Elkmaster tips hardness

K

kiinstructor

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I truly love elkmaster tips. Have been using them for years. They are dependable cheap and fairly easy to install. Problem I have is getting them initially hard. What Im doing is soaking them in milk and pressing the crap out of them and allowing them to dry. When I install them some of the tips sort of get springy almost like an accordian and are totally useless. Cutting them to fit with a super sharp razor knife that I made for cutting tips. Have no problem with any other tips. Cuts like butta. Does anyone have any advise on hardening the tips better. Its seems like after you play with them awhile and once they harden a bit they play really well. Never miscue and get to that great medium soft hit that they're know for. Im starting with 13.5 mm tips and have a press made especially for tips that is slightly under 14mm. I press them in a vise overnight. Like I say some work pretty well and some dont seem like they're bonded as well. Suggestions appreciate and thanks.

Mark
 
If the manufacturer of Elkmaster wanted them soaked on milk ........ they would have done that............

I think soaking them in anything ruins them.

Press them .... install them.... play with them .... re dress them when they mushroom.

ALL soft tips mushroom. If you don't want to deal with that.... use a harder tip.

Kim
.
 
Once I tried soak them in mushroom oil.All three of them that have passed that process played extremely well.I was able drawing cueball very frequently.2 out of 3 times.Well,maybe 2 of 4.
However,I have decided not to use mushrooms any more since every next time I would be buying mushrooms they(mushrooms) wouldn't be very the same sort as they were the last time.
It can become a problem since then I can't achieve same draw and consistency in drawing on all my shots.
Anyway,when I have realized that I have started to practice investigating quality control on all tips I am buying.
Well,what I am doing is to leave them somewhere in the garden for a day or two and if they are still there when I am looking for them they must be good and dutiful.
:wink::smile::wink:
 
Tap them on a hard surface, and listen closely to the noise they make. You will eventually learn which ones will be good, and which ones will be duds. The tone can give you a very good idea of how hard they will be, too.
 
An Elk Master can be a pretty good tip for many people if you can get a good, solid one. They're just not popular since they're are so many bad ones and the installers don' want to waste so much time installing them and then trying to trim them for good play.

I've got a 20 ton press that I use to firm them up. I throw away the ones that aren't solid. I used them for about 8 or 10 years in the late 70's and early 80's. I would install one, cut about 2/3 of the tip away and drop the shaft onto a tile floor a hundred or so times and only use it for 2 or 3 weeks and then replace it. Of course they were only about 3.00 a box wholesale at that time and I was doing the labor.

Milk Duds are made out of Elk Masters soaked in milk and pressed and they are very good tips however they are no longer a soft feeling tip.

Dick
 
milk

I was always told that if you had a tip that was too hard - soak it in milk. You might be doing something counterproductive. If you ever had a pair of leather boots that got soaked in a rainstorm - you know how hard and tough the leather feels after it dries out. Won't change until you wear them for a while and reintroduce some moisture from sweat or treat them with some product. I know that if I am doing a lot of wet sanding on a cue and the tip gets soaked - it seems to harden it. Just a thought.
 
I am not a cuemaker but I've repaired cues for almost 30 years. How you are trimming the Elk Master may be causing your problems. It has been my experience that cutting straight down (even with a sharp knife) while holding the shaft in a vertical position will cause the seperations of the leather - making your "accordian" A cut with the tool's pressure directed toward the core of the tip lessens this mush; such as using a lathe or Williards tip machune.

Just soaking the tips in milk won't produce what your looking for. This site should have posted threads to help you. A "milk dud" properly made is terrific.

Big Al
 
seanjonsean said:
message Pooldawg8 or this ,http://gladiators-usa.com/MILK DUD CUE TIPS.htm
Click to expand...

That aricle is completely wrong on a couple of things.... Do not heat the milk... Definitely do not microwave it... Casein chains are destroyed by heat... Even the Casein in pasteurized milk has been damaged by the pasteurization process.. You might as well soak them in water and then press them hardner than from the factory..... I would also suggest air drying and then pressing and not heating the tip while being pressed.. Pressing a wet tip sets up hydraulics and you are not going to get consistent tips doing it their way......

I would also look on ebay for a picone tip press if you want to try to make your own duds....

pooldawg8 already makes a good dud so unless you just want to play around and experiment I would PM him and see if he has any in stock.....
 
whammo57 said:
Really??? All leather is treated........... we were talking about the finished product..........


Kim
Click to expand...

Really !!! To some the product is not finished. It can be treated and re-treated in many ways. Open your mind.

Dave
 
making harder

I will brush glue on the side after shape then reshape- lasts 3 times as long people love them every installer has there tricks or secrets you learn after time
 
I only play with Elkmasters.
My solution when I played snooker was to put a few tips on my local clubs house cues. (the cues would be marked so I knew which ones they were).
I would examine them every so often and have a hit with them, when they had firmed up the right amount I take them off and save them for my cue.
.....I now do the same for my pool cue. The clubs house cues have 13mm tips & I play with a 12.4mm tip, so this works well for me.
 
I am dropping them

I don't know what. going on but It seems that about 2/3 of the elkmaster tips are like marsh mellows .
I am done screwing around with them.
The only cue s I put them on is bar cues and I am switching to Triangle tips.

Triangle has always been a great tip. and I have never gotten a bad one.........

maybe I will bump up my price another buck in a half and put on ultra skins:thumbup:
 
mortuarymike-nv said:
I don't know what. going on but It seems that about 2/3 of the elkmaster tips are like marsh mellows .
I am done screwing around with them.
The only cue s I put them on is bar cues and I am switching to Triangle tips.

Triangle has always been a great tip. and I have never gotten a bad one.........

maybe I will bump up my price another buck in a half and put on ultra skins:thumbup:
Click to expand...

I agree.I have never understood why people like elkmaster tips, I dont like installing them either, sometimes they just turn into mush.
I do install them on request though.
I have found that stocking a many diameters as possible, so I can matche the ferrule as close as possible and taking care to center the tip as close to perfect helps. Really sharp indexable carbide inserts and higher rpm on the lathe, than what I would use for layered tips helps too.
Cutting in stages, so the tip never heats up and using tiger bees wax to burnish gives a decent result.
If supergluing the sides, does that not defeat the purpose of such a soft tip??
 
My last go around with elk masters

Kim Bye said:
I agree.I have never understood why people like elkmaster tips, I dont like installing them either, sometimes they just turn into mush.
I do install them on request though.
I have found that stocking a many diameters as possible, so I can matche the ferrule as close as possible and taking care to center the tip as close to perfect helps. Really sharp indexable carbide inserts and higher rpm on the lathe, than what I would use for layered tips helps too.
Cutting in stages, so the tip never heats up and using tiger bees wax to burnish gives a decent result.
If supergluing the sides, does that not defeat the purpose of such a soft tip??
Click to expand...


Hi Kim .
I went live cutter to cut all of my tips now.
I put a dial indicator on my cross slide, I zero out the cutting tool or bit to the side of the ferrule, give myself 3 thousands extra room and buzz or trim the tip in one fast cut . with in a couple thousands to the ferrule.

I get minimal swelling out of the elk master tip. But regardless 1/3 third of the elk master tips are not worth installing.


Ps I am not using that bit to trim the tips any more .

Zero heat.....................
 
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