First experience with milk duds.

penoy78

penoy78

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
All I can say is WOW. The first batch that I made were compressed way too much and it felt like I was hitting with a phenolic tip. After a bit of practice I noticed that I don't have to compress them too much and they still turn out harder and hold A LOT of chalk. I know there's been a lot of posts for milk duds and I just wanted to share my experience with them. At $.70 a tip and a bit of work, you just can't beat the tip. I've tried snipers, talisman, moori and le pros and I can honestly say that I found the tip that fits me. I hope this post helps out and inspires more people to try it. Thanks all and take care.

BTW...I've only been using the tip for about 2 weeks and so far, no mushrooming.
 
Thanks for the tip, I have must admit I have been a little dud curious myself. What tip did you start with?
 
Mike Johnson of Jensen Custom Cues makes them. Cheaper to simply make them yourself. Soak elkmaster tips in whole milk for 24 hours and then compress in vice or c-clamp for 24 hours. Ready to be installed after compression. Do a search on "milk-duds" here and you will find several threads.
 
penoy78 said:
All I can say is WOW. The first batch that I made were compressed way too much and it felt like I was hitting with a phenolic tip. After a bit of practice I noticed that I don't have to compress them too much and they still turn out harder and hold A LOT of chalk. I know there's been a lot of posts for milk duds and I just wanted to share my experience with them. At $.70 a tip and a bit of work, you just can't beat the tip. I've tried snipers, talisman, moori and le pros and I can honestly say that I found the tip that fits me. I hope this post helps out and inspires more people to try it. Thanks all and take care.

BTW...I've only been using the tip for about 2 weeks and so far, no mushrooming.
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I have used every tip too and gave up on them as well probably for the same resons you did.

What exact formula did you use, tip's, milk, tempeature, how long did you soak them, etc.

I would really appericate it if you would share the info, if its a secret thats cool too.
 
FYI....Don't know if this is right or wrong but I use Elkmasters.......and no milk. I use Vise Grip pliers to compress and no milk......it's easy to over compress them. I buy them from American Cowboy Billiards ( ebay ) A lot of people seem to think milk (or whatever ) is necessary. maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
 
the secret

Fatboy said:
I have used every tip too and gave up on them as well probably for the same resons you did.

What exact formula did you use, tip's, milk, tempeature, how long did you soak them, etc.

I would really appericate it if you would share the info, if its a secret thats cool too.
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The tip is the easy part, you start with elkmasters. The milk, or milk product that you use, that is the secret. Then pressing them properly is critical. You can press them too short of a time, you can't press them too long, but you can press them too pressed.

I do hope that my post has made everything perfectly unclear!

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
The tip is the easy part, you start with elkmasters. The milk, or milk product that you use, that is the secret. Then pressing them properly is critical. You can press them too short of a time, you can't press them too long, but you can press them too pressed.

I do hope that my post has made everything perfectly unclear!

Hu
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I'd say that is an accurate assessment of milk duds. I think there is a little bit of luck involved in how they turn out, I've had some great ones but the last one was horrible. I swear the phenolic tip on my break cue hit softer!

If you do want good advice look up Flex's posts on milk duds, including baking them to speed up the process. Good stuff.
 
consistency

Elkmasters like everything else ain't what they used to be. I use a precision scale to weigh each one. The very light ones are tossed, if I get an odd ball heavy one it is gone too, the reasonably dense ones I use. Some folks drop them in water to do the same test but then you have water where you want a dairy product to be.

Hu


chilli66 said:
I'd say that is an accurate assessment of milk duds. I think there is a little bit of luck involved in how they turn out, I've had some great ones but the last one was horrible. I swear the phenolic tip on my break cue hit softer!

If you do want good advice look up Flex's posts on milk duds, including baking them to speed up the process. Good stuff.
Click to expand...
 
ShootingArts said:
Elkmasters like everything else ain't what they used to be. I use a precision scale to weigh each one. The very light ones are tossed, if I get an odd ball heavy one it is gone too, the reasonably dense ones I use. Some folks drop them in water to do the same test but then you have water where you want a dairy product to be.

Hu
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What is a good weight? I've only ever bought a couple at a time so it's hard to get an average.
 
ShootingArts said:
The tip is the easy part, you start with elkmasters. The milk, or milk product that you use, that is the secret. Then pressing them properly is critical. You can press them too short of a time, you can't press them too long, but you can press them too pressed.

