bought some wood for a cue and would like some advices.

J

jpc

New member
Im a cabinet making student and I went to see a wood collector with my teacher today to buy some walnut burl veener and i also bought some great wood for making cues.

I bought a quarter sawn maple plank that yielded two 830mm long 23mm square blanks and a 610 mmlong 40mm square itin blank.


the maple has some birds eyes and piece 1 has 21growth rings per inch piece 2 has 15 per inch. (counted in a straight line)

23mm is the smalest dimension of those pieces.


I did some research ,but would like some advices on how to make a cue.

Cue making related tools at my disposal: 1236metal lathe ,6ft delta midi wood lathe, 7518 porter cable router (5speed 3-1/2hp)

Should i mount my router on the metal lathe and build a taper attachement or just find a way to turn a taper on a metal lathe.

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Sound advise

Goe to cuesmith.com and buy the book.You will get a great bit of info from that resource.....Then when you do start cutting, get a bunch of 2x4s first .Be safe and have fun....Also where are you located?? Ray Weeks
 
cuewould said:
Goe to cuesmith.com and buy the book.You will get a great bit of info from that resource.....Then when you do start cutting, get a bunch of 2x4s first .Be safe and have fun....Also where are you located?? Ray Weeks
Click to expand...

Good advice.

It is impossible to answer the question, "how do you build a pool cue", in one simple sentence.

There are volumes written on the subject and it would take volumes to answer your question. Chris Hightower's book is a volume you should start with. Most people have no idea about the time and work that goes into a cue. Most think you just throw a piece of wood on a lathe and make a cue. Nothing could be farther from reality.

Start by learning and practicing basic procedures. It may take you several months to a year to conquer all the necessary skills. It is not learned in a weekend. Everyone starts somewhere.

Your metal lathe will work while the wood lathe is probably useless except for making square things round. You will need a taper bar setup but cues were tapered for years using the dial out method. As you cut lengthwise, dial out a predetermined number of thou on the cross slige for every inch.

Your router is probably too big, most use a laminate trim router that are easy to mount on a piece of angle held in the tool post. Porter cable 7310 is just one of them.

Most cue builders start with 1 1/2 inch squares about 18 inches long for butts and 1 in maple squares or dowels, 30 inches long for shafts.




Kim
 
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Get the Hightower book and videos together. You may also want to buy his lathe, since it is designed for making cues to begin with. It has two taper bars, and an offsetting tailstock, two headstocks with a 1.4" opening in the spindle, and lots of other features that come in handy.
 
I would mount the router on the lathe and make a taper bar for your shafts and for your butts. Are you just looking at making one cue or are you picking up a hobby. Sorry if I missed that in your post but depending on which direction you go dictates which direction you should go with making cues. If you just wanted to make one simple cue than with care you should be able to do it with just a little practice.
 
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