Durameter question

chipperd

chipperd

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I am interested in buying a durameter for my shop. I have found the "D" series for around $50 without the stand, on ebay. I have watched one operate before with a stand, but the stands I have looked at cost $250 and up. Do I need a stand to test tips and other material? And do I need the "D" model or are other models compatible too? Any input would be appreciated, thanks!
 
I'll use darn near any excuse to buy a new tool, but why in the heck would you need a durometer? Are you going to test the hardness of each tip before you install it? Seems a bit overkill to me.

Almost every tip on the market already has a hardness rating. Of course you can't take their posted hardness ratings as gospel because there are flaws in the raw material and the manufacturing process itself.

However, I put a good amount of faith in the posted hardness ratings, and here's why: If a company puts out a new tip and claims the hardness to be 75, they are vying for the business of all players who like to play with a 75. Once a bunch of players try the new 75, if it's harder or softer than they prefer, they won't buy another. The only thing that travels around faster than good news is bad news!

My two cents worth: don't bother buying the durometer and stand. Buy a different toy!
 
jschelin99 said:
I'll use darn near any excuse to buy a new tool, but why in the heck would you need a durometer? Are you going to test the hardness of each tip before you install it? Seems a bit overkill to me.

Almost every tip on the market already has a hardness rating. Of course you can't take their posted hardness ratings as gospel because there are flaws in the raw material and the manufacturing process itself.

However, I put a good amount of faith in the posted hardness ratings, and here's why: If a company puts out a new tip and claims the hardness to be 75, they are vying for the business of all players who like to play with a 75. Once a bunch of players try the new 75, if it's harder or softer than they prefer, they won't buy another. The only thing that travels around faster than good news is bad news!

My two cents worth: don't bother buying the durometer and stand. Buy a different toy!
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I think it is a pretty vague piece of information regarding a cue tip. Yes, we do want to know if a tip is very hard or very soft but the fact is, we don't really know what true effect it has on the way the cueball will react. It can vary from tip to tip and cue to cue. The only way to really know is to see how the tips actually plays on the cue after being installed. It can also change over the life of the same tip as it is on the cue.

The tip is the most expendable part of the cue and the player has to have a sense of what they like and if the tip is delivering what they want. It can often require several replacements before you may really love the tip. I will say though, today's layered tips are very consistent, Not like tips of years ago where you bought a box and every tip was different, you had to try to separate and grade them.

I believe any serious player should be able to replace their own tips. It is the most minimum piece of maintenance to the cue but the most important. I have been doing my own tips almost since I started playing so I don't know what it is like to have to pay and hope the tip is what I want. I have a feeling a lot of players play with tips they really don't care for because they have no choice, they can't keep going back to the same guy replacing tips every few days at maybe 15 or $20.00 a shot, plus they don't want to seem like a bother or a nut.

I remember years ago being at a tournament and seeing Leonard Bludworth put 4 tips on the same shaft in a matter of hours for Miz before he liked the tip.
 
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Dirtbmw20 said:
If you are wanting one to test the hardness of tips, just check this thread out and save some money on not having to buy the tool.

http://forums.azbilliards.com//showthread.php?t=250306
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Those would just be a guide line. To have a fairly accurate number he would have to test say 100 tips of each and get an average. Then retest another 100 tips of each at a later date from a different production run to see if there is a consistency. I also found it odd that on some of the tips that have soft, medium and hard the values are fairly close.
 
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