Dufferin one piece loose at the center joint

Looks great!
Don't you love putting $100 worth of work into a $20 cue? :LOL:
Sometimes these jobs can be rewarding in other ways though.
Absolutely. The repair for my friends POS cue. I bought a $50(plus shipping) piece of phenolic rolled linen to get a 1 inch piece. Also a few male/female 5/16-14 joint pins. He loves it. I had fun with it....and thanks again for your help.
 
Why did it fall apart in the first place?

You went to all that trouble you might have added threads at the ends of that tenon and at the bottom of the holes.
 
Why did it fall apart in the first place?

You went to all that trouble you might have added threads at the ends of that tenon and at the bottom of the holes.

It didn’t fall apart, it just had a very slight movement. It’s an old beater stick that saw some abuse over the years. I’m comfortable with the tolerances that it will stay solid for a long while.

Threading would definitely be more solid and secure, but currently I don’t have the means to thread something like that. I am new to this and being my first try at something like this I kept it simple. It was a favor and good practice.
 
Well, full disclosure since we are trying to learn here, I had a total failure.

I believe my big mistake was making a tenon from the old broken cue (should have been my first warning). Crappy wood from a Chinese cue duh. Maybe harder wood would have held up, …maybe.

I’m going to try again, but with better wood and probably add a rod or pin to give it more strength because of the hard use it gets.

Lesson learned. That’s how we get better (I hope)

C4E4958F-9DA8-42CB-BC30-D15478BACD4D.jpeg


On a better note, I got the soft jaws from Gary Langley so I shouldn’t mess up the finish this time.

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Might try using phenolic or micarda both should be stronger than most, if not all woods. I'm not a cuemaker, repairman or anything that has to do with building cues so I'm just throwing it out there for thought.
 
I didn’t want to have to order some expensive material to fix this cue, so I bored out the broken tenon, made a new one and added a steel rod to reinforce it.

With the new soft jaws, it was easy to keep the finish intact, so I only had to redo the area right at the joint. It blended perfectly so you cannot tell it was redone. Sadly, I forgot to take a new picture of the finished repair so take my word for it that it looks just like it did in the first repair.

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This cue must be cursed. A guy got pissed about missing shots he thought were good and threw the cue on the ground and broke it. He paid for it of course. It was headed for the trash bin so I intercepted it thinking I could use it for parts.

I had an old shaft that had a very slight warp, but plenty good enough for a house cue. I cut off the broken shaft and set an old pin from the parts bin into the butt. I drilled out the brass insert and put in a plug made from the piece of broken shaft. Just tapped the shaft for the pin ( no brass insert to keep the weight down) and glued it together. No need for a two piece since it is a bar cue.

Let’s see how long it lasts this time.

collage.png
 
Thanks, post a picture if you can when yours is done.

Gary just emailed back so I hope to have a set of the soft jaws soon.
Ouch... that stick has lived a hard life! :)

I forgot all about this thread until you revived it.

I ended up getting around to my repair last Oct in order to get it back to my buddy at his birthday party.

Here's the pics....

How I got it....
Broken.jpg

That aluminum pin went ~4" into the forearm but as you can see, only about an inch into the handle.

This was my fix.....
tenon.jpg

I had to use that shoulder to make up the length for how much of the handle I had to take off to get to solid wood. Used a fully cured, dense, straight-grained piece of purpleheart for the tenon.

Glued up....
gluedin.jpg

Used West Systems with 10% (by volume) additive for extra strength. The screws were only there to hold it together until the epoxy cured, once cured it isn't going anywhere.

Wrap channel recut.....
recutchannel.jpg


Leather wrap (might as well upgrade since we're in it this far).....
wrap.jpg

Unique's Wrap Magic fixture sure makes these a breeze!

I was happy it turned out well, he had almost forgot about it since I had it so long but his eyes really lit up when he unwrapped it!

It is a McDermott Tournament of Champions that he had won in the 90's sometime I believe. Much sentimental value.

Wish I would have got a couple better finished pictures but seems like I never think to do so. ;)
 

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Ouch... that stick has lived a hard life! :)

I forgot all about this thread until you revived it.

I ended up getting around to my repair last Oct in order to get it back to my buddy at his birthday party.

Here's the pics....

How I got it....
View attachment 759969
That aluminum pin went ~4" into the forearm but as you can see, only about an inch into the handle.

