First Cue

[Baba]

Hi all,

Just wanted to show you my "Summer Project" and want to hear what experienced builders think about it. This will be my first cue build from scratch by my own (hopefully successfull).

Forearm and Buttsleeve will be Golden Madrone Burl. Forearm cored with PurpleHeart. Handle will be Curly Maple. All white is Ivory. SS radial pin. Aluminium Weight Bold 3/8-16. A-Joint connection screw is SS. All black is phenolic/double blacl linen.
Butt weight is 415g, length is 74cm. Balance point is 36.6cm from the beginning of the joint and 37.4 from the end of the butt cap.
The pics don't show the real beauty of the woods because i don't have the correct textures available.

Do you see any construction mistakes?
All comments welcome

Thanks
Baba

 

[Justin RC]

great illustration. If you ever get into doing custom work for people, they will love the renderings.

 

[cutter]

First off, nice drawing. Is that solid edge.
Now for critique.
Basic construction is good. Maybe thread butt cap and joint collar. I don't like the way elements all line up at the bottom of joint screw and I would consider putting the
"A" joint screw a bit further up the forearm.
Those two spots look like the "weakest" points in the cue. Probably not enough to be a problem, but something to think about.
Will be interesting to see how close your actual numbers match up with software projected numbers. Not sure the consistancy of the burl.
Cue will be a beauty when done, please keep us updated.

 

[Mcues]

First cue

Wish i could do drawings that good Ivory is nice but can be problematic specially the first time.

Mario

 

[Baba]

Thanks for the comments.

@Steve:
The software is Autodesk Inventor 2013 Prof.
Threading of Joint and Butt was already intended but I forgot to add it to the construction drawing. I will change that.
I checked the pin hole and it is not correctly drawn. The pin will be deeper and then it doesn't all line up. I will change that.
What do you mean by "putting the A-Joint Screw a bit further up the forearm" ?
Should the screw be longer ? Or should the screw be screwed deeper into the forearm (then it wouldn't hang out that much into the handle) ?
I hope the actual numbers exactly match my calculations because I used the density of my real wood for my calculations.
I let know know how close it will be.
Btw.: Above weight is without clear coat, so finished cue will be approx. 10g heavier.

@Mario:
It's not that hard. Autodesk has a Student Version of their product which is fully functional. Start with that and if you have any problems I can try to help you.
Just try it.

Michael

 

[Baba]

@Steve:
I changed everything you mentioned.
Joint and butt threaded. I modeled the pin as a real UniLoc Radial Pin and moved the A-Joint connection screw 10mm up in the forearm. The pin I had before was too heavy compared to the real SS Radial Pin.
I also calculated the weight of the clear coat. ClearCoat surface of the cue is 389cm² (approx. 0,2mm thick).
Total weight of the cue including clear coat should be 417g now.
Balance point is at 37,3cm from the front of the joint.

Michael

 

[cutter]

I like the line up much better on this drawing.
The nice thing with prints is that you can see the internal shear areas.
I'm not familiar with Inventor FEA, but would be interesting to see how the cue reacted to a force applied at the A joint.
Using the weight of your actual wood should help make this as accurate
as possible.
I think the way you are going about this is really smart. let's face it, much of the
work is made with prints, why not cues. I'm working on learning solid edge.
Edge, Solidwork, Inventor are all incredibly powerful programs. I have a neighbor who
is fluent in Solid Edge, so I'm leaning that way. (free help).
Again, please show us the final results.

 

[Baba]

Thanks for your comments.
I'll keep you updated.

Michael

Btw. That is my wood for forearm and butt!

 

[kross]

I've never checked the balance point on any of my cues of just the butt without a shaft attached. I just checked mine, and they balance around 13.5 inches without a shaft, and about 18.5 inches with a shaft. Your balance point of 37.4 cm (14.7 inches) is definitely more forward-weighted than my cues, but if you like that kind of balance, then great. Otherwise a heavier weight bolt will be needed.

Of course this all depends on the shaft that will go with this cue. The weight of the shaft will definitely affect the balance of the cue.

Oh, beautiful burl wood!