Cues that take years to build?

barboxbanks

barboxbanks

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was browsing around the internet yesterday and ran across a tid-bit of a cue maker talking about his cue taking him nearly 10 years to complete, nothing was mentioned about back orders etc.. it was straight up "this cue took me blah blah years". My question is does it REALLY take that long to create some cues? Or is there other things at play here I am missing? I couldn't possibly see someone taking so long on a cue unless the materials they are using are that unobtainable or you've started over so many times to make it perfect.

That being said I'm not complaining I'm just fascinated with the whole process of building cues. Matter of fact one of my goals when it comes to Pool is to get into a shop and watch the process and hopefully learn from a maker.
 
not quite 10 years

i cut a piece of snakewood over a 5 year period, it still cracked 2 years later.
 
Hi,

My friend Stew built this cue and it took him 6 years to complete it. This inlays were done on a pantograph.

Rick

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scdiveteam said:
Hi,

My friend built this cue and it took him 6 years to complete it. This inlays were done on a pantograph.

Rick
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lol, ok that cue is just trippy looking. The inlays make it appear to be bent. So why exactly did it take so long to build? You got to speak to me in idiot terms when it comes to cue building as I've never done it nor personally seen one built to understand the process.
 
Hi,


Those lines are straight but they appeared to be curved and were inlayed to a Z depth of over .240 working on the X Axis on a Big Mill Panto P2 3. Because the are so deep when the cue was cut down during they did not disappear on the ends.

Many maker including myself can use a radial geometric system for inlaying whereby the Y Axis frozen and the pocket being cut on the cylinder is done having the Z rotate while the X moves transversely.

BTW, I thought I was have a 60s flashback too when I first saw it. In person this cue is a bad boy. Where is LSD rescue when you need them.:groucho:

Rick
 
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barboxbanks said:
lol, ok that cue is just trippy looking. The inlays make it appear to be bent. So why exactly did it take so long to build? You got to speak to me in idiot terms when it comes to cue building as I've never done it nor personally seen one built to understand the process.
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It may have taken that long to do the project but not in actual "man hours". I have all kinds of projects I have been working on for years including building a house.
 
macguy said:
It may have taken that long to do the project but not in actual "man hours". I have all kinds of projects I have been working on for years including building a house.
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I understand that, but the way the article read, it makes the reader believe that this cue literally took that long to build. I've heard of custom furniture taking 10 years to build, working on it a few hours a day.. but a cue seems a bit far fetched.
 
The cue in my avatar ( yes, I know it only shows the case), including custom artwork, scrimshaw work, cue and case took about 280 man hours over about 2 years. Some cues, like the one shown above and others with inlay patterns that take tons of programming can take quite a while.
 
Most of the shaft wood that goes on my cues has been being cut on over a several year period. So I could say it takes me several years to complete a cue. But that is a little misleading. A lot of the butt wood that I use was turned round or partially tapered several years ago. Same applies. But to take those pieces and finish them into a nice decked out cue should only take me a several months if you ordered one today. The wait would be shorter if the design is simpler.
 
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barboxbanks said:
I understand that, but the way the article read, it makes the reader believe that this cue literally took that long to build. I've heard of custom furniture taking 10 years to build, working on it a few hours a day.. but a cue seems a bit far fetched.
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Hi,

After you got several hundred pockets & inlays into a cue the process gets slower and slower because uncorrectable mistakes can ruin the cue. There are days when you must walk away fro it because of PMS type things that go on in your life. You must be in the right mind set as your approach each new step. There is a point when your are like the diamond cutter ready to make that last cut where he performs correctly or the diamond fractures and the value goes into the toilet.

I hate when I have to flush a cue down the toilet.:speechless::help::barf:

Rick
 
As Chris mention, some things need to be done over time.
If you have a good stock of wood-you work on it to make it ready for a project.
I have a customer waiting for 2 years because I had no Gabone in stock.
Now I have turned the but for 2 years to make it stable-where my backup wood has warped like a dogs bone....
But 10 years... That must be a lot of waiting even for the cuemaker...
K
 
bdcues said:
The cue in my avatar ( yes, I know it only shows the case), including custom artwork, scrimshaw work, cue and case took about 280 man hours over about 2 years. Some cues, like the one shown above and others with inlay patterns that take tons of programming can take quite a while.
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280 man hours =12 days (approximately)
what took the other 718 days???
 
bbb said:
280 man hours =12 days (approximately)
what took the other 718 days???
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Cuemakers have a life which is not filled with 24/7 woodturning;-)
Several customers I have seems to forget that I try to have a normal life in between and can't always jump when they say so..

K
 
10 years to make a cue

Newton said:
Cuemakers have a life which is not filled with 24/7 woodturning;-)
Several customers I have seems to forget that I try to have a normal life in between and can't always jump when they say so..

K
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Well I'm not a Cuemaker, Yet. But I think the information you are looking for is that in order to keep the wood from forming a pretzel. you need to cut it a very little bit then let it sit and acclimatize. This can take a month to a year. then you take another small cut and let it sit. I'm sure you can take that out to its conclusion. So It can take years, of little cuts and a LOT of waiting, for the wood to stabilize. :thumbup:
 
barboxbanks said:
I understand that, but the way the article read, it makes the reader believe that this cue literally took that long to build. I've heard of custom furniture taking 10 years to build, working on it a few hours a day.. but a cue seems a bit far fetched.
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BBB,

To me that sounds very far fetched and like snake oil in the article. Just 5 hrs. per week X 10 years is 2600 hours or 325 8 hr. days.

Furniture aside when it come to big cues, lets say one pocket takes 10 minutes to cut as an average giving a benefit of the doubt to this author. Lets assume there are 500 inlay parts to build at 5 minutes each which is more than a reasonable average. When nesting parts on a CNC Milling table each average part only takes a minute or so and I can be watching TV eating my lunch. So these numbers are very conservative average for panto part time labor.

That is under 130 hours.

Now those have inlays that have to been sanded and handled and glued in place.

40 hours.

Build the cue:

25 hours including finishing:

Contingency Time:

25 hours:

Without figuring for creative design work you got about 220 hours divided by 8 = 27.5 man days or lets call it a month.

If the maker wants to charge 75.00 per hour for his time ( a reasonable "minimum wage" rate rate for this type of talent) your are talking $ 16,500.00 for a cue with 500 inlays just for his time without materials. The art value at this time would be pending and would be proportional with the cue maker's name of brand reputation.

I did not include testing part/ pocket compensation, making templates or actual cad drawing during design. That can vary between people.

Now the value of that cue will depend on the market demand for CM as an art designer CM.

Top cue maker and art designers Thomas Wayne, Joel Hercek ect. can only build so many cues and there are more people whom want them than they can deliver. Nice market position when their demand is bigger than the supply, especially on an art item.

Ten years at a few hours a day is not a reasonable assessment.

JMO,

Rick

Here is a cue I am finishing up that I know took over 200 hours of my total time but I am a rookie at this. This was a tribute cue that I had to recreate from an original and there was a little more cad time than it would normally take because of some geometry differences in the two cues.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=263060
 
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