Help getting started

warfdiesel said:

I am thinking of trying to learn about the cue building process. Thought about buying a lathe that I could set up and start tinkering with some old dufferin cues I have laying around in the basement.

Was wondering what kind of money it would cost to get a basic setup that would let me do something like that. Any help would be awesome. I am a complete noob. If this is the wrong section for this just let me know and I will move it. Thanks for any help

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This is more popular than you think. THE PROPER WAY IS.
Learn how to use the machine you buy first. Then learn how to repair cues. If you have common sence, that will help teach you how to start building. And how to start asking certain questions to advance your knowledge.

Be prepared to part with a substansial amount of $$
The lathe in it self is only part of the cost, almost everything you need for cue building and reparing is speciality items, and the higher your ambition, the more money it will cost.

Mike gave a great response as usual. But it's a fun hobby if you have time, lots of extra cash, bc your going to mess up alot, and lots of patients. But I truly enjoy it when I have the time

it's fun

I would start with hightowers book or videos, do not buy a cheap lathe. You will need about 5k to make a decent start. If u don't have the 5k, but still want to buy some stuff. Start buying wood, while you are saving for the lathe. I started small about 20 years ago, and have made from scratch, converted house cues, and used other builders parts and put togethet 539 cues. I'll be iny shop tomorrow morning working on 540. I have spent 75, 000 plus but enjoyed it all. Good luck to you.

warfdiesel said:

I am thinking of trying to learn about the cue building process. Thought about buying a lathe that I could set up and start tinkering with some old dufferin cues I have laying around in the basement.

Was wondering what kind of money it would cost to get a basic setup that would let me do something like that. Any help would be awesome. I am a complete noob. If this is the wrong section for this just let me know and I will move it. Thanks for any help

Click to expand...

send me the dufferins
save your money
go out and have fun on Lake Cumberland
you'll be a happier & richer man

you know this place? party cove, near Garland Bend
see how happy i am there

I am not a cue builder so take what I post here with a grain of salt.

Every time I have thought about making my own cues I have always come back to thinking that I would be best served learning to repair cues first. Several of the processes involved in building a cue are the same or slightly modified versions of what you would do when repairing cues. Everything from installing a tip, threading a tenon, repairing a broken butt cap, even replacing a wrap. They are all processes that would give you a very solid foundation to build from. I figure that having that solid foundation would save me a large amount of money in wasted in materials, but more importantly, it would save me the frustration of not being able to complete a process properly.

Just my .02

Actually, I think Brent gave you the best advice, but you might want to check this out:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=439102

Charlie

There are cue builders and cue assemblers. The guys who buy other cue makers parts and assemble cues and put their name on it is common. I have about 125K in my shop in equipment and thats not counting wood and pins, tips, ferrules and the like. You can easily spend a couple grand on phenolic and ferrules and pins. Thats if your serious. Chris's book is a great tool and over the years I have used alot of his advise. I also learned alot from Bob Dzurky both in his videos and phone help to learn CNC. Once you see the scope of it youll have to decide if this is for me. If you dont mind working long hrs, being frustrated over woods and customers demands and of course waking up with sawdust in the crack of your ass. Then jump in. Get a good lathe for sure and really learn how it works. Start there and machine some wood. Talk to cue makers, watch every video you can and finally never let a cue leave your bench until its true and built the best way you can build a cue and you might have a chance. Good luck.

The earlier advice to start out doing repairs is really good advice and the tooling to do so is much less expensive than cue building. It will also give you insights into what works and what fails. I have had very few failures in the cues I have built and I think I can contribute that to starting out doing repairs. A basic cue building lathe would allow you to do repairs right now and advance on into cue building later as you need to. If you buy a cue repair lathe now to save $$ then at least get one like the Large Bore Mid SIze Cue Smith lathe so you can expand later and add the cue building stuff to it.

Wanna make a million$ making pool cues.........start out with 2 million$