str8shooter69
New member
I bought a 314-2 shaft a few years back off the internet for my Jackson Custom Cue. Unfortunately when I received it the thread pitch was right, but it had a small collar around the pin hole that did not mate my butt, which is flush. Rather than send it back right away (and deal with the shipping and exchange) I made the dumb mistake of playing with it, because I was too eager to try it out.
I was surprised to find out it hit great even though there was only about an 1/8 inch metal to wood contact surface (other than the pin) where the collar pressed against the butt. That was a dumb mistake - not because it damaged anything but rather because it made it used and no longer exchangeable.
I had a friend offer to turn the collar off or modify the butt to match but I turned him down, thinking I didn't want to alter either from their original characteristics.
After a few years of having it sit in my bag I got ancy and decided to have another friend, who is a cuemaker, turn down the collar. Before I got it to him, I pulled it out and noticed the ferrule was loose and pulled on it and amazingly the ferrule came off tip and all. Underneath it was another plastic sleeve that it slid over and I was perplexed as to how it stayed on in the first place.
My first reaction was to send it back to Predator, but when I checked their website it said that they require evidence of original purchase as well as the name of the seller, and it had been so long I had deleted the e-mail and lost the receipt, even forgot who I bought it from. I figured that even if they did fix it, I would still have the collar problem, so I made the next really bad decision, I gave it to my friend to replace the ferrule as well as turn down the collar.
Well to make a long story shorter after playing in a tourney two days in a row, now it appears the ferrule is cracking lengthwise in THREE different places, which coincides with what appears to be the laminates separating. The cracks are three lines that extend out from what appears to be the laminate separating (because the lines are slightly darker or thicker near the tip only where the cracks in the ferrule are). The cracks in the ferrule have a zigzaggy look to then, like a zipper.
When he replaced the ferrule, I watched him turn down the plastic sleeve under the ferrule part that popped off till he could just see the wood. I had no idea of the foam core / hollow tip (lower deflection) deal, nor of the difficulty of Predator ferrule replacement until after this ordeal. I figured my friend knew what he was doing.
Anyways, now I have a 314-2 that has about a dozen hours of play on it, and I am worried it is now junk. I don't dare give it back to my friend to fix it at this point. I haven't even told him because I'm afraid he'll want to try to fix it himself and I'll say yes and be in a worse situation. lol. Does anyone out there think they can fix it? And would the cost of repair approach the cost of replacement?
This is really bumming me out. When I first got this shaft everyone around me seemed to talk about it as all the rage, as many players were using Predator shafts. After this experience and talking to more people, I am beginning to think that these shafts are junk.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? Does anyone think they want to make a stab at repairing it, and at what cost, and to what degree of reliability or success? And what about the possibility and benefit of a threaded ferrule?
If I am toast and in the market for another shaft, does anyone have opinions about the OB shafts or Meucci 35-layer laminates, essentially I want the lowest cue-ball-deflecting shaft with a pro taper and after studying everyone's marketing I don't know what to believe. Or is all this shaft deflection stuff just hype?
I will take a picture and post it later, just because I don't know if anyone else has seen anything like this. I haven't spent much time on AZ Billiards forums.
I was surprised to find out it hit great even though there was only about an 1/8 inch metal to wood contact surface (other than the pin) where the collar pressed against the butt. That was a dumb mistake - not because it damaged anything but rather because it made it used and no longer exchangeable.
I had a friend offer to turn the collar off or modify the butt to match but I turned him down, thinking I didn't want to alter either from their original characteristics.
After a few years of having it sit in my bag I got ancy and decided to have another friend, who is a cuemaker, turn down the collar. Before I got it to him, I pulled it out and noticed the ferrule was loose and pulled on it and amazingly the ferrule came off tip and all. Underneath it was another plastic sleeve that it slid over and I was perplexed as to how it stayed on in the first place.
My first reaction was to send it back to Predator, but when I checked their website it said that they require evidence of original purchase as well as the name of the seller, and it had been so long I had deleted the e-mail and lost the receipt, even forgot who I bought it from. I figured that even if they did fix it, I would still have the collar problem, so I made the next really bad decision, I gave it to my friend to replace the ferrule as well as turn down the collar.
Well to make a long story shorter after playing in a tourney two days in a row, now it appears the ferrule is cracking lengthwise in THREE different places, which coincides with what appears to be the laminates separating. The cracks are three lines that extend out from what appears to be the laminate separating (because the lines are slightly darker or thicker near the tip only where the cracks in the ferrule are). The cracks in the ferrule have a zigzaggy look to then, like a zipper.
When he replaced the ferrule, I watched him turn down the plastic sleeve under the ferrule part that popped off till he could just see the wood. I had no idea of the foam core / hollow tip (lower deflection) deal, nor of the difficulty of Predator ferrule replacement until after this ordeal. I figured my friend knew what he was doing.
Anyways, now I have a 314-2 that has about a dozen hours of play on it, and I am worried it is now junk. I don't dare give it back to my friend to fix it at this point. I haven't even told him because I'm afraid he'll want to try to fix it himself and I'll say yes and be in a worse situation. lol. Does anyone out there think they can fix it? And would the cost of repair approach the cost of replacement?
This is really bumming me out. When I first got this shaft everyone around me seemed to talk about it as all the rage, as many players were using Predator shafts. After this experience and talking to more people, I am beginning to think that these shafts are junk.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? Does anyone think they want to make a stab at repairing it, and at what cost, and to what degree of reliability or success? And what about the possibility and benefit of a threaded ferrule?
If I am toast and in the market for another shaft, does anyone have opinions about the OB shafts or Meucci 35-layer laminates, essentially I want the lowest cue-ball-deflecting shaft with a pro taper and after studying everyone's marketing I don't know what to believe. Or is all this shaft deflection stuff just hype?
I will take a picture and post it later, just because I don't know if anyone else has seen anything like this. I haven't spent much time on AZ Billiards forums.
