Help Please

dave fingers

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
If I have a cue where the points are a bit uneven, and the cue is still a bit oversized, say .950, is it still possible to get the points back close to even in the final few turns? If so how? Do you move the center holes and if so which way? The points are about 3/8" off.:confused:


Thanks,
Dave
 
dave fingers said:
If I have a cue where the points are a bit uneven, and the cue is still a bit oversized, say .950, is it still possible to get the points back close to even in the final few turns? If so how? Do you move the center holes and if so which way? The points are about 3/8" off.:confused:


Thanks,
Dave

Sure. I won't say most cuemakers do it this way but I do. The way I do it is I forget about the centers until I have the points lined back up. I turn my butts between centers on a dedicated lathe. I have a short piece of delrin that has a 60 deg center bored in one side and perfectly flat on the other. If the points are slightly off I put this delrin on my tail stock between the cue and the center and then with a dial indicator set at the tip of the points I rotate the cue by hand until the the cue rotates perfectly. I then turn the cue until the longest point is at the dial indicators stem. I now bump the butt of the cue at the tail stock slightly towards the long point so that the cue now runs slightly out by a few ths. I then put more pressure on the tail stock so that the butt can't slip and I make a slight cutting pass. If it is still slightly out I'll do it again until the points are lined up to my discretion. When the points are lined up like I want I then take the cue and put a new center in the back and from now on I can once again run off of the centers.

If the points are very far off or you can't take off much material instead of bumping the back of the butt I put the delrin at the joint end of the butt and do the same procedure. You should be well aware that when bumping the nose of the cue a little off center will move the length of the points quite a bit and much care needs to be taken so as to not ruin the cue.

With practice you get an idea of how much to bