Help me build my first cue!!!

Tom, that is an excellent post. Tons of helpful info. I hope the op gets something out of it. I know I sure did, and I have been messing around with this stuff for years.

You know what they say, those who can't teach which could qualify me as a great teacher.
 
You can't say that your not trying to be perfect, yet you aren't willing to make mistakes on your own to learn. Those two thought processes don't go together. And even my very first cue, which was a bar cue conversion, I tried to be as perfect as possible with it. I actually got that pin dead center and the cue played great. I have since learned so many things by just trying stuff out and experimenting. I have seen some cues and got inspired to try something similar. And failed, miserably, but I learned. And that knowledge never leaves me. If a great cue maker simply told me how to do it, and something went wrong, I would never know why. Making mistakes on your own, learning from them, and applying your new found knowledge to a future cue is the absolute best way to learn. I'm not knocking you, and I'm not being disrespectful, but you must respect the guys who have been there and done that in cue making. I bought a small repair lathe and thought it was all I needed. It did certain things well, but there is no way I would try to build a whole cue with it. I wish you the best of luck, and no matter what, you should aim for perfection when you make your cue. You can only make your first cue once.

Joe
 
And I have seen some of your cues Joe. I was always amazed that you jumped in head first on this one and the cue pics that you sent me were very impressive.

Good advice tho as I am sure you made a few gooders like the rest of us when you first started. I know I did and still do.

The thing with me is, I'm pretty good at taking my mistakes and still turn something decent out of it. I guess what I mean is that when I make a mistake, its not totally out of the ball park yet and I can usually do a little correcting and salvage something that could have been a disaster.
 
And I have seen some of your cues Joe. I was always amazed that you jumped in head first on this one and the cue pics that you sent me were very impressive.

Good advice tho as I am sure you made a few gooders like the rest of us when you first started. I know I did and still do.

The thing with me is, I'm pretty good at taking my mistakes and still turn something decent out of it. I guess what I mean is that when I make a mistake, its not totally out of the ball park yet and I can usually do a little correcting and salvage something that could have been a disaster.

Oh yeah man, I ruined a bunch of wood, but I saved most of my screw-ups and once in a while I will go back and work on em. I pulled the pins out of several of my first cues and plugged em with phenolic and reworked the joints on a couple and surprisingly, they turned out pretty good. Nothing real fancy, but good hitting, straight, solid cues nonetheless. I know you are creative too Terry and I've read some of your stories about your cue work, and I have been impressed by your work as well. The funny thing is, the cues I screwed up on are usually the ones I experiment with and sometimes, I learn a totally new way of doing something. I feel like my processes and methods just keep getting better and better.

Joe
 
Again thanks for all the support I am getting here and I will follow all of your great advices as best as I can.


At the end of the day to all that helped me with my endeavor I will forever be grateful and will help however I can if the chance arrives.

To all the heaters keep hating it keeps me going.
 
I really can't offer much advice other than you should be in the ask a cuemaker section!!:grin: Good luck! Post pics.
 
I am starting to see that few people in this field are actually willing to teach and help the RUDE ones.

There, I fixed your quote for clarity. The people in this forum help out new people constantly. They just tend to get their back up when someone shows up and has an attitude.
 
If your trying to only build one cue, why buy the equipment you did? You could have used your cuemaker friend's equipment. Then you would have the money to actually accrue the needed books, videos, parts/supplies. Everything has a cost.
Your a student so I'll try to show it in a way that may make sense to you. You want an education, so #1)Did you buy your books for school, or were they given too you for free? #2)Can you complete you classes and pass without those books? If so, then great, but if not, how come?#3) Did you have to pay for your tution, or was it given to you for free? If you paid, then great, if you got it for free,...then that could explain your attitude of "tell me how to do it, and it cannot not cost me anything more then $60". #4) When you take your exams/quizzes, etc. do you get it right the first time on your own, or do you make mistakes, then learn from them and do better from that? Or does someone give you all the answers and you move foward without any real knowledge? #5) do you have labs that they give you a task to do, or do they tell you about a task, then tell you how to do it without any real hands on from you?
Depending on how you answer these question can have an effect on what you will actually accomplish with any help given from here.
People only learn when it comes at a price. You give the impression that you think that people should either feel obligated to tell you how to do it, or they will feel sorry for you and send you supplies and then tell you how to assemble it all, because your a student with very limited money. Well, we ALL started that way, Some of us supporting families, but we did it on our own and have learnt thru our mistakes that experience is priceless, and unless your ready to get you hands dirty and make some mistakes/firewood on your own, then you may not be ready to even do this one cue. Once you have an ebony forearm (rough price $45 for a square minimum)crack on you because you didn't wait and seal it properly, you learn to follow the advice you were given. In another thread you are now sounding like an expert and directing people on how to buy parts from different suppliers and combine them to make a repair lathe. Have you put yours together yet and adjust it to be 100% accurate, and done any repairs? That's not sharing help, that's sharing a recipe for an expensive failure if all the parts don't get setup properly.
Some very good makers have given some great advice, but you seem to be looking for a complete set of directions, well here it is, all the answers you will need for your quest..(but financial aid doesn't cover it ...lol).
.http://www.cuesmith.com/index.php?page=book_video. Just think of it as buying another school book. Best $70 or so you will ever spend, as, unlike school books, you can always resell it for almost full value.
This is reminding me of the Rague Cue thread from a few years ago....
Dave
 
