looking for in a break shaft. There seemed to be more interest in comparing tips and several other shafts were brought out for play and comparison (a real treat for me). The Komet Break tip is softer than a phenolic tip which is what myself and one other were looking for. The other 2 preferred harder tips. All of us agreed the shaft had good feedback. Once home I continued breaking. It’s been about 2 week now. My 9’ table is larger than what we were playing on in the shop. I’m finding I’m using more force on the larger table and am now feeling the tip is softer than I’d like. I think I might have liked the first tip better! The tip sounds different than the loud “clack” of the J&J but I guess that should be expected. I’m not too particular about the sound but it was noticeably different.
In conclusion, it’s unfortunate Rhino is having this issue. It seems like an easy fix. I wonder if others are having similar issues with the Rhino break shafts, I can’t be the only one. I’ll probably send one last e-mail to Rhino telling them what I did since I won’t be returning the shaft. I’m happy with the shaft now that the tip is staying on. Not too happy with what it took to get to this point. My total investment is $195 which is pretty good for a carbon fiber break shaft. An odd way of looking at it- if you want to change the tip after using the Rhino break shaft a few times, you’re half way there! I’ll eventually try a different tip down the road, but for now I’ll stick with the Komet Break tip.
First 2 pictures on red felt are the 1st tip failure. Next 2 pictures are the Komet tip failure. Last 2 pictures are of the new Konet tip next to the Komet tip that came off.
Attachments
I got a CF break shaft from Rhino about 10 days ago and have played a few times with it after getting their 12.5mm CF playing shaft about a month ago. The break tip is not phenolic, and I haven't decided if I like the silencer layer on the tip, but it seems very hard and seems to break the balls well with a lot of force but not as quite as much of a pop / snap feeling as my Schmelke 13mm playing cue with a Samsara break tip (I use the Schemelke bacote playing butt with both break shaft setups). Who knows, maybe I will try the Samsara on the Rhino break shaft sometime soon?
what is 'hollow and lighter'? the shaft or the ferrule itself? there's about 7-8 of these being used in my local spot with zero issues/complaints. zero issues with the ferrule/vp either. shafts play great. shaft weights in cf shafts vary quite a bit. others other than Rhino run light. mine weighs 3.82 which is perfect imo. having an opinion is great but saying its not worth $100 is totally nuts.
they aren't hollow, are foam filled like others. may sound a bit that way but they have foam in them. after owning mine i'd never pay the 400+ the big boys ask. pure rip-off at those prices.
Agreed
wolfgang144
New member
I bought mine (12.9 player) about a month ago at full price (199 plus shipping) to give it a try on my regular player.
It does exactly what I expect from a LD CF Shaft and is a well made product.
Compared to the market leaders, there is little to no difference...
I just ordered two more to fit to my custom made cues and that won't be the end
keep on shooting
It does exactly what I expect from a LD CF Shaft and is a well made product.
Compared to the market leaders, there is little to no difference...
I just ordered two more to fit to my custom made cues and that won't be the end
keep on shooting
Can't answer to Schon, but I will tell everyone that you better be specific when ordering a 5/16×14.
I ordered a flat faced joint. It was special order from VN, and came in in what I believe is there version of a speed lock.
The proper cue is now on it's way.