Cue Lathe from Cowboy Billiards
- Thread starter JCurry
- Start date
Personally, I've had excellent dealings with Chris Hightower on several occasions. He's committed to customer service and his machines work quite well. You can find him at cuesmith.com
Your right, the tube can be improvised. I have to tell you though. I have acheived the same results by chucking the shaft up in the drill with the appropriate pins, setting it on the floor with the shaft coming up towards me, use my foot to depress the trigger, cotton glove on hand holding the shaft and blade in my other hand and trimming. I did this all the time with very good results before I started using my friends deluxe with no shaft damage and only the money for the pins out of pocket. for some jobs I resorted to having my girl hold the shaft so I had both hands to work with
:thumbup:
Bolt wise the only size you will find in a hardware store is 5/16x18 the rest of the sizes are cue specific,You would be better off buying joint protector pins. Here is a tip lathe that I am putting together. So far I have 250.00 into it 100.00 for penn state motor and 150.00for a taig kit. The rest of the stuff I had laying around
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That looks nice! I know absolutely nothing about lathes or the parts needed to make one I'm a noob lol I have an old drill press that I can change the rpm's with by putting the drive belt on a dif pulley....do you think that would work for a motor if I tried to build one of these. Also, what all would I need? sorry for all the questions....like i said, noob lmao Or would you be interested in selling that 1?
I'm a noob lol I have an old drill press that I can change the rpm's with by putting the drive belt on a dif pulley....do you think that would work for a motor if I tried to build one of these. Also, what all would I need? sorry for all the questions....like i said, noob lmao Or would you be interested in selling that 1?
That looks nice! I know absolutely nothing about lathes or the parts needed to make one
I'm definitely not interested in selling mine, the one in the pictures, but I do have the starts of one that an apprentice of mine started on before getting himself in some trouble and leaving town owing me some money. It has the main channel with the two pillow block bearings and the tube that runs through the bearings but still needs to have a pulley mounted on the tube, a chuck and backing plate fit to the pipe, a motor with a pulley and the tool rest made for it. It doesn't sound like you are up to doing it yourself. You'd need a good sized metal working lathe to finish it up. You might want to print the pic I posted and explain what I told you here to a machine shop near you and see what they would charge you to finish it up. I'd let what I have here go for $80 + shipping which is probably less than material costs. If you're interested send me an email to sherm@shermcue.com and I'll send you a picture of the incomplete one you could take with you to the machine shop to show them what needs to be completed. Oh and yes, that drill press motor should work fine to run it.
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> I like the invention I see from people on their steady rests. :thumbup:
The one that came with my machine looks like this. Picture a 12" long slab of 4" wide hot rolled steel U-channel,with a large rectangular pocket milled out of the center,and a 5/16 wide groove 8" long on either side.
A simple diamond shaped pillow block with swivel is mounted with the bolts in the grooves,and has ground shoulder bolts that slide in the grooves,custom aluminum washers and nylon insert nuts.
This assembly is turned up on it's end and welded to a 6" long,4" wide and 1/2 thick hot rolled plate so that the flat side of the U-channel is facing the back side of the lathe.
The recessed side of the U is where the collet goes into the bearing and access to the height adjustment bolts.
The bottom of the base plate was ground flat,and it was apparently bolted down at some point because it has 2 holes drilled.
When in use,it looks like an L. It weighs close to 15-16 pounds. I've only adjusted the height a few times to adjust for an unusually thick shaft that caused it to run too close to the top inside edge of the spindle,the collet it came with will comfortably hold most shafts about 4-6" from the joint end.
I run a shaft thru it,or in some cases use it for cutting off a length of ferrule rod. I chuck up on the shaft,collet,or tubing I'm using or the rod,and just pull the steady back until the shaft seats in the collet,bump it around for sideways alignment and forget it. Way overbuilt and ugly,but utterly perfect function. Tommy D.
The one that came with my machine looks like this. Picture a 12" long slab of 4" wide hot rolled steel U-channel,with a large rectangular pocket milled out of the center,and a 5/16 wide groove 8" long on either side.
A simple diamond shaped pillow block with swivel is mounted with the bolts in the grooves,and has ground shoulder bolts that slide in the grooves,custom aluminum washers and nylon insert nuts.
This assembly is turned up on it's end and welded to a 6" long,4" wide and 1/2 thick hot rolled plate so that the flat side of the U-channel is facing the back side of the lathe.
The recessed side of the U is where the collet goes into the bearing and access to the height adjustment bolts.
The bottom of the base plate was ground flat,and it was apparently bolted down at some point because it has 2 holes drilled.
When in use,it looks like an L. It weighs close to 15-16 pounds. I've only adjusted the height a few times to adjust for an unusually thick shaft that caused it to run too close to the top inside edge of the spindle,the collet it came with will comfortably hold most shafts about 4-6" from the joint end.
I run a shaft thru it,or in some cases use it for cutting off a length of ferrule rod. I chuck up on the shaft,collet,or tubing I'm using or the rod,and just pull the steady back until the shaft seats in the collet,bump it around for sideways alignment and forget it. Way overbuilt and ugly,but utterly perfect function. Tommy D.
Chuck, thats a beautiful home built you have there. I am amazed at the low cost.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
AMERICAN COWBOY BILLIARDS
I'm embarassed to say that I too have been burned by AMERICAN COWBOY BILLIARDS. I trusted his 99% rating and didn't look specifically at the reviews of the "cue lathe". His email messages are disgusting to those who have seen this "lathe". I will never buy anything from him again, and advise the same for all shoppers.
Donny Lutz
Author
BCA/ACS Certified Instructor 2
I'm embarassed to say that I too have been burned by AMERICAN COWBOY BILLIARDS. I trusted his 99% rating and didn't look specifically at the reviews of the "cue lathe". His email messages are disgusting to those who have seen this "lathe". I will never buy anything from him again, and advise the same for all shoppers.
Donny Lutz
Author
BCA/ACS Certified Instructor 2
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Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!
They are a piece of junk and thats being nice about it. there are lathes out there that you can get for 700-1200 that will do what that was supposed to do and not make a bigger mess than when you startred.
2strokeking
New member
Just ordered one, gonna put it to the test, wanted something light weight for travel. Just to do shaft & tip maintenance, Already have large wood and metal lathes in my shop.
Good luck with that.
If you're really gonna try it out, before you even think to jam an old branch from an old tree between those black wheels, change those wheels to wide, soft, skateboard gum wheels and and circular file that POS piece of rubber tube "collet" they send along. Those black wheels will leave a rut that you'll never recover from. I suppose you might be able to make it work for something, but the best thing you can do with it is pawn it off on some poor unsuspecting ass that you don't like very much
