I disagree. It is very well possible to instal a tip with absolute perfect quality like with a lathe, but it is rather difficult and you have to work absolutely accurate. Like jwalko1 said, I personally do it in a very similar way, and I've perfected it to be 100 % as good as the best lathe installed tip. I don't want to boast ot trying to get work - i have enough. But I want to share my knowledge.
Flatening the ferrule and tip perfectly I know is the most important thing to have a durable and ever lasting glueing. For this reason I flaten the ferrule with a file (fine rasp) in the common way how you use a file. But with that usual technique you will not be able to have a perfect flat surface, it will always become some kind of a radius. The final surface I do with a drawblade, the file (but only by turning the ferrule on the file, it's the most difficult step because you must have power in your grip and feeling as well) and at the end sandpaper 80 grid. The final control i do with a straightedge.
Glueing I do with cyanacrylate gel and fixing the tip with a long clamp.
Shaping is pretty simple by using a very sharp oneside-flat knive. But here you also have to be very careful and have a defined and reliable technique. And first of all you musn't be in a hurry.
It took me nearly 1 year with several failures to be on that level now. This is why I clearly do not advise someone to use that technique. And by the way, it takes round about half an hour to instal a tip in my method, so this is nothing to earn big money with. And more than 4 tips a day I don't make because it is pretty straining.
If you don't have the habit like me to experience how far you can be perfect without special machinery and if you want to have a perfectly installed tip: Go to a proffesional that does perfect with a lathe.
