Basket cases ...

WilleeCue

WilleeCue

The Barefoot Cuemaker
Silver Member
Do any other cue makers ever take on a basket case just for the fun of restoring fire wood to a playable cue?

I traded two tip installs and a shaft reconditioning for a high end basket case cue butt this weekend at a tourney.
The cue was slammed on the pool table one time too many.
The forearm shattered.

It will be a summer project restoring this cue to a playable condition.
I am thinking a complete forearm replacement from the handle to the joint will be required.

What is surprising is what you find inside a cue like this ... construction wise.

Another question is ... if I replace the forearm, copy the inlays, and make it look almost exactly as it did ... can it still be called buy its original makers name?

Should I sand off the logo and not refer to that name anymore?

Last year I did a forearm replacement on a Meucci and I refer to that cue as a Will-Lu-Chee ... a name given by a friend the first time he saw it.
 

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It won't be the same cue.

I have a Franklin era SW cue that someone butchered and ended up with an butt shaped like an hour glass. Laurie had a new butt sleeve made for it and installed it. I don't feel right about calling the cue a Franklin era cue. It was dis-assembled and rebuilt by current cue makers, not by Jerry, so I think I have to explain all that when it's up for sale. Maybe you call yours a rebuilt "whatever" cue.
 
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WilleeCue said:
Do any other cue makers ever take on a basket case just for the fun of restoring fire wood to a playable cue?

I traded two tip installs and a shaft reconditioning for a high end basket case cue butt this weekend at a tourney.
The cue was slammed on the pool table one time too many.
The forearm shattered.

It will be a summer project restoring this cue to a playable condition.
I am thinking a complete forearm replacement from the handle to the joint will be required.

What is surprising is what you find inside a cue like this ... construction wise.

Another question is ... if I replace the forearm, copy the inlays, and make it look almost exactly as it did ... can it still be called buy its original makers name?

Should I sand off the logo and not refer to that name anymore?

Last year I did a forearm replacement on a Meucci and I refer to that cue as a Will-Lu-Chee ... a name given by a friend the first time he saw it.
Click to expand...


IMHO - this is a re-build, not a repair - when it is done, I would
classify it as a willy cue, not a 'makerX' cue because
of the redoing of the structural join.

But maybe that's just me.

Dale
 
Working on a Falcon right now. The guy snapped it over his knee.
Plastic coating so once that was off, cut a wrap groove. Experimenting with a CA clear coat over india ink. New butt cap and needed badly to be built up in the forearm which I'm doing with CA. Maybe not really as much a basket case but good practice.
 
cue rebuild

Tallahassee has such a low end market, I see this frequently. Customers here won't pay the price to redo this forearm. They will trash the cue before rebuilding and pay less than $100 for another cheap stick. They will only pay me to put the cue back together with epoxy and pressure and give them no guarantee as to how long it will stay together. They won't give me the cue they will take it home for firewood or have me reglue the pieces back together. Just outright cheap I guess.

I have been quite lucky putting them back together, though, by crossdrilling and filling the faces with high pressure high strength slow drying epoxy and circular clamping for a week or more. I do this in a lathe between centers with slight pressure and check frequently for straighness. I have performed this repair with excellent results over 30 times in the past three years. Only one came back from a ballbeater with a known bad temper. I do see them using those cues regularly in league play, so many have stood up reasonably. I haven't seen all of them, though.

I wouldn't recommend this on extremely expensive cues to quality players but I have squeezed a few bucks out of my cheaper ballbeaters. I try to tell them the truth, but money rules the roost. They will give me $30-$45 for reglueing but not the bucks for quality repair. They will burn it first.
Tom Gedris, Triple Cross Cues:cool:
 
Its sad ... after tearing into this cue ... to see the quality of workmanship on the inside. ... :sorry: ...
For a $1000 cue and a name like XXXXX you would thik they could at least get the "A" joint pin some where near center.
This one was so far off had to remove the pin, bore it out, plug and re-pin the "A" joint pin.

Also at least 3/8" of air pocket in front of the pin.

No ... I wont say who made this cue ... but I did expect better quality construction from them.

I have made a new forearm to match the original and am cutting the point inlays now. It will be a no name cue and I guess I will play with it if I like it after the repair work.
 
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