J
Jody C
Guest
What is the best way to store your cue to protect from warpage.
Laying flat in a case standing the case up, etc.
Thanks,
Laying flat in a case standing the case up, etc.
Thanks,
good question
I was going to start the same thread.
I have 2-24 x 48 foam layered cases, made for transporting lots of cues on the airlines. These cases can be stood up, layed flat, inverted, whatever. I lay them flat, and then stand the cases up, and move them around regularly. I would like to know the best way to store cues also.
Jody C said:
I was going to start the same thread.
I have 2-24 x 48 foam layered cases, made for transporting lots of cues on the airlines. These cases can be stood up, layed flat, inverted, whatever. I lay them flat, and then stand the cases up, and move them around regularly. I would like to know the best way to store cues also.
In a case standing up.
trunk storage
Really, I thought that these cue resellers going all over town with trunks full of cheap warped cues knew what they were doing. Seriously though, there has to be an optimum long term storage method, beyond making sure that the cues are in a controlled environment
DoubleBye said:
Really, I thought that these cue resellers going all over town with trunks full of cheap warped cues knew what they were doing. Seriously though, there has to be an optimum long term storage method, beyond making sure that the cues are in a controlled environment
Look at the shelves in your closet....and then store your cues upright.
gr. Dave
gr. Dave
John Barton
New member
Why don't you ask the guys who sell high end cues? A lot of them transport cues all over the country - some in the trunk of their car over long distances.
If their cues aren't warping then neither should yours.
A lot of folks hang their cues. A lot of cuemakers hang their shaft wood in between cuts. So there is probably quite a bit of merit to this.
In the factory where Fury cues are made ALL the shafts are hung up and dated, tens of thousands of shafts, it smellls wonderful in the wood warehouse. But I digress, basically as long as your cues are well made then they should be practically impervious to the elements and should be okay if stored in a dry place at about room temperature.
But don't come to me if your cues warp
P.S. Dave, shelves are typically not made to the same standards as pool cues, typically they are made of laminated pressboard with the thinnest coats of varnish that the manufacturer can get away with. You can find many antique dressers that were crafted by the Amish and other individual shops where the wood is straight and everything works perfectly despite being 50-100 years old.
If their cues aren't warping then neither should yours.
A lot of folks hang their cues. A lot of cuemakers hang their shaft wood in between cuts. So there is probably quite a bit of merit to this.
In the factory where Fury cues are made ALL the shafts are hung up and dated, tens of thousands of shafts, it smellls wonderful in the wood warehouse. But I digress, basically as long as your cues are well made then they should be practically impervious to the elements and should be okay if stored in a dry place at about room temperature.
But don't come to me if your cues warp
P.S. Dave, shelves are typically not made to the same standards as pool cues, typically they are made of laminated pressboard with the thinnest coats of varnish that the manufacturer can get away with. You can find many antique dressers that were crafted by the Amish and other individual shops where the wood is straight and everything works perfectly despite being 50-100 years old.
Last edited:
ideally, hanging on its own weight (vertically) especially when not in use. but in most circumstances, cues stored vertically inside the cue case is good enough.
why vertically? so that there'll be no other lateral forces to act on the cue (ie. so that gravity can pull the cue only in 1 direction, therefore keeping it straight). hanging the cue in a cue rack may not be a good idea as the cue tends to lean on its holder, causing some stress somewhere along the cue, therefore may induce warpage near the stress point.
why vertically? so that there'll be no other lateral forces to act on the cue (ie. so that gravity can pull the cue only in 1 direction, therefore keeping it straight). hanging the cue in a cue rack may not be a good idea as the cue tends to lean on its holder, causing some stress somewhere along the cue, therefore may induce warpage near the stress point.
Last edited:
John Barton said:But don't come to me if your cues warp
P.S. Dave, shelves are typically not made to the same standards as pool cues, typically they are made of laminated pressboard with the thinnest coats of varnish that the manufacturer can get away with. You can find many antique dressers that were crafted by the Amish and other individual shops where the wood is straight and everything works perfectly despite being 50-100 years old.
Hi John,
Off course my comment was meant as a bit of a joke, but I do stand by it.
I'm sure there's one or two 100 year old shelves that are still straight,
but I have seen hundreds if not thousands that weren't.
My uncle has an 40.000 sq. foot antique store where I worked for two years.
The thing that is making the shelf and your cue warp has nothing to do
with the quality of the wood and whether or not it is laminated. Gravity
pulls on all things, store your cue upright and the worst that can happen
is it will be a little bit shorter (now that was a joke, the shorter part).
gr. Dave
p.s. I agree hanging is probably the best solution of all, but I find it unpractical.
