Happened once again, not happy

[jazznpool]

Hey Dave, I have not been unhappy with the 24 or so Schmelke pete blanks I've bought over the last 4 years. In fact, I've been delighted with the figure of the prong wood in many of the blanks I've bought from them and I have not had to toss one due to straightness problems. When the separation of nose/prong occurs I run thin and then medium cyano into the voids. I "wobble" or recenter as needed during the turning process in an attempt to achieve as even points as possible. When ordering the blanks I always request straight grained prong/handle wood and even points.

Another option is to furnish woods to a blank maker whose work you like.

Martin

I have both hanging in front of me, and IMO, they look quite different. I may be wrong, but unless Schmelke sells better quality blanks to people like Joe that buy in volume, then sells the junk to people like me, they are 2 different items. JMO. Which if that is what they do, I would be ashamed to be them....
Dave

 

[Cue Crazy]

I used one of their blanks with no veneers on a friends cue, just a dark rosewood into birdseye, and other then a couple of adjustments between turns it went well. I guess I was lucky, good thing because He specified no inlays except for chain link ring work, so I couldn't use them to cover anything up, also he wanted a thinner handle, so that could have put me in trouble if there had been any voids.

I've had similar issues with blanks from other sources, I also run into those issues a lot with blanks I have cut from broken house cues, but I get a few decent ones now and again, and I can't complain on those because I get them for free.

I have a coco/maple blank that I got from another source that I am still trying to finish up, and It has fought me for 5 years or more worth of slow turning. I got the runnout worked out by the time I got to final size, from there It was a fight with the points raising just enough that you can feel the edge, no gaps or anything, in fact it's a nice tight looking blank, I'm almost there, but It's not completely giving in until it's last breath.

 

[rhncue]

I have both hanging in front of me, and IMO, they look quite different. I may be wrong, but unless Schmelke sells better quality blanks to people like Joe that buy in volume, then sells the junk to people like me, they are 2 different items. JMO. Which if that is what they do, I would be ashamed to be them....
Dave

I think maybe you are just unlucky. I've got a few from them over the years where there was a slight void of glue between the points in one or two places but for the most part I am very happy with them especially as cheap as they are. I've thrown away maybe two out of at least 200 or as many as 300 over the last 15 years of using them. I always keep at least 12 of them hanging in by cabinet for customers to chose from. I've built a couple out of Prathers veneered blanks, which were much nicer, but they were something close to 300.00 each. The only real trouble I have with them is that the fore arm center is way off and must be corrected. I would much rather the back center to be off and the front good as I core all of them anyway. I have got a couple also where the fore arm was way to small in diameter so that I had trouble getting a new center but all and all I can't complain about what I've received.

Dick

 

[cueman]

When making a lot of full splice blanks the reason the points are so hard to hold even, is because of the gluing method. A blank that runs $250 and a blank that runs $30 to $75 are probably held in the gluing fixtures differently. Once both halves of most full splice cue blanks are machined they are pressed together with pressure on both ends, with nothing keeping the middle perfectly straight between centers. This allows slight bowing in the middle and therefore even though you even up the points and drill a new center hole, once you turn them a little more the points will again become uneven. So just pressing the two ends will not give you the even points results hoped for in higher end cues.

What I do when making a full-splice blank in my shop that will go into one of my cues is this. I turn the handle piece round and put it in a double chuck fixture with indexing head and band saw the handle splice. Then I cut the forearm grooves the same way I cut short splice forearm grooves. I chop the back end of the forearm off to give the nice flat "X" end to slide back into the handle. Then I put the handle through one of my lathe double chuck headstocks and and get it spinning true. I then put the west system in the point grooves and handle splice and use the tailstock live center to press the forearm into the handle. Then I wrap the glued area with wax paper and latex tubing and let it sit overnight, between center in the lathe. So I tie a lathe up overnight while it dries.

That is the only easier way I have found to hold the points even and straight in the cue. Am I going to go through all of those steps for the $50 blanks I sell? No way! But for higher end full splice cues that is how I do it.

Now for the gaps that might occasionally appear in lower end blanks, I work thin West System epoxy down into the grooves. I rarely see that happen, but when I do that is how I address the problem.