dave sutton said:
Its a trick I learned from a cuemaker with almost 40 years experience. Points come out perfect the way I do it.
Also as a NEW maker there is not much value in cutting your own shafts. The process is long and hard. Maybe in a few years but right now. Learn to make a cue first then take steps to advance yourself.
As far as making the mid size competitive tyt prob the wrong word. It would he very very competitive with the larger headstock. I would love to hear why it wouldnt be
"It was a rehtorical question, Farley." I know why you cut pointed cues in separate peices to keep the points even. It's no trick. The real trick is when you can build a cue so accurately that you can cut an assembled butt & the points stay dead nuts even. It can be done on a deluxe, I do it every day. It can't be done on a midsize unless the collets are ID tapered to hug the components like a glove, but you can't make those collets, or at least make them effective unless you have a taper bar with repeatability.
The headstock upgrade of $500 gets you a bigger spindle bore, that's all. So now you have a larger spindle bore, what are you going to do with it? You'll still be relying on your steady rest with the straight bore collets. The deluxe has two chucks located on each end of the spindle, allowing you to accurately work with & squarely face off components before assembly. It eliminates the need for the steady rest to the point where the rest is only needed for balancing/cribbing long peices. This is an $850 option, that also requires riser blocks for the tail stock & rest, plus an additional top slide for the carriage. So $1500 roughly & still you rely on offsetting the tailstock to taper.
With a deluxe you don't need to offset the tailstock. You can adjust it & shim it to dead nuts centerline with the headstock, and leave it. This makes joint work MUCH more accurate, and allows you to do assembly work on center so you don't need to cut pointed cues in sections. You have infinitely adjustable taper bars with auto feed, so you get repeatable work with even, clean cuts. Basically, there's nothing that can't be done with the deluxe except inlaying, which is another option. And yes, it can even be equipped with a threading attachment for cutting threaded tenons or making joint pins. Mine is.
I'm not on here advertising for Chris. My point is that it's not the greatest idea to direct other newbies into disney land. There's no legitimate arguement of comparing a midsize to a deluxe. I own both machines & know them very well, and have spoken with Chris about the conversions needed to bring the midsize up to a level competitive with the deluxe. For a repair guy, the midsize is fine. For an aspiring cuemaker, the deluxe would be a far wiser choice. You can claim the midsize will do as well or compete with the deluxe, but how do you really know? Do you own both? I own a metal lathe, a porper B, a midsize, a deluxe, a tablesaw taper machine, a wood lathe & a finishing lathe I built with components from ebay. I know which equipment can do what because i'm using it daily. I don't have 40 years experience but with the experience I do have I know enough to get the right equipment & do things right if i'm planning to progress. If somebody wants to learn cuemaking & do it right, there's no getting around a full capacity lathe, whether it be a metal lathe with taper attachments or a full size cuemaking lathe. Telling somebody to do it another way is simply misleading.