cue too heavy w/out weight bolt..?

bearsafety

bearsafety

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have a Bob Frey that I love to death, but the frigin thing is an ounce and half too heavy and i cant get used to it. The butt to the wrap is all ebony and it is an ass heavy cue. There is no weight bold in it.. Is there any way you could have some of the wood removed to get rid of some of the weight or is that a bad making the wood too weak?:confused:

I would obviously have Mr Frey do it for me if its possible (btw anybody have his contact info if hes on here?).
 
Frey

Try this (410) 774-7932.

bearsafety said:
I have a Bob Frey that I love to death, but the frigin thing is an ounce and half too heavy and i cant get used to it. The butt to the wrap is all ebony and it is an ass heavy cue. There is no weight bold in it.. Is there any way you could have some of the wood removed to get rid of some of the weight or is that a bad making the wood too weak?:confused:

I would obviously have Mr Frey do it for me if its possible (btw anybody have his contact info if hes on here?).
Click to expand...
 
bearsafety said:
I have a Bob Frey that I love to death, but the frigin thing is an ounce and half too heavy and i cant get used to it. The butt to the wrap is all ebony and it is an ass heavy cue. There is no weight bold in it.. Is there any way you could have some of the wood removed to get rid of some of the weight or is that a bad making the wood too weak?:confused:

I would obviously have Mr Frey do it for me if its possible (btw anybody have his contact info if hes on here?).
Click to expand...

The species of wood dictates the original weight of a cue. I don't think you will get 1 1/2 oz out of the cue. Perhaps you should think about another cue with similar design but with different wood. Ebonized walnut can look like ebony but is much lighter.

Kim
 
bearsafety said:
I have a Bob Frey that I love to death, but the frigin thing is an ounce and half too heavy and i cant get used to it. The butt to the wrap is all ebony and it is an ass heavy cue. There is no weight bold in it.. Is there any way you could have some of the wood removed to get rid of some of the weight or is that a bad making the wood too weak?:confused:

I would obviously have Mr Frey do it for me if its possible (btw anybody have his contact info if hes on here?).
Click to expand...

1 1/2 OZ? sure, have him bore out the buttsleeve and replace with light weight wood on inside. You may be a little front heavy but many like it that way. You did not say what pin was used. If its a radial brass replace with radial titanium and your balance will be back to normal.
 
I just went through the math for you and here's what I got:

Densities of woods vary alot, but if we use 65lbs/cu.ft for ebony and 44lbs/cu.ft for maple, then one way of looking at it is that you lose 21lbs for every cu.ft of ebony you replace with maple.

For a 1.5oz weight loss:

If you wanted to bore the handle out with a 3/4" drill and fill that hole with a 3/4" maple dowel, the hole would have to be about 4.366in long - call it 4 3/8".

A 1/2" dowel would have to be 9.822" long (about 9 7/8").

Hope this helps,

Gary
 
GBCues said:
I just went through the math for you and here's what I got:

Densities of woods vary alot, but if we use 65lbs/cu.ft for ebony and 44lbs/cu.ft for maple, then one way of looking at it is that you lose 21lbs for every cu.ft of ebony you replace with maple.

For a 1.5oz weight loss:

If you wanted to bore the handle out with a 3/4" drill and fill that hole with a 3/4" maple dowel, the hole would have to be about 4.366in long - call it 4 3/8".

A 1/2" dowel would have to be 9.822" long (about 9 7/8").

Hope this helps,

Gary
Click to expand...

That sounds like a lot of structural ungoodliness
 
Just a thought...:

Spend some time learning to play with a heavier cue. Who knows, you might end up appreciating it for what it is. If not, maybe just sell it? Mutilation is not the answer, IMO.

-s
 
If I cant find him, would any of you guys have a referral to someone who could do it and do it good if its even possible to do without taking away from the integrity of the cue?

Also I have NO idea how much this would cost.. if it would be worth it..?
 
bearsafety said:
That sounds like a lot of structural ungoodliness
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Cues, especially ebony cues are cored all the time - 'tis goodliness, not ungodliness (pun intended).

If you left it uncored, then it might be weak, especially with a 3/4" bore, but I specifically figured it with a maple core.

Gary
 
1.5 oz extra is pretty hard to get used to, and would require quite a bit of un-learning and re-learning of muscle memory. Boring weight out of the end of a cue isn't too difficult. Boring out that much weight might not be mutilation, but it's certainly serious surgery. However, you're probably not going to get rid of the whole 1.5 oz.