This was my fix.....
View attachment 759970
I had to use that shoulder to make up the length for how much of the handle I had to take off to get to solid wood. Used a fully cured, dense, straight-grained piece of purpleheart for the tenon.

Glued up....
View attachment 759971
Used West Systems with 10% (by volume) additive for extra strength. The screws were only there to hold it together until the epoxy cured, once cured it isn't going anywhere.

Wrap channel recut.....
View attachment 759972

Leather wrap (might as well upgrade since we're in it this far).....
View attachment 759974
Unique's Wrap Magic fixture sure makes these a breeze!

I was happy it turned out well, he had almost forgot about it since I had it so long but his eyes really lit up when he unwrapped it!

It is a McDermott Tournament of Champions that he had won in the 90's sometime I believe. Much sentimental value.

Wish I would have got a couple better finished pictures but seems like I never think to do so. ;)
Great job! It's awesome that you were able to repair a cue with sentimental value!
 
Ouch... that stick has lived a hard life! :)

I forgot all about this thread until you revived it.

I ended up getting around to my repair last Oct in order to get it back to my buddy at his birthday party.

Here's the pics....

How I got it....
View attachment 759969
That aluminum pin went ~4" into the forearm but as you can see, only about an inch into the handle.

This was my fix.....
View attachment 759970
I had to use that shoulder to make up the length for how much of the handle I had to take off to get to solid wood. Used a fully cured, dense, straight-grained piece of purpleheart for the tenon.

Glued up....
View attachment 759971
Used West Systems with 10% (by volume) additive for extra strength. The screws were only there to hold it together until the epoxy cured, once cured it isn't going anywhere.

Wrap channel recut.....
View attachment 759972

Leather wrap (might as well upgrade since we're in it this far).....
View attachment 759974
Unique's Wrap Magic fixture sure makes these a breeze!

I was happy it turned out well, he had almost forgot about it since I had it so long but his eyes really lit up when he unwrapped it!

It is a McDermott Tournament of Champions that he had won in the 90's sometime I believe. Much sentimental value.

Wish I would have got a couple better finished pictures but seems like I never think to do so. ;)
Nice job. Nice to see another cue saved from the trash bin.
 
I always run a strong magnet over the area if I'm going to cut it, especially in a forearm. Not a 100% solution as some stainless steels are non-magnetic, but I seem to get lucky the majority of the time. Most of the cheaper cues just use steel screws in that area. Saved me a few saw blades! ;)
Good thread on this but I wanted to throw in I keep a little handheld metal detector that I use to check recycled wood for nails.
A magnet won't pick up brass, aluminum, stainless steel, and other precious metals but the metal detector will sense them.
I think it was under 30 bucks when I bought it.
 

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Good thread on this but I wanted to throw in I keep a little handheld metal detector that I use to check recycled wood for nails.
Excellent! I think I will get one of these. Found one on Amazon for $20. I'm thinking it will be useful for a few things.
 
Good thread on this but I wanted to throw in I keep a little handheld metal detector that I use to check recycled wood for nails.
A magnet won't pick up brass, aluminum, stainless steel, and other precious metals but the metal detector will sense them.
I think it was under 30 bucks when I bought it.
I have a Garrett Pin Pointer that would work perfectly for this. Why I never thought of it is anyone's guess. :) Great idea, thanks for mentioning it! Much more accurate than using a magnet.
 
Next update.

I bored out both pieces to 15mm and then made a new tenon from an old broken cue. The collet slipped while drilling the hole. I knew I had to redo the finish any way, but I still wish it hadn't happened. A leather strap grips better, but it is really hard to control the runout compared to the collet.

Here’s some pictures of the dry fit. Just have to make the glue grooves, epoxy it and check it out tomorrow.

View attachment 664190

View attachment 664191

View attachment 664192


You can loosen the collet and add thin sheets of whatever (regular paper, matchbook covers, etc.) to help center the piece being turned. I set the dial indicator up rotate to the high side and insert something there. Works pretty good.
 
You can loosen the collet and add thin sheets of whatever (regular paper, matchbook covers, etc.) to help center the piece being turned. I set the dial indicator up rotate to the high side and insert something there. Works pretty good.
I do this with an old check book that has the carbon copy page, two different thicknesses and to fine tune I use cigarette papers. A good tip out of Cue mans book.
 
They sell brass shim stock that comes in half thousandths from .001 on up. It's really cheap and you can cut strips with a sissors. Makes it really simple to dial in. I'll post a picture when I go out to the shop later.
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