Finally an Affordable cue Lathe

Dodging the question

the machines used to build these are use too high tolerences every day each one is checked very closely before and after being assembled these are not being made in some back yard shack by a hack these machines are very accurate and my partner has over 40 years of high tech machining more then I can say for some that like to take pot shots machines ...jigs and fixtures i have built are being used by some of the top cue makers in the counrty that alone should say something of the quality
for the price we are asking these are an outstanding value.....

Lee I am not attacking your partners ability to run the machine. Nor am I attacking the machinery you use to build these products. But if I understand your claim correctly 0.0002 runout. I would believe 0.001 TIR but not one fifth of that. I too have an intimate understanding of tolerances and what it takes to achieve them. I am not starting a pissing contest. I just asked a dumb question. Simply put how and where do you check your spindle and chuck runout? I have a couple of tons of machinery in my shop that are only good to +- 0.0005 and that comes down to a collet setup. So yes I question > 0.0002" runout. That is what I do, I question everything. I don't just read it and believe it. I didn't get where I am today because I read what someone posted on the internet and took it as gospel.

So let me ask the question again.
How are you checking this? Dial indicator, test indicator, right next to the chuck, out away from the chuck, how far?

John
 
Is it possible the '2 tenths' statement was a typo and he actually meant to say 2 thou,
.002 instead of .0002 ?


dave <===== (not a machinest, and has used the wrong term many times)
 
That's My Guess, was thinking the same thing and about to mention it Myself. With that said, under 3thou is still close enough to do good work IMO, depending on how It is used that is. I think the problem with some scroll chucks though, as someone already mentioned, is wear and the repeatability over time. Also With some chucks You have to be careful not to over extend them when opening them up past where the stop, or you can burr the scrolls. I did that one time and had to file the burr off where the scroll starts, luckily I was able to get the tolerances back down to what was acceptable for use.
 
Is it possible the '2 tenths' statement was a typo and he actually meant to say 2 thou,
.002 instead of .0002 ?


dave <===== (not a machinest, and has used the wrong term many times)

2 thou runout, you don't install the pin.
2 thou runout on the pilot of the pin after installation is not acceptable in most cases.
 
2 thou runout, you don't install the pin.
2 thou runout on the pilot of the pin after installation is not acceptable in most cases.



Unless I read My indicators wrong, between .001 and .002 thou of repeatable runout should be near impossible to see with the human eye, even without shimming, and to the trained eye. You can shim to get closer then that if needed, but exactly how perfect does It have to be for a sneaky pete. I'm serious when I say this, Not Being a smart ass, but genuinely curious as to what is considered unacceptable by most people, with the exclusion of those bent on being too extreme? Not that I don't agree, in a perfect world, the more accurate the better, just curious as to the base line measurement that is acceptable as opposed to what some may consider overkill? Not that it's a good comparason, and I've seen this in big name custom cues as well, but I'd be willing to bet that most productions cues don't come near that close, even the better ones, well At least from what I've seen as comparisons through the repair side over the years.

The reason I ask This is because I have installed pins in some SP's & conversions at between .001-.002 even did one of the early ones at .003. I think, as I was told by someone at the time that It was barely acceptable, Maybe It was bad advice I don't know, but Those cues are some of the truest rolling cues that I see on a lathe, as true as cues I installed pins in when achieving even better results under .001, and I have many other makes of cues go through It as well to compare. Yes some had a thin final trim pass ran between centers after the pin was installed, and were faced between centers, so I'm not counting those, but some did not, and were at finish stage when the pin was installed, and they still run very true in comparison to most others I have seen. No runout visible when rolled out on a table either, together or apart. Another thing I have paid attention to was if I did do a final trim, what effect did that have on alignment of the points, You expect them to get shorter, but I saw no change in the alignment of them. That lends me the thought the pin was pretty darn straight, but maybe I'm looking at It wrong or missing something. I'm all for improving what I do, so I am honestly curious to know how true should I be shooting for, and what can I live with in a sometimes un-perfect world.
 
Unless I read My indicators wrong, between .001 and .002 thou of repeatable runout should be near impossible to see with the human eye, even without shimming, and to the trained eye. You can shim to get closer then that if needed, but exactly how perfect does It have to be for a sneaky pete. I'm serious when I say this, Not Being a smart ass, but genuinely curious as to what is considered unacceptable by most people, with the exclusion of those bent on being too extreme?

If you are installing a pin and there is run out then the joint becomes an oval instead of a round.
Now match a shaft to that oval joint.
OK ... so you sand it to match and as long as the shaft dont wear and screw on a bit further or if you never need to face either side then I guess it will do.
I try and get the pin as close to dead center as I possibly can and that usually requires shimming or adjusting the tru-set part of the chuck.

