Bad Lepros ?

C

cad1illac

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Have heard much talk about the variance in quality of these tips. I have never heard about the variance in quality of any other tip. Kind of strange. Exactly how do you tell if the tip is bad or good.
 
All solid tips vary, just some more than others. LePro used to be very popular because they were good tips. Now they are kinda junk. The quality dropped at the factory, so now a box of 50 tips will have 5-10 good ones.

A bad tip will be spongy & soft & porous. It's tough to tell because of their coating, so you most generally find out when installing. The best way I have found is to look at the bottom of the tip & take note to the texture. If it's wavy, spongly looking texture then it's likely a junk tip. If it's smooth on bottom then it's a good chance of being a good tip. Otherwise, I don't know. I treat & press mine before installing so I know every tip will be good.
 
cad1illac said:
Have heard much talk about the variance in quality of these tips. I have never heard about the variance in quality of any other tip. Kind of strange. Exactly how do you tell if the tip is bad or good.
Click to expand...
i've got plenty of crappy elks, lepros & triangles
as if they are rotted
you can pull on all of them like an accordion
 
i've got plenty of crappy elks, lepros & triangles
as if they are rotted
you can pull on all of them like an accordion
------------------------------------------------------------------
Would these tips be good for experimenting with making "milk dud" type tips?

Regards,
Stoney
 
The 14 mm they sell now are mostly junk, most are soft and only .230 thick, TO SMALL by the time you shape them, the only good lepro left is the 15 mm. Still a few bad but not many and are almost as thick as a moori.
 
Stoney said:
i've got plenty of crappy elks, lepros & triangles
as if they are rotted
you can pull on all of them like an accordion
------------------------------------------------------------------
Would these tips be good for experimenting with making "milk dud" type tips?

Regards,
Stoney
Click to expand...
i dont know,
i wouldnt THINK so
i just toss 'em
 
BHQ said:
i've got plenty of crappy elks, lepros & triangles
as if they are rotted
you can pull on all of them like an accordion
Click to expand...

lol exactly.

i drop them on the table. the heavier they sound the better

i find i get the highest number out of triangles

unless you order lepro ot triangle. i just spring for layered tips.
 
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Damn it, I hate giving away secrets, Oh I can't believe I'm giving this one up. BLAH BLAH, any way Mike Sigel told me years ago that he only uses Lepro's, and he's only found one way to tell good from bad, sand the back of the tip, and the dark one's are the good ones, sand 50-100 and you'll know what I mean. That is why at this moment I have 50-60 good lepros on hand.

For those about to post, what about humidity, now you've taken the coating off and the atmospheric conditions will get to them, well that's why there are air tight containers/bags.

You do have to have a discriminating eyes/good eye sight/ attention to detail. My brother say's he can't tell most of the time unless it's night and day between the color. I can.

Darkest are the med. firm(the one's most people are looking for)

Dark are Med. very good tip, needs trimmed once or twice, plays great, shouldn't use for breaking

light chocolate brown, Meduim soft tip, good tip for spinning whitey, some mushroom alot, some not so much.

and when they start getting lighter in color 99 out of 100 are crap from hear. They seam to tear apart very easily, Rotten is the correct term.

The bad one's can be used for experiments such as milk duds, soaking in super glue to make a break tip, soaking in budweiser, alcohol, or putting on the cues of people I don't like:kma:

I also use these tips to replace the tips on house cue's at the local Ymca, my charity work. and I suggest you other cue repair guys who can retip house cues to do the same, It's a great thing to do.

EDIT: The only 2 exeptions to this I have found is:

#1 old lepro's anything that has been sitting around for awhile, how long? depends, we set up and do repair at quite a few tournaments every year including national tournaments now, so we put on countless amounts of tips each year. So we buy 4-5 boxes of lepros each year and maybe sell 50, the others I donate.

#2 when I rough the bottoms of the tips and if they are shaggy, or leather seams to tear, doesn't matter the darkness these are also bad.
 
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I measure the height of the tip. The tallest ones have been preesed as far as they can be & are still taller. The short ones are usually soft...JER
 
I wonder if Le Pro tips from different suppliers make a difference, and I wonder what kinda quanities the big Wholesalers buy. The 14mm Le Pro tips I have been getting over the last 8 months have been pretty good. I have an Odrameter and I test all my tips before I install them. I discard any tip below 80 on the hardness scale for Le Pro tips, and I classify tips that read between 80 and 89 as medium, and tips that are 90 and above as hard. For Le Pro tips I may discard around 15 per box, however, that is really nothing in my opinion. The interesting fact is that the Triangle Tips also test out with the Odrometer the same as the Le Pro tips, and whenever I have seen hardness ratings posted they were rated harder than the Le Pro's. Another interesting fact is that over the same period of time I have listed above, I have actually had more Triangle tips test below 80 than Le Pro's. Normally out of a box I have been finding between 15 and 25 bad.

I also do not know how many people know this but, some suppliers, like mine (J&J America) also carry Le Pro Tips in 13.5mm also so. If you guy's have never bought tips from J&J you may want to check them out, their prices are very good, and I have had very good luck with things I have purchased from them.
 
If you get a bad one ... it wont be hard to tell when you start shaping it down on the lathe.

Using your fingernails gently pull on the end of the installed tip.
If it expands out like an acordian ... it is a bad one.
 
WilleeCue said:
If you get a bad one ... it wont be hard to tell when you start shaping it down on the lathe.

Using your fingernails gently pull on the end of the installed tip.
If it expands out like an acordian ... it is a bad one.
Click to expand...

hey willee, which one of us spelled accordian correctly? LOL
i opened a fresh box of elks yesterday
the first tip out of the box was an ACCORDIAN :rolleyes:
second pick was a good one :smile:
what's the odds on the third tip??????


i've got plenty of crappy elks, lepros & triangles
as if they are rotted
you can pull on all of them like an accordion
 
I bought 25 boxes about 8 years ago and have gone through most of them and none bad ... I have rat-holed some of the primo ones for personal use ... haven't bought any recently so I have to take your word on quality nowadays ... The layered tips , tried them all , and only the old Moori seems to play decent , but like all the layered I've played , the center packs down and have to take the shoulder down to renew the crown ... don't have a problem with my Lepros ... I do something extra to them before shaping that makes them last ...I bought a bunch of the old Moori at the same time ... Now the new ones are not even close to the playability of the old ...just my opinion ...different strokes for different folks , one man's trash is another man's treasure...:cool:
 
yep..

Mostly the triangles I get do that....WHAT HAPPENED TO TRIANGLES??? The old orange box ones were great, but the current style box oldstock is all gone....The newer ones are about 60 percent garbage....and the GOOD ones machine rather poorly as well..
BHQ said:
i've got plenty of crappy elks, lepros & triangles
as if they are rotted
you can pull on all of them like an accordion
Click to expand...
 
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