Cleaning the Cue...

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You all are crazy............What I do is the RIGHT THING!.......My way is right! I have done it for 60 years and.........Whoops I though I was somebody else. LOL!
Jus kiddin............I know a guy that uses ligther fluid! All I do with my shafts is keep an old piece of a shamios cloth the wipe it down with. And a wore out piece of 1500 or 2000 grit wet dry paper! And like Don said.....washing your hands often helps alot. I hate putting anything on my shafts.......I have used some of those cleaners they sell.......I think quick clean!.....a small little bottle that smells like rubbing alcohol. ............and the guy that used lighter fluid also washes his new cars with Comet! I think the comet is alittle to abrasive..........but what do I know.......All I do is pull staples and tighten bolts! .............if yall have missed me, I deleted my cookies on my computer, and had no idea what my password was........felt like a drunk locked out of my local bar! lol
 
OUCH! Welcome back PTM. Can't say I didn't miss ya. I thought you and you know who went off somewhere together. LOL
Don
 
lol............BONDO! Don't get me started........LOL! Me and Blud kissed and made up.......well he kissed.....nevermind! I know yall missed me! But as The Governator says.......I'll be back, and I is...I is!
 
Good to hear you guys made up. I was getting sick of the same ol'
duel.gif
 
I've been using Zippo or Ronsonol lighter fluid for a couple of years and I really like the stuff.

As Troy said it leaves a very slight film that shines very nicely when burnished. I use it daily.

When I first got the cue used it had very dirty shafts and I cleaned them with Cue Clean and it seemed to me that it is just about the same thing as Soft Scrub or Comet. It's an abrasive cleaner that got rid of the old chalk and dirt and bleached the shaft somewhat. I've used that abrasive cleaner on several shafts once or twice and not noticed any negative side effects. After using that type of cleaner I've always sanded very lightly with 1200, 1500 or 2000 grit and then burnished with leather.

For the daily mainentance I'm stuck on lighter fluid for now. I carry it with me in the cue case in a used Murine eye drop bottle.
 
I always thought the lighter fluid would dry out the wood and harm it somehow.........just in my head I think, unless somebody knows about this? Just seemed to me to be bad..........but everybody has their own thing. And it seems more people than I thought use the lighter fluid..........I shot with the guys cue here that uses the lighter fluid, and it is slick as glass. Like u said....it feels like a slick film over it.
 
some people who repair/refurbish antique guitars use naptha to clean them, and some of those pieces are worth a lot more than a pool cue, never tried it myself though. I use a cue cleaner product then a 2000 paper and leather burnish
 
Well, I use a lathe, and hit the shaft with 600 grit (lightly) and then clean it with lacquer thinner (careful not to get it close to the tip, it could break down the glue) and do the 600 again, then stop the lathe and sand with the grain all the way around, then proceed up the grit ladder to 2000 grit, then sealer, then sand again, then sealer again, then sand again, then cue wax, burnish with a paper towel, then sand with 2000 again, and sometimes repeat... and on my own I do that about once every two or three months, but about once a week I re-wax it and the 2000 grit thing, and it works fine for me and my hands get pretty sweaty, so trips to the bathroom for a good hand washing is also a good thing, and if somehow the shaft gets sticky, I just wipe it down with a damp paper towel and then dry and burnish with a dry paper towel, and sometimes use a certain petroleum distillate...

Thanks

Jon

Oh, and i wonder if anybody has ever used vasoline in place of wax??? i might try it sometime on a junk shaft...
 
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I just use a very dilute bleach and water solution. Shaft looks and feels like brand new after cleaning it this way. The bleach evaporates and no film is left.
 
cue clean

I'm with Don and Big john, I do all my shafts that I make this way and have reconditioned quite a few like this. I use some sealer i got from Barringer cues which is water based and it works great. Chris hightower does the same thing which is where I got it from in his book several years ago.
I start with 420 and go up to 1000 then finish off with 1500-2000. I put on a coat of sealer then sand with 420 and between each coat go to the next finer grit until I get to 1000(usually 420,600,800,1000). Then burnish it in with 1500 then polish with a soft cloth. I also keep a piece of 1500 and soft felt in my case for when the shaft gets sticky (I don't use wax) it works great.
 
We've been talking about two different things.

Some of the posts in this thread are about cleaning a dirty/dingy/green with chalk/black with sweaty hands old messed up shaft and of course the Comet or lathe and 220 grit sandpaper remedies are the way to go.

Troy and I, with our talk about lighter fluid and burnishing, are talking about how to keep a cue from getting dirty/dingy/green with chalk/black with sweaty hands messed up!

I had to clean the hell out of my shafts at first but now I keep them from EVER needing that harsh treatment again with lighter fluid and a leather burnisher.

Don't want to EVER have to do that to my shafts again so the lighter fluid is the treatment of choice.
 
clean shaft

I saw a guy last night that I made a cue for a year ago and the ferrule was filthy, the shaft had 20 - 30 little dents in it like he was sword fighting with it but the shaft looked as new as the day I made it. I made mine a year and a half ago and it still looks like the day I made it and I've played 4 - 6 nights a week the whole time. B
 
Can't figure that out. I can't stand the slightest dent....not even for a shot or two. Drives me crazy and has to be fixed right freakin now! And the shaft has to be clean too.
 
clean cue

Oh man you just don't know the hell I gave him when I felt all those dents. I can't stand to feel a dent when I'm playing, or to see the ferrule dirty and the tip mushroomed. Just drives me nuts that someone will take a nice cue I put alot of time in and treat it like a blue light special. JMO> B
 
ill be the first to admit that I do nothing. if a shaft becomes nicked or dirty beyond what i can stand i simply put it back in the case and pull the other one out. im a clean player, and am not a cue maker. Barry Szamboti takes care of the cues he made for me. i dont touch them, im afraiad to sand on his work.
 
Quick Question - So with the lighter fluid, I basically pull some on the towel (slightly damp?) and then just rub down the cue? What about the leather wrap? Can lighter fluid be used on that too? What can I use for the leather? I think I kind of messed it up a little bit by using a slightly damp towel to wipe that...is there anything I can put back on the leather wrap to give it the old feeling again?
 
The lighter fluid is for cleaning off residue and polishing the shaft...at least that's my take on it.

I use a small piece of old T shirt material, maybe 3 by 3" square, folded over and just use a little bit of lighter fluid. I then wrap the cloth around the ferrule, not getting it on the top of the tip, and then squeezing pretty tight I "scrub" the ferrule using a twisting motion and turning the cue. Then I slide the cloth onto the shaft and start wiping up and down and turning the cue as I go, still squeezing pretty tight, and clean/polish/burnish the shaft all in one swell foop. I'll do that for maybe 30 secs and the shaft gets nice and warm...maybe hot. That's it! It's done! The shaft glistens! You're happy!! Go play pool!!!

I like to do that again before I play. I play better if all my equipment is bright and shiny and the maintainance is done and the cue is ship shape..ready for action, and busy hands are happy hands. It helps me find that "BRING'M ON" feeling :)
 
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