Anyone interested in Radial pins at $5.00 each?

How can everyone blindly say they will take 50 pins to save a few bucks? What happens if the machine shops version is not an "exact" match? Then you have 50 pieces that are not worth a dime.

I'd want a measured inspection report in addition to a physical sample comparing the original to the reproduction. I don't mean with calipers either.
 
I don't have a dog in this fight. But I have tried the same thing with 2 very good machine shops. One who makes some elite items for the medical field. Both shops failed to produce a great product. The second shop was willing to try again, but wanted more money.

The Uniloc guys make a great product and cloning it won't be easy IME.
 
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I'm with Tom here. First, even IF the shop makes them for 5.00 a piece, the OP can't possibly sell them for that unless he HATES money. First there is the small issue of 10 grand... then keeping track of orders, dealing with the machine shop, delays, possible polishing/plating, cost of shipping, and all the fricken time involved....

It is attempt to do a good dead but "no good dead goes unpunished".

I imagine the shop would require payment for materials up front. If the pins are quite right.....then what? The OP would have to deal with the nightmare of everyone being pissed AND trying to get money back...

Don't walk....run away.....
 
Maybe he is posting this to make it much easier for people who want to order these pins to be able to get them. I called my supplier many times in the past few weeks and can't even get him on the phone!!!!!! He will not return calls, so Tom aka monstermash has decided to make these pins more accessable to all and at a fair market value to boot. I think a word of praise is in order and I personally can't see how anyone would go wrong with a deal like this one.
 
About 8 years ago Sherm and myself had 1,050 brass pins made to Uni-loc's exact specifications. The intent was to get brass first and then stainless at a later date. I contacted a electrolysis place about polishing the stainless and they wanted a dollar each for a 1,000 pins. We ended up just getting the brass items that are an exact match. A digital comparator was used to come up with the exact dimensions and was then used to randomly to check the run. When the pins would start to get a couple of tenths out they would change the inserts which had been custom made ahead of time.

The price of metals has sky rocketed in the past few years but our cost was 1,200.00 for 1,050 which was less than 1.20 each.

Dick
 
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iusedtoberich said:
How can everyone blindly say they will take 50 pins to save a few bucks? What happens if the machine shops version is not an "exact" match? Then you have 50 pieces that are not worth a dime.

I'd want a measured inspection report in addition to a physical sample comparing the original to the reproduction. I don't mean with calipers either.
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just like i said i'll take 50 pins blindly @ $ 5.00 each if there not right i'll just trash them $ 250.00 dollars ain't going to kill me!!!
 
To each his own.

If I were the OP, I'd want 10 samples made, and with inspection drawings using data from a CMM since this is such a specialized thread, before any money changes hands. Its not just your order of 50 pins at $250, its the whole order of 2000 pins at $10K that is at risk.

I've worked with machine shops in my day job, and without an inspection report, I'm not approving anyting for production.

No harm meant, just seems a big expense to the OP to blindly go into this. Maybe he is already planning on doing some trial run, but his posts do not state that.
 
cuemaker03 said:
Maybe he is posting this to make it much easier for people who want to order these pins to be able to get them. I called my supplier many times in the past few weeks and can't even get him on the phone!!!!!! He will not return calls, so Tom aka monstermash has decided to make these pins more accessable to all and at a fair market value to boot. I think a word of praise is in order and I personally can't see how anyone would go wrong with a deal like this one.
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Well, unless he already inserted a bit of profit into the 5.00 a piece he said they cost, he is already losing money. It has already gone wrong...
 
I don't sell the ball screws for $5 or even for the $8 mentioned, but do sell them for $9 each in quantities of 10 if your friend would like to save himself a lot of headache.
 
cuemaker03 said:
Maybe he is posting this to make it much easier for people who want to order these pins to be able to get them. I called my supplier many times in the past few weeks and can't even get him on the phone!!!!!! He will not return calls, so Tom aka monstermash has decided to make these pins more accessable to all and at a fair market value to boot. I think a word of praise is in order and I personally can't see how anyone would go wrong with a deal like this one.
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Ahhhh, young grasshopper, Praise will come, if they are made with the same consistency as the one's already being supplied to the Industry.
 
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I'm sure your machine shop would take detailed measurements directly off your sample Radial pin and discover for themselves that the correct numbers are 7.62 tpi.

3 threads per 1 cm x 2.54 cm per inch = 7.62 tpi.

Once you get them made and have a couple of cue makers use them with satisfaction, I'll order quite a few, too.
 
jschelin99 said:
I'm sure your machine shop would take detailed measurements directly off your sample Radial pin and discover for themselves that the correct numbers are 7.62 tpi.

3 threads per 1 cm x 2.54 cm per inch = 7.62 tpi.

Once you get them made and have a couple of cue makers use them with satisfaction, I'll order quite a few, too.
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I was told by a cue maker who was selling stainless, unpolished radial pins for 8.15 each. He had some machinists making them and they were the wrong dimensions. I hydrauliced two prongs as the pins were made to specks for the old style tap that made larger, looser threads and the rear threads that went into the prong were the same size as the front threads so they had no glue relief. I was told by the cue maker that I needed to polish the pins and then they would be a good fit. Polishing by hand on a wheel doesn't do a very consistent job. When I told the cue maker that I was going to have a bunch of pins made he told me that I would never figure out the right dimensions. With the correct equipment that only took 2 or 3 minutes.

As I said in my post, they use an optical digital comparator and your sample is viewed and a X/Y line is above it. They put a line on each point of the threads which intern shows the exact pitch of the threads. They then take another line and stretch it so that it fits the radius between the threads perfectly and then they have the exact radius. They do likewise with the pins threaded lengths, overall length, barrel length and width and the nose radius and what ever other specifications they deemed necessary. As I said, they came out perfect and in fact, probably with closer specs than the genuine Uni-loc.

We, of coarse, tried to get them as cheaply as possible and 1,000 was the lowest amount that made economical sense. 500 were almost double the price per item than 1,000.

Dick
 
rhncue said:
I was told by a cue maker who was selling stainless, unpolished radial pins for 8.15 each. He had some machinists making them and they were the wrong dimensions. I hydrauliced two prongs as the pins were made to specks for the old style tap that made larger, looser threads and the rear threads that went into the prong were the same size as the front threads so they had no glue relief. I was told by the cue maker that I needed to polish the pins and then they would be a good fit. Polishing by hand on a wheel doesn't do a very consistent job. When I told the cue maker that I was going to have a bunch of pins made he told me that I would never figure out the right dimensions. With the correct equipment that only took 2 or 3 minutes.

As I said in my post, they use an optical digital comparator and your sample is viewed and a X/Y line is above it. They put a line on each point of the threads which intern shows the exact pitch of the threads. They then take another line and stretch it so that it fits the radius between the threads perfectly and then they have the exact radius. They do likewise with the pins threaded lengths, overall length, barrel length and width and the nose radius and what ever other specifications they deemed necessary. As I said, they came out perfect and in fact, probably with closer specs than the genuine Uni-loc.

We, of coarse, tried to get them as cheaply as possible and 1,000 was the lowest amount that made economical sense. 500 were almost double the price per item than 1,000.

Dick
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I don't think their ability to do the pins is as big a deal as trying to accumulate 10 grand from 50-75 people.

For 2 or 3 people this would be good.
 
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