> I'm also in the group that puts their cue together as tight as it will go,but aside from a horrible McD Black Mac break cue,I've never owned a cue with wood threads inside the shaft. When I screw someone elses cue together,a cue from a shop I'm unfamiliar with,or a cue I am looking at possibly buying or experimenting with,I know what I like and don't like. I don't like rough looking threads on a pin,inside an insert or inside a wood screw type shaft. I have taken a close look at the only 2 Radial-pin cues in the area,both of which are Lucasi. Both were TIGHT,almost annoyingly so. I have also looked at a radial jointed Josey,which was noticably looser than these Lucasi's,but still very snug. The thing I really noticed the most about this Josey was how SMOOTH it went together,despite the snug fit,almost like you screwed the pin into a block of really hard wax. The Lucasi joints were nowhere near as smooth,but way tighter. The 3/8-10,11 Acme style pins you see on SW,DPK,Bender,Cogs and several others are usually pretty snug as well because the inside of the shaft wood is actually riding the minor diameter of the pin,which is flat and concentric. The threads on the pin really aren't that tight inside the shaft,and will eventually get looser,but the bore inside the shaft isn't as succeptable to twisting stresses and eventual wear,so it still fits snug. Hal here on the board was selling a Paul Dayton cue he said was so tight he expected the shafts to crack,personally I'm not so sure I'd want one that tight. Another thing that affects this is how well the joint facings line up,as far as getting it screwed together tightly enough that the playability doesn't suffer. Meucci cues,for sure,play better when they are as tight as you can reasonably get them. There are also ways to tighten up a loose/sloppy fit as far as inside wood threads,but not with an insert. When you screw a cue together so tightly it takes 2 people to get it apart,or takes a few times to get broken loose,the joint facings are what causes that,not the pin/shaft fit. A cotton ball or corner of a rag lightly dampened with alcohol works well for keeping them clean,but putting alcohol down in wood threads is asking for problems. Tommy D.