I do hope that my post has made everything perfectly unclear!

Hu
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that press them too pressed is pretty unclear
 
Hate to say it but I don't remember

chilli66 said:
What is a good weight? I've only ever bought a couple at a time so it's hard to get an average.
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Hate to say it but I don't remember. I probably weighed them in grains too, 7000 grains to the pound. I don't look for a particular weight, just a norm and the significant variations from that norm. The other tips might be OK but at the price of bulk tips I just throw them away after measuring height and diameter to verify that there is a difference in density.

My shop and my home are an hour apart and my scales are at my house. I'll try to remember to bring the scales to the shop and weigh a dozen or so one day next week. I buy them by the box and weigh and measure them as I do all of my tips. One more trick to turning out quality work.

Hu
 
you can use a durometer too instead of weighing them, i think it would be more accurate. durometers aren't cheap though. i've soaked elks in mineral spirits, that works well. gotta try milk one of these days
 
Thanks, I tried!(to be unclear)

poolplayer2093 said:
that press them too pressed is pretty unclear
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You can press milk duds too much making them too hard or even destroying the integrity of the leather. Having the proper set up to press them is important as is having an educated elbow. Unfortunately the educated elbow comes from ruining enough tips to know what not to do.

Hu
 
durometers

McChen said:
you can use a durometer too instead of weighing them, i think it would be more accurate. durometers aren't cheap though. i've soaked elks in mineral spirits, that works well. gotta try milk one of these days
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Actually there is a durometer that will work for leather for around fifty bucks. I meant to buy it and got side tracked. I have the site for it bookmarked somewhere probably. Of course a poor boy durometer wouldn't be hard to make. Durometers just measure how far a known size and shape sink into a surface at a given pressure and all we really want to know about tips is how they rank compared to others or ones we have liked in the past.

Hu
 
the intent was to be difficult to read

poolplayer2093 said:
i just meant that it's

press them too much
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The intent was to be a little difficult to read and a bit humorous. While I do protect other cue makers "secrets" most of the closely guarded secrets have been discovered by dozens of people and are far from unique to one cue maker. I find the whole chicken blood and voodoo aspect of cue making a little funny. Of course the thing with Tabasco(only the original!) and pig blood under the light of a blue moon is for real so you just never know . . .

Hu
 
To each his own....really mean that...and messing with gear is fun so it's all good. But I've seen too many guys with STROKES make a cue ball do everything but 360s with house cues. So IMHO if you find a brand that hits pretty firm or a little soft if that's what floats your boat, doesn't miscue unless you force it to and doesn't mushroom then practice and good instruction is going to make a difference in your game....not tips.

Just my $0.02.

Jim
 
right you are

av84fun said:
To each his own....really mean that...and messing with gear is fun so it's all good. But I've seen too many guys with STROKES make a cue ball do everything but 360s with house cues. So IMHO if you find a brand that hits pretty firm or a little soft if that's what floats your boat, doesn't miscue unless you force it to and doesn't mushroom then practice and good instruction is going to make a difference in your game....not tips.

Just my $0.02.

Jim
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Jim,

You are absolutely right that any decent tip will work. I look first at tips on house cues and then check if the shaft area is going to put splinters in my hands. However, good equipment that you stay with does raise your level of play. The old-timers didn't play flavor of the week. Milk duds are the longest lasting tip I have ever used, measured by staying consistent over use. The layered tips are among the worst since every layer involves a layer of glue impregnated leather. With a dime radius you have a hard center and a soft outer or a soft center and a hard outer ring as you work through the tip. People constantly cutting on their layered tips are always playing with a changing tip.

I'm coming out with a cored, layered, pie spliced, and coated with angel dust(no not that angel dust) tip to sell to make a buck. To play with I am going back to one piece leather.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
Actually there is a durometer that will work for leather for around fifty bucks. I meant to buy it and got side tracked. I have the site for it bookmarked somewhere probably. Of course a poor boy durometer wouldn't be hard to make. Durometers just measure how far a known size and shape sink into a surface at a given pressure and all we really want to know about tips is how they rank compared to others or ones we have liked in the past.

Hu
Click to expand...

let me know if you find that site, i wouldn't mind buying a halfway decent durometer for $50!
 
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