Bought new shaft, playing cue needs mntce - No other butt for league

W

WillCastillo

Will
Hello,

My playing cue is a McD g203 and it reeeally needs maintenance so I'd like to send it right away.

Problem is, I'm playing in a league and even when I bought a new shaft, an OB1, I don't have other decent cue butt to use it with.

So question is... will be OK to buy a cheap cue stick at Dicks, Sports Auth, or something (say ~30-35 bucks) and use it with my OB1? Or could it damage the joint or something?

To buy a a more pricey one is not an option at the moment... unless I want to sleep on the couch for the rest of the year :p

I'd appreciate any help!

All best,
Will
 
WillCastillo said:
Hello,

My playing cue is a McD g203 and it reeeally needs maintenance so I'd like to send it right away.

Problem is, I'm playing in a league and even when I bought a new shaft, an OB1, I don't have other decent cue butt to use it with.

So question is... will be OK to buy a cheap cue stick at Dicks, Sports Auth, or something (say ~30-35 bucks) and use it with my OB1? Or could it damage the joint or something?

To buy a a more pricey one is not an option at the moment... unless I want to sleep on the couch for the rest of the year :p

I'd appreciate any help!

All best,
Will
Click to expand...

You might consider just playing off the wall with a house cue until your cue comes back. Our local SEARS carries the Lucky pool cue brand by McDermott, they may have the same joint pins are around the $40-$50 price point. Then when your butt gets back home you will have a cheap cue to break with.
 
dr9ball said:
You might consider just playing off the wall with a house cue until your cue comes back. Our local SEARS carries the Lucky pool cue brand by McDermott, they may have the same joint pins are around the $40-$50 price point. Then when your butt gets back home you will have a cheap cue to break with.
Click to expand...

Uhm... Which one? The one in Cumberland Mall or the one in North Point Mall? At least in Cumberland Mall, all I've seen are Minnesota Fat cues, never a Lucky. I'll take a look... that might be an option.
 
I don't see why any cue with the same pin would damage your OB-1. Your plan sounds reasonable to me.
 
Might be a good idea to have a back up player, just in case...
however, in the mean time it's probably likeky that a team mate would have a spare that they might be willing to lend you, or find the house cue with best tip. If you like the McD's, the McDermott Lucky's are decent shooters that can be had at a very reasonable price, even here on AZ. Just out of curiosity, what would you consider "pricy"?
 
DoubleD said:
What kind of maintenance could a butt need that could possibly take more than a couple of hours?
Click to expand...

The butt doesn't need any maintenance... it's the shaft. But I need to send the whole cue to MCD per warranty's requirement. And I read it takes like two weeks to get it back.

My G-core shaft has some dents that really piss me off when shooting. They totally distracted me so I need to either to rotate my cue while aiming or totally restart my pre-shot routine.
 
WillCastillo said:
The butt doesn't need any maintenance... it's the shaft. But I need to send the whole cue to MCD per warranty's requirement. And I read it takes like two weeks to get it back.

My G-core shaft has some dents that really piss me off when shooting. They totally distracted me so I need to either to rotate my cue while aiming or totally restart my pre-shot routine.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't send that cue anywhere. If all you're dealing with are some dings, you can fix that yourself.

The real trick is avoiding dings in the first place... ;)* Really small dings can sometimes be "pulled" out of the shaft with heat, by rubbing a piece of leather or even a dollar bill over the area until it gets warm or even hot.

I fix annoying shaft dents using a process that starts with hot running water going over just the area that has the ding. Hold the shaft at a 90 degree angle under the stream of hot water, which will swell up the compressed wood (ie. the ding) and you can treat the shaft afterwards. This will do the trick 90% of the time on small and medium sized dings. Gouges are a different issue...

When the dings are gone, I use a little bit of steel wool on the whole taper area of the shaft, followed by a couple of treatments using those little "cue papers" that have been around for 30+ years. (I was happy to see they are till available on ebay). At the very end, when the shaft feels like glass again, I put a little bit of lighter fluid on a paper towel and rub that into the shaft to seal the wood. I'm sure there are other products that will do the sealing-trick, but this process has been working for me for so long that I don't feel the need to switch.

My oldest cue is a McDermott D-26 I bought in 1989 which I've been treating this way since day one. Luckily, I've only had to fix dings on that cue a few times, but using the process described above has worked well for me and I get regular compliments from anyone who I let hit with that cue... And I've also found some great deals on used cues because of dimply shafts which I've been able to "un-ding" and put back into great playing condition.

Good luck.
 
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If your game can't stand for two weeks on its own, without your favorite cue then you have bigger things to worry about. I hope you're not falling for the fallacy that it's the cue, not the player that makes the shot.
 
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