Estimating a cue butt weight before building

johnnysd

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Is there a simple formula to estimate a cue's weight. I saw that MVP cues had a $100 piece of software that did it, but I am just looking to do it this time to see what woods can reasonably work for a very light plain jane cue with a compression fit SS joint like in a Tascarella.

Considering something like tuilpwood for forearm and butt, something like curly or quilted sapele, maybe padauk, chakte viga for handle. Ideally want a butt that is about 13.4-14.5 ounces so cue can be between 17.5 and 18 ounces max. Cue would be bumperless with .5" black butt piece, measured my current Tasc and it is .84 at joint .120 at bottom of warp, 1.26 at butt end.

Dry weight of Chakte Viga is 58lbs/ft3, Tulipwood is 60lbs/ft3 and Sapele is 39/ft3. I did my own calculation using a 1" cylinder as the estimate of wood volume and I only came up with 9.8oz of wood which seems wrong.

Also open to wood combo suggestions that would look nice and achieve this.

Would appreciate the help. I have bought cues from people that have helped me in this sub group as a way of giving back too, but this is for a Tascarella.
 
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Kim Bye

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You need to know the dry weight of whatever wood you want and the dimensions of each piece, then you could calculate a rough estimate.
Even better is to have the actual pieces you intend to use, as wood can vary quite a bit even though the species and dimensions are the same.
What you want the buttcap, collar etc to be made of also changes things somewhat.
 

JC

Coos Cues
I wrote some wood weight calculators in excel that I use for this. It's a little complicated but once you get the hang of it you can predict finished weight pretty closely. Once you get used to the different weights of the wood you use it almost becomes intuitive as long as your target weight is within about 1/2 oz. Being competent with basic math helps a lot. Lacking this it's an uphill battle.

JC
 

johnnysd

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I wrote some wood weight calculators in excel that I use for this. It's a little complicated but once you get the hang of it you can predict finished weight pretty closely. Once you get used to the different weights of the wood you use it almost becomes intuitive as long as your target weight is within about 1/2 oz. Being competent with basic math helps a lot. Lacking this it's an uphill battle.

JC

Would you share the Excel? Love your cues by the way
 

Ssonerai

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You mention metal joint
I don't use metal, but back to you: steel or brass pin is 1oz depending on style (yours might be a little less if 5/16", i use 3/8 - 10) SS joint is going to be at least an oz,depends on wall thickness and length. If cue is not full splice, are you making A joint in wood or other?

Between SS pin and collar vs say (other extreme) G10 pin + phenolic collar, there's 2 oz either way to play with. Weigh your metal and plastic parts before starting so as not to get too ambitious with the weight - it's not easy to get weight back out of wood (takes a lot of drilling, or diameter reduction). Rubber is pretty dense too, but you said that won't be used.

smt
 
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thoffen

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
That's not an easy thing to do without much more information. There can be quite a difference in density between pieces of wood of the same species. You would have to know the taper/dimensions used by the builder to calculate better the volume of wood used, keeping in mind that volume of a cylinder grows by the square of the radius, so roughly estimating by averaging 1" can be off by a large degree. And then there's weight of collar, joint pin, butt cap, weight bolt if any, and finish. And sections might be cored, and you'd need to know how the A joint was constructed which might include a metal pin as well.

All that said, you could probably get a reasonable handle on weight estimate within an ounce without knowing that. Some cuemakers will vary construction to target a particular weight/balance point.
 

shakes

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
As mentioned, it's best to get the weight of the actual pieces of wood as weight can vary, but you can use the average weight for the species to get a rough idea. You'll need to calculate the volume of a truncated cone. Multiply that by the density of the woods and you'll have the wood weight of the cue. Depending on the method of combining the cues, you'll also add the weight of the joint pins. The cuemaker has the ability to adjust the weight and balance by using different materials in the pins. And of course you always have the option of adding a weight bolt in the butt.

Truncated cone calculator:
http://calculator.swiftutors.com/truncated-cone-volume-calculator.html
 
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