Could you be thinking of Ram tips?
A unique question about tips.
- Thread starter sebroy9
- Start date
Could you be thinking of Ram tips?
Aloha
No I think it was the Future tips I was thinking of....? I thought they were rubber, but who knows. I've slept since then and suffer CRS. This getting older shot sucks.
Aloha
One of my customers is a major tip manufacturer and they tell me they've been developing various tips from new materials (synthetics, pulp, reconstituted leather, etc.) for years now, but have yet to find a substitute that comes close to beating leather in terms of grip, elasticity, durability and feel.
I think it's just a matter of time though, before a breakthrough is made. But even if it does happen, I'm pretty sure all the "old school" guys (myself included), will be sticking with our good ol' fashioned leather tips.
I think it's just a matter of time though, before a breakthrough is made. But even if it does happen, I'm pretty sure all the "old school" guys (myself included), will be sticking with our good ol' fashioned leather tips.
I was told by the company that sold them that the "Future Tip" was made from polyurethane. The ones I used were real hard, but I liked them; I never found anyone else who did.
I still have a brown around here and think I can come up with a blue.. They are appear and act like a thermoset plastic but there are thermoset polyurethanes... The issue is that thermoset urethanes will usually fail catastrophically after repeated impacts which is what I know the black future tips did... Never saw a blue or brown fail so 25 years ago they were ahead of Taom......
Last edited:
Hahah bonded leather tips are more likely than you think which is what I think they mean by reconstituted... Getting the leather ground to the proper size and fibers layed in place is not going to be easy. Nature layed them right on her own......
Put your mind at ease. It's all possible. It's all do-able. I'm sure today's rubber (not just natural gum rubber, mind you) and plastics could easily do the trick.
But, as with everything, there's a cost and return of investment commitment. I can't imagine someone would invest in formulating a synthetic tip. I can imagine someone grabbinging some material and trying it (rubber and synthetic tips have already been made, as mentioned on this post), but to go through a material formulation process for what is really needed for a tip? I doubt it.
I'll ask my materials guys, but in the meantime consider Naugahyde is just PVC with some level of plasticizer. So the whole range of PVC can go from mock soft leather all the way to rigid PVC. Urethanes can go from very soft (foamed and shaped to feel like leather) to very rigid (non-foamed), depending on formulation. And some silicones can get so hard that you'd think they were rigid plastic, and so soft that they almost flow in your fingers. The range of these materials tells me that there is a point for each that could be truly used for a tip. Who wants to pay for the development?
Freddie <~~~ or we could talk about adhesives
Last edited:
There are some faux leathers used in shoes such as Birkinstock that may work. I think you would be easier to make the tips the same way a layered tip is made. With that is mind there is probably thousands of materials that can be experimented with.
The thing is, why bother, leather tips work just fine.
Nice old school one, too bad it's not for sale..
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=194365&highlight=porper+leather. This link from 2010 discusses them.
A guy says in that thread that pigs and cows can regrow their ears like reptiles... I wouldn't put much thought into that thread.
Aloha Mac
Don't get me wrong, I love fleshy tips. I would like to see a layered shark skin. It would be an interesting test. I also think that stabilized coconut husk could hold some interesting experimental qualities. I guess I just like thinking out side the sand box. Although mine is missing quite a few grains of sand.
Aloha