If someone other than the original maker attempts to bore out that weight for you, I would recommend not boring out any more than 1/2" wide. In typical cue construction, the entire butt sleeve section (everything below the handle) is glued onto a 3/4" dowel, so any bore larger than 1/2" would greatly compromise the structural integrity of the butt sleeve. Not knowing Frey's exact construction methods, you could probably have a 1/2" bit run all the way up to the screw connecting the forearm and handle, which is over a foot, thereby losing a lot of weight.

Keep in mind this only addresses your weight issue. Taking out that much wood, maybe gluing in a lighter wood dowel for strength, etc., will more than likely change the hit of the cue. You may finally have the weight you want, and not like the hit anymore.
 
If you still want to do it I think Mike Webb is the guy, he would probably like the challenge to meet you needs. He is used to not only make cues but mostly doing repairs, refinishing, rebuilding etc. He wouldn´t take any chances before he know how it was constructed. Helping me out now:-).
I know he has loads of work though and the lead time can be long.

On the other hand I think it would probably be easier/similar in price to have a cuemaker make you a similar one but with your specs. DZ, Pierce to name a few comes to my mind here - great playing cues and they are also quite fast.

Good luck

Chrippa
 
bearsafety said:
That sounds like a lot of structural ungoodliness
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Simply not true.

There is no practical difference between coring the handle before construction, and coring it after. While it may sound traumatic to you, any competent cuesmith who has success with coring can do this.

What type of pin does the cue have? If it is stainless steel and a matching titanium pin can be had, about a half ounce can be lost by changing the pin. The rest, or close to the rest, can be removed by boring the a$$ end and replacing with a lighter weight material.
 
GBCues said:
I just went through the math for you and here's what I got:

Densities of woods vary alot, but if we use 65lbs/cu.ft for ebony and 44lbs/cu.ft for maple, then one way of looking at it is that you lose 21lbs for every cu.ft of ebony you replace with maple.

For a 1.5oz weight loss:

If you wanted to bore the handle out with a 3/4" drill and fill that hole with a 3/4" maple dowel, the hole would have to be about 4.366in long - call it 4 3/8".

A 1/2" dowel would have to be 9.822" long (about 9 7/8").

Hope this helps,

Gary
Click to expand...

By your figures ... maple is about 2/3 the weight of Ebony.

If you drill out the 1 1/2 ounce of weight with a 3/4 in drill in the ebony and put in a maple dowel, you will only save about 1/2 ounce.

Kim
 
whammo57 said:
By your figures ... maple is about 2/3 the weight of Ebony.

If you drill out the 1 1/2 ounce of weight with a 3/4 in drill in the ebony and put in a maple dowel, you will only save about 1/2 ounce.

Kim
Click to expand...

Kim,

But that's not how I calculated it.

If it were only the weight of the ebony, a 3/4" bore would only have to be about 1 1/2 inches long. The fact that I calculated in the weight of the replacement maple made it much deeper.

Gary
 
whammo57 said:
By your figures ... maple is about 2/3 the weight of Ebony.

If you drill out the 1 1/2 ounce of weight with a 3/4 in drill in the ebony and put in a maple dowel, you will only save about 1/2 ounce.

Kim
Click to expand...

Even a little less.

Given the two scenarios (1/2" x 9.82", or 3/4" x 4.37"), the weight of the 65 pounds per cubic foot cylinder is 1.16 ounces, and the weight of the 44 pounds per cubic foot cylinder is .79 ounces. That is a drop in only .37 ounces.
 
Is the cue too heavy or just heavy in the wrong places? I play with a 17.5oz, a 18.9oz and a 20.4oz cue. To me it depends on the overall balance of the cue. An ivory joint will drop the nose weight, lighter pin will help too. How heavy is the shaft? What's the butt weigh and where is the balance point? I can't tell from the first post if the cue is drilled for a weight bolt or not.

My main cue is ebony, non cored with roughly a 6 inch bore for the weight bolt. 14.8 with no bolt. It feels better with an ounce weight bolt in.

I know that after a few months of going to the gym regularly, I started playing with heavier cues.
 
Kelly_Guy said:
Even a little less.

Given the two scenarios (1/2" x 9.82", or 3/4" x 4.37"), the weight of the 65 pounds per cubic foot cylinder is 1.16 ounces, and the weight of the 44 pounds per cubic foot cylinder is .79 ounces. That is a drop in only .37 ounces.
Click to expand...

Kelly,

I disagree. Sending you a PM to show my calculations.

Gary
 
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