Last edited:
John Barton
New member
Double-Dave said:
I agree for the most part. Except for the gravity part
Wood will warp when it's hanging as well. Wood warps because it shrinks and expands due to the moisture content present inside the cells. Continuous exposure to cycles of drying, reabsorbtion of moisture with the related expansion and shrinkage is what causes wood to warp. A pool cue should be made of woods that are properly cured and sealed so that they have low moisture content and do not absorb much more or lose what they have. If a well made pool cue is stored in a climate controlled place where the temperature is kept fairly even then it should not warp whether it is stored vertically or horizontally. The gravitational pull on a pool cue is not enough to warp it IF the cue is laying flat or held at two points that are far enough apart to allow the cue to balance. I suppose that if a cue held at the joint only then I suppose that it's weight could cause it to bend. Certainly a cue can be bent but it takes a good bit of force to do so which leads me to believe that unless gravity is exerting the same force then there will be little to no effect on the cue.
The reality is as far as I know it that no one has any real verified data on whether cues warp more or less in differing conditions. No one has run any tests of any significance that I know of nor is anyone likely to.
Scientists among us feel free to correct me. Having been around cues for 25+ years and interested in what affects them and why for about 16 of those years, and having transported hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cues around the world through intense climates, I doubt highly that simply storing a cue horizontally contributes to it's warpage.
Opinion
Pretty much agree with John, but I would imagine, just my opinion mind you,
that a storage cabinet in a controlled environment that has precut slots with the bottom being on a 45-60 angle, would be desirable for storing cues. They would lay flat in the precut slot (you could line the slots if you are anal), and have precut round slots at the bottom, lined if desired.
You would simply lay the cues into the slots being fully supported all the way down to the bottom. You could have 2 part wood or glass lid to raise up to get to them. The overall cabinet would be kind of a rectangle with half of a corner sliced off of it.
I know exactly how I would design it, and it could be built by yourself pretty easily. You would have to determine how many precut slots you would need (or max cues stored) in the cabinet as it would effect the raw wood material quantity needed.
Pretty much agree with John, but I would imagine, just my opinion mind you,
that a storage cabinet in a controlled environment that has precut slots with the bottom being on a 45-60 angle, would be desirable for storing cues. They would lay flat in the precut slot (you could line the slots if you are anal), and have precut round slots at the bottom, lined if desired.
You would simply lay the cues into the slots being fully supported all the way down to the bottom. You could have 2 part wood or glass lid to raise up to get to them. The overall cabinet would be kind of a rectangle with half of a corner sliced off of it.
I know exactly how I would design it, and it could be built by yourself pretty easily. You would have to determine how many precut slots you would need (or max cues stored) in the cabinet as it would effect the raw wood material quantity needed.
Coro
Registered
I've always heard to keep them away from high heat areas and places with a lot of moisture and humidity. (car trunks are horrible places to store i've been told). If u keep exposing them to really hot places with moisture, they would expand, contract, expand, contract. i think this would cause the greatest chance of warpage.
Facts I've heard about ivory (ferrules): Don't play with it if its been exposed to cold temperatue for a while right away, it makes it brittle and easy to crack. allow it to heat up, let it sit somewhere, or put your hand around it for a while to heat it up.
Facts I've heard about ivory (ferrules): Don't play with it if its been exposed to cold temperatue for a while right away, it makes it brittle and easy to crack. allow it to heat up, let it sit somewhere, or put your hand around it for a while to heat it up.
Last edited:
John Barton said:I agree for the most part. Except for the gravity part
Well, I can only respectfully disagree.
Wood does warp hanging/standing up/lying flat/whatever. This is caused by the wood "working" or"moving". Whether that is being caused by heat or humidity or whatever isn't really the issue here. Shafts can warp under absolutely perfect conditions I concede that.
What I'm trying to say is, a shaft that would remain straight if stored upright/hanging WILL warp if it is stored flat. This is no wood "working" or "moving" just gravity. Or do you think it's a coincidence all the shelves warp downwards in the middle? They're not following a grain line or something, they're just being pulled on downwards and that's where they go.
You even state you could see it happening if the cue was only supported at the joint. Well, what if it is supported on three points, but left like that for ten years? The difference in force is offset by the difference in time.
gr. Dave <-- kind of a scientist
Just store the cues upright, in a decent case, and, as long as the cue is made of quality woods, particularly the shafts...all should be fine. Most cue cases these days are made to store upright, hence the little 'feet' on the bottoms.
As a caveat....if the wood in a cue has not been aged properly, or it has been cut too soon between turns....the wood could 'move', whether the cue was stored properly or not...and whether it's in a 10.00 case or a 1000.00 case.
Lisa
As a caveat....if the wood in a cue has not been aged properly, or it has been cut too soon between turns....the wood could 'move', whether the cue was stored properly or not...and whether it's in a 10.00 case or a 1000.00 case.
Lisa