experiment on point and veneer alignment

[Ernie eyocues]

I'm not a cue builder but I was shown from a good builder on method for adjusting points.

He grabbed a pack of Rolling Papers, which were always handy, and slipped one between the jaws and cue.
One paper thickness moved the culprit a fair bit.

Kinda thinking this could become a chase your tail method but?? Like I said I'm not a builder. Just a tool nerd.

good morning 3kushn, You are correct about sliding a piece of paper inside the lathe jaw will move the location of the points. To adjust the location of the top point this method will work. But to align the interiors points of a veneered cue is a little different. Going thru the geometry of the construction would be a lengthy process to describe. Only in my opinion, one needs to keep thing concentric around the axis to keep the interior points aligned. This has proven to be difficult for me. In the future, I'm going to try to build a glueing fixture to be solve this problem. I'm an old person and if I get to this project, who knows? Oh yeah, I also use shims in the lathe to align the points.

Once again you are right about adjusting a non veneered full splice cue. If you can inspect a few full splice veneered cue and see if the interior points align. There are builders like Brent Summers that build some veneered blanks which the points align but there are many builders like me that has some questionable products that don't align. The more I talk about this subject the more my curiosity is increased.

thanks for the input, Ernie

 

[boogieman]

good morning 3kushn, You are correct about sliding a piece of paper inside the lathe jaw will move the location of the points. To adjust the location of the top point this method will work. But to align the interiors points of a veneered cue is a little different. Going thru the geometry of the construction would be a lengthy process to describe. Only in my opinion, one needs to keep thing concentric around the axis to keep the interior points aligned. This has proven to be difficult for me. In the future, I'm going to try to build a glueing fixture to be solve this problem. I'm an old person and if I get to this project, who knows? Oh yeah, I also use shims in the lathe to align the points.

Once again you are right about adjusting a non veneered full splice cue. If you can inspect a few full splice veneered cue and see if the interior points align. There are builders like Brent Summers that build some veneered blanks which the points align but there are many builders like me that has some questionable products that don't align. The more I talk about this subject the more my curiosity is increased.

thanks for the input, Ernie

Look at the style of a lot of the older cues, like pre 80s. Some had dots on the tips of the points. I'd wager (though I don't know) that this may have been used to hide non aligning points that were "close enough." I'm not a cuemaker but it really is something, when they get the points perfect you know they've got their equipment dialed in.

 

[Michael Webb]

Unless your trying to Mill the thickness of your Veneers yourself, I think your problems still surround the centering.
Base of the points and the top too.

 

[DeeDeeCues]

Unless your trying to Mill the thickness of your Veneers yourself, I think your problems still surround the centering.
Base of the points and the top too.

I haven't made a FS yet, but I agree. I'd love to see higher resolution photos because there seems that there might be some oddness in a few of the points.

The first thing that jumped out to me was the clamping of the points. Ernie, do you use the spring clamps as shown for the actual glue-up? If so, I would look for ways of increasing clamp pressure and area. We all know that a tiny amount of variation can lead to noticeable misalignment in the points.

Good luck, thanks for sharing your journey.

 

[Ernie eyocues]

I haven't made a FS yet, but I agree. I'd love to see higher resolution photos because there seems that there might be some oddness in a few of the points.

The first thing that jumped out to me was the clamping of the points. Ernie, do you use the spring clamps as shown for the actual glue-up? If so, I would look for ways of increasing clamp pressure and area. We all know that a tiny amount of variation can lead to noticeable misalignment in the points.

Good luck, thanks for sharing your journey.

hi DeeDeeCues.
Attached are photo of a sample of the type of the glue up I do. With all my clamps. I should have clearer with my earlier photos. My mistake. What I did lately was run a face mill across the handle position vee, I checked it and it was bowed. Actually the last blank was just had a ruffing cut, it still has to be cut down another .050" off the diameter. The points were close to being acceptable. Hopefully soon I will rebuild the glueing fixture and my alignment method.

Thanks for the feedback. I should be clearer how I do things in this forum. The photos are a sample how I glue, but those parts are not being glued. I will be installing veneers to those parts. The veneers were hand cut, run thru a thickness sander, I checked all thicknesses before glueing. This blank was better.

regards, Ernie

 

[DeeDeeCues]

hi DeeDeeCues.
Attached are photo of a sample of the type of the glue up I do. With all my clamps. I should have clearer with my earlier photos. My mistake. What I did lately was run a face mill across the handle position vee, I checked it and it was bowed. Actually the last blank was just had a ruffing cut, it still has to be cut down another .050" off the diameter. The points were close to being acceptable. Hopefully soon I will rebuild the glueing fixture and my alignment method.

Thanks for the feedback. I should be clearer how I do things in this forum. The photos are a sample how I glue, but those parts are not being glued. I will be installing veneers to those parts. The veneers were hand cut, run thru a thickness sander, I checked all thicknesses before glueing. This blank was better.

regards, ErnieView attachment 788132View attachment 788133View attachment 788134View attachment 788135View attachment 788136

Thanks for the response, Ernie. Your posts are great, I hoped/expected that you weren't clamping as shown in your mock-up, but figured I'd clarify. Glad you are having more success, blanks look great.