What's the best way to burnish a tip without a lathe?

thubosky

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Eventually ill get a lathe, but until then I need a way to really burnish the sides of my tip so that it's really shiny. I really like how a tip plays when it's burnished good and the sides are hard and shiny.

I have a joe proper plastic burnisher but it seems too tricky since you can't see what it's doing until you pull it off. Sometimes depending on the shaft it'll make the overly conical.

Any advice? Anyone use the tip burnishing liquid from tiger?
Thanks,
Tim
 

desi2960

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
pina but it works

remove the shaft from the butt, lay the shaft across your legs while you are setting down. slightly wet the sides of the tip, holding the tip firm with a piece of leather, pushing away then pulling back, roll the cue back and forth across your legs. same principal as starting a fire with a stick twirled between your hands,
leather, moisture, friction = shinny
 

The Piper

Get Ugly...
Silver Member
I take some spit.. rub it on the side of the tip. Grab a match book, rip off the cover (thin card board) squeeze and twist the tip. Has never failed me.
 

Brickcues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have always used the top of the rail on the pool table. Just wet the side of the tip and then rub the tip across the felt and rotate shaft while doing so. The friction of the cloth will burnish.
 

carguy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
burnisher

Yup, what Alex said. I like the Porper tool too. The conical sides straighten out after a rack or two and it ends up nice. I keep one in my case.

Robin Snyder
 

cuejo

Cue Repair tech
Silver Member
I have always used the top of the rail on the pool table. Just wet the side of the tip and then rub the tip across the felt and rotate shaft while doing so. The friction of the cloth will burnish.


I used to wet the sides with spit and run against the Formica countertop.
When all else fails that used to work for me.
I tried the matchbook.
Sometime I would scrape the wax off a playing card first and burnish onto that too :)
 

thubosky

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Wow thanks for all the different methods everyone! I'm gonna give them a try and see how it goes. Sometimes also when I use the proper tool, it'll get so tight on it that it feels like it's gonna pull the tip off the shaft when I go to get the tool off.
 

Brickcues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I love people that use the little tool they have to burnish as I usually get to put a new tip on as it will take them off if you are not careful.
 

PickPocket

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Dollar bill

Kinda surprised no one has mentioned using a dollar bill yet?

Also I use the q-wiz once the "Smooth" side has gotten worn out, it makes for a nice burnisher on the tip! (Yes like everyone else stated, a little spit helps!)
 

thubosky

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Dollar bill, leather, Porper, they are all good tools if you're diligent with technique.

Yea I saw a really good amateur player from my area use a dollar bill just the other day and I tried it and it worked really well. I also used the porper and pieces of card board like from a hot pockets box and that worked but got some of the white residue burnished into the tip. I guess it was the wax or something.

Also, does anyone use the tiger clear tip burnisher liquid? I tried it and it seemss pretty good to me. Had a rough time using the porper tool on my soft ki-tech tip on a 11.75 mm shaft. It felt good but when I took it off it actually stretched the tip to like 1 1/2 it's size lol. And it ruined the playing characteristics. So I pulled it off and the tip was like spongy and springy then. I'd squeeze it and it would go back to its original position. Thought it was weird lol.
Tim
 

JoeyA

Efren's Mini-Tourn BACKER
Silver Member
This is one of the best vids I have seen for doing a tip without a lathe. He shows his technique for burnishing near the end, but the whole vid is worth a watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RAi5zDnVGM

That was a very nice video. Wonder what type of tool that was that he used to trim the tip. It had to be sharper than it looked as it seemed to do a good job. I would be concerned that the initial "chopping" of the tip might loosen the layers of the layered tip.

JoeyA
 

killerstroke

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
dannylee said:
Quote:

Originally Posted by waynewrc

After burnishing a little thin super glue around it will help stop the mushrooming.

Worst thing you can ever do to a tip

Just curious, why is this the worst thing for a tip?


Posted from Azbilliards.com App for Android
 

galipeau

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Putting superglue on the outside edge of a tip is a bad idea. Here are the two big ones that come to mind

1. Miscues. How many shots in pool require only center ball hit? I would guess roughly 90 percent of shots or more require spin of some kind on the cb. How do you get spin? By hitting the ball off center. The part of the tip used most is the outer edge.
2. Tips are designed to grip the cueball, if the side walls of the tip don't deform, how is this supposed to happen?
3. You will likely have wasted 10+ bucks on a tip/install.

You can try it though, I'd love to hear the results;) Just don't use a Kamui!!
 
Last edited:

lollygager

Got any questions ???????
Silver Member
burnishing tip

20 dollar bill and some spit on tbe index finger rolled on side of tip.For the cheap guy a dollar bill. For the sophisticated type,100.00 bil. These bills are passed less and have the better paper to do the job. I had to borrow the hundred to figure this out!
 
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