Lol advice. Another guy that is telling me to go buy something. Please read the thread carefully from de beginning. And I did not buy a lathe to make one cue , I built my lathe from parts from here and there and it does tips and ferrules wonderfully. Now I just want to see if I can make a cue on it. I not buying anything more, i am using all the advice I get from here for free and see what happens. You tried to compare going to college and getting books the building a cue? Nice. I don't think you remember your college days. Buy used books, get pass me downs and be broke about 95% of the time. But who knows from what you say your college days were filled with new books and everything you needed, I can't afford that. So this cue I will build will be cheep and great.if you have any tips and tricks you would like to teach me you are more then welcome and I will appreciate it if not stop judging and offering "go buy more stuff advice"
 
I am officially closing down this thread. This has become a circus but I learned a valuable lesson. I can only count on few people that have given me great advice. The world is a sad and dark place and people don't know how to come together for the greater good. Luckily there are still beacons of hope there that have helped me constantly over the time and I will only ask them from now on.

If you contributed something useful to the thread you will be in my credits when I finish the cue and I will forever be grateful for you knowledge and you can pride yourself that you helped make my first cue. For those who bashed pointed fingers and insulted me for no apparent reason, you have to realize that without evil there would be no good.

Merry Christmas

Ps- really excited to start working on this cue.


..........end of thread............
 
Lol advice. Another guy that is telling me to go buy something. Please read the thread carefully from de beginning. And I did not buy a lathe to make one cue , I built my lathe from parts from here and there and it does tips and ferrules wonderfully. Now I just want to see if I can make a cue on it. I not buying anything more, i am using all the advice I get from here for free and see what happens. You tried to compare going to college and getting books the building a cue? Nice. I don't think you remember your college days. Buy used books, get pass me downs and be broke about 95% of the time. But who knows from what you say your college days were filled with new books and everything you needed, I can't afford that. So this cue I will build will be cheep and great.if you have any tips and tricks you would like to teach me you are more then welcome and I will appreciate it if not stop judging and offering "go buy more stuff advice"

Your attitude sucks, that is what I hate.

Can't be bothered to buy a book for 50 bucks that would have all the questions answered anytime you need them.

Laugh and criticize at advice you are given. There is more than one person who thought you bought a complete lathe, not cobbled one together from pieces.

Since you are young, let me enlighten you on why some guys get frustrated....

Before the internet there was this thing on the wall called a telephone and it had a rotary dial. If you needed information you would spin this dial and someone MIGHT answer. If you had the phone number of the RIGHT person you MIGHT get the RIGHT answer.

Now we have the internet where a person types in a question to the world and gets pissy if he doesn't like what he reads....
 
The world is a sad and dark place and people don't know how to come together for the greater good.

What is really sad is thinking that people handing over their years of experience to help you make your first cue is considered "the greater good". You aren't devoting years of your life to cure a sickness pal, you are trying to get something for nothing and being damned rude about it in the process.

You catch more flies with honey....
 
Of you don't want to share then don't share I did not force you to give any free valuable info you gained so hard over the years. If you want to share , share but don't come here and tell me to go buy a book and consider it advice. I know I can buy a book I just don't have the fund to and yea I am asking for free advice. It will all come back and bite the big cue makers in the but sooner or later when there is no one there to keep making cues after they are gone.

You know what I am going to do. Everything I have learned so far from all that shared I will compile and create a new thread with free knowledge. I want to he as many people to start building cues because that is the only way to assure that this wonderful sport will be alive. To many people here keep those secrets like if they share them no one will buy cues from them. I well I guess the cue business is just like any business. But one think is for sure I will not stand for insults, rudeness and people that attack me. So far I have not issues one offensive remark and only moral fabric keeps me from telling some of the people here what I think about them.
 
There are very few "secrets" here. An enormous amount of information is available, for free, simply by searching the archives of this website. I believe you will find everything you are looking for and more, without having to directly communicate with the cue makers here (since that does not seem to be your strong suit). Hope this helps.

Josh
 
"I am Romanian and we have a saying in Romania. You don't learn a trade you steal a trade. Why should I make the same costly mistakes that many people made. . . . "

You have NO moral fabric - you are an admitted thief.

Gary
 
Oh yeah man, I ruined a bunch of wood, but I saved most of my screw-ups and once in a while I will go back and work on em. I pulled the pins out of several of my first cues and plugged em with phenolic and reworked the joints on a couple and surprisingly, they turned out pretty good. Nothing real fancy, but good hitting, straight, solid cues nonetheless. I know you are creative too Terry and I've read some of your stories about your cue work, and I have been impressed by your work as well. The funny thing is, the cues I screwed up on are usually the ones I experiment with and sometimes, I learn a totally new way of doing something. I feel like my processes and methods just keep getting better and better.

Joe

I'll bet that my trash can with my screw ups is bigger than yours.....

LOL

Kim
 
I'll keep my mouth shut...it's the holiday spirit that should be showing within all of us!

Good Luck with your efforts though!
Happy Holidays!
 
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