Willee
 
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Great idea.
To get half a thou on Set True 6-jaw chuck, I face the back plate, mount the chuck then adjust the jaws on mine.
To get less than 2 tenths on that 3-jaw aluminum jaw chuck would be some achievement.

Hi Joey, I just bought a chinese lathe. The claim is the spindle runs within 0.011 mm. Mine is actually 0.016mm.
The dealers say it is close enough. It is the bearings that are no good, So I am in the process of getting better quality bearings for it.
Like your chuck, the reason it does not run better than what you have will be a combination of the roundness of the test bar and that of the bearings and the rigidity and the spring or load pressure of the DTI itself.
I have seen situations of where people cliam that something is trued up, but the stand or assembly holding the DTI is just not good enough,compared to the load or spring pressure in the DTI itself.
When you start to get to measures of .01 mm or .0004 inches, alot more comes into play as to the actual mearurement.
Another comment about scroll chucks, if a chuck is kept in good condition and never over tightened, a high precision chuck will stay within .01mm TIR over it's entire range. But these chucks are very expensive, and the particular one I use , is no longer made to the specs that mine is.It cost me 20 years ago just over $1100.
For that reason alone , I am very carefull with it, and what I use it for.
The base that Lee is making his lathe from, are very good little lathes.
I am very sure that the assembly he is putting on them will work very well for any cue repair or cue building.
Neil
 
If you are installing a pin and there is run out then the joint becomes an oval instead of a round.
Now match a shaft to that oval joint.
OK ... so you sand it to match and as long as the shaft dont wear and screw on a bit further or if you never need to face either side then I guess it will do.
I try and get the pin as close to dead center as I possibly can and that usually requires shimming or adjusting the tru-set part of the chuck.

Willee



Yeah very familiar with what You are saying, so I'm with You on that, and kind of why I was asking, the cues I refer too don't have major issues with egging, looking down the barrel of the shaft face also looks perfectly centered, and can't feel no egging when the shaft is spinning. sure I hand match them cause I don't use carbide mandrels yet, but the amount of difference doesn't seem to even add up to what I would think. If the shafts were not finished turned off the butt for example, but say they were turned between centers all the way to final, then It still seems to come in under the amount the indicator showed. Such a small amount that the finish alone could make up the difference without thinning the finish cote out too much on one side. It doesn't seem to be enough to even hardly register once the faces seat either. a little bit of work on the high end of those #'s, but yeah the lower the less. That's sort of the point of My question, most cues I see, the good bad and ugly, don't come near that close, although there are a few exceptions that do, and for good reason (the makers did flawless work) but even then I would say the comparison is real close. When I shim with crate paper to get under .001, yes that is especially true as one would expect, but even the others that I mentioned before don't seem too much different.

Matching those shafts I would compare to a ferrule job, that is so close, that no file is needed to knock any high side down, and a quick, lite, hit with 600-800 is enough to perfectly blend with no need to go any coarser. Could almost be buffed out depending on how you go about It. I could hardly consider that too far off when I see so many other cues that don't come close to that even after finish. Same issues you mention is what I see in those.

Anyway I'm not trying to argue the fact of what should be acceptable, so hope that's not the way it sounds, I'm with anyone 100% when It comes to "the closer to dead nuts the better", and I strive to go as low as I can go with what I have like anyone else, but that's been trial and error over the years, started out at around .005 on my first, and worked my way down to under .001 that's as low as My manual indicator reads with out hitting zero, and seems to be close enough for me. I'm really just more interested in an honest number of what people think is acceptable, not what they hope to get someday (that's a given we all want to bottom out dead on), but what they have to live with even after their best attempts to shim or what ever It takes to get lower. Sometimes, I'm confused at the numbers I hear, and wonder which are just muscle flexing and which are for real. I think if people were honest we would see a variety of numbers, some will be lower yes, but some will be higher, maybe somewhere in the middle could be considered acceptable ground.

Again basing the number off of a sp or cue that costs well under $500 like what was mentioned in the thread as that's what got me thinking about It. Not saying someone should not put their all into every cue, just that for someone starting out, what's acceptable for them may be in the .002 range. Realistically I see a lathe like this being used for those purposes, even someone starting out building a few sp's, or maybe even as a repair lathe for someone that already has a lathe to install pins, and other stuff. My comparison is to similar lathes though not this particular one. Multi purpose.


This is the way I see It for someone starting out, .004 or higher probably not gonna be happy .003 not perfect but can make It work (like you said depends on what you can live with, but that's a bit to live with), same goes for .002 but with better results and a bit easier to swallow, under .001 real easy to live with, and should be happy if getting those #'s early into the game or on the lighter more affordable equipment or even some metal lathes for that matter.


Took a lot of work, but I did get one down to .0005 before setting a pin, and was very happy with that, I can't imagine needing better, although that would be nice. when I hear people that seem upset, over trying to achieve better then that, I wonder if It's even possible to hit dead nuts, once You get down so low, doesn't the irregularities in some of the materials account for some of that? My point is It doesn't seem to matter what repeatability we get with a ground bar to indicate off of, can't that be different when we indicate off of a joint, and can't the type of material account for some of those minute numbers? I mean .0002 that's freaking insane in my world:grin:
 
Anyway I'm not trying to argue the fact of what should be acceptable, so hope that's not the way it sounds, I'm with anyone 100% when It comes to "the closer to dead nuts the better", and I strive to go as low as I can go with what I have like anyone else, but that's been trial and error over the years, started out at around .005 on my first, and worked my way down to under .001 that's as low as My manual indicator reads with out hitting zero, and seems to be close enough for me.

I prefer the term discussion to argument.

I use a Starrett Last Word indicator that can read out half a click.

Anyhow, I have tried carbide mandrels to size shafts and butts at the joint and I guess I need to learn some new tricks as I can never get them to come out right without final sanding.
I sand down to the mandrel and the alignment is usually high or low (egging) in a spot. You would think it would be a no brainer but I must be doing something wrong.
Getting the pin and the tapped shaft hole as close to dead center makes the fitting part a lot easier.
Sanding the finish flush will hide or mask any small differences.

The cue joint is actually the only area I can think of that needs high precision.
 
I prefer the term discussion to argument.

I use a Starrett Last Word indicator that can read out half a click.

Anyhow, I have tried carbide mandrels to size shafts and butts at the joint and I guess I need to learn some new tricks as I can never get them to come out right without final sanding.
I sand down to the mandrel and the alignment is usually high or low (egging) in a spot. You would think it would be a no brainer but I must be doing something wrong.
Getting the pin and the tapped shaft hole as close to dead center makes the fitting part a lot easier.
Sanding the finish flush will hide or mask any small differences.

The cue joint is actually the only area I can think of that needs high precision.



Just discussion in My book too, glad It didn't come out the wrong way. I am just curious how low others can get zeroed in, and what the average is. I mean sure I got .0005 in my most recent adventure, but that took some work, and I can live with something real close to .001 with minimal sanding if that's the best I can get at the time. If slightly higher then that, in all honesty there may be a hair of a lip to deal with, but nothing that seems to take any major sanding or lop siding to correct, the higher you go the more unacceptable It becomes though.

Speaking of I really need to get a better indicator one of these days, I'm still using the same one I have had for a while, just a cheap import. It's Possible that I'm not getting a true reading, not to mention I have to judge with no hatch marks between. Maybe the real #'s would be better then I'm reading on mine, I have to kind of judge like you would a clock with no marks between.:o it gets Me in the ballpark though, and when It comes to how close the shaft matches, and how straight the pin seems to go in, I guess at least I know where I stand from what I read with It. I do need to upgrade to something better though. It's possible the numbers I quoted could be lower on a better indicator, as I'm only going on what I read on the one I use.

Carbide mandrels, I've been staying busy with repair and other obligations lately, so I still don't get enough of a chance to work on building cues to warrant using them, I have some carbide sleeves I plan on using sometime, but right now I have no burning need for interchangeable shafts, They would make finishing a bit easier, but I guess they are only as good as the mandrels are made true, and even then, only as good as the runnout that you can get out of your spindle. I think I've read others mentioning having similar problems to what You said, and I could see where i may would run into them also.
 
I have finger type indicators to .001mm and plunger type indicators to .001 mm with each graduation about 2.5 mm apart. They also come with a certificate of compliance showing the actual deviation from the reading when using in a Metrology Lab.
They really are an overkill for pool cues.
Neil
 
repair lathe

when they are finished , I would like to know the price
 
Title says it all!! does shafts, butts, pins,joints, butt caps, make joint caps, install furules do it all.... did we mention very accurate...................
great starter machine, great for pool rooms, league repairs, doing tournys
or just make simple sneaky petes.these are all aluiminim and ground steel beds dc motor with speed control and reverse these are built to last a liftime I have 40 units almost ready to go early october .... pricing to follow the Galveston show WE will have 2 ready to sell at the end of the show.........

Lee,

I just came back from a weekend at the Galveston show and didn't see you there. Where are you? I'm looking to buy.
 
I got a good look at this lathe this weekend in Galveston and it is a good looking lathe. Everything that is on it is rock solid. Lee is there and set up right past the Muellers counter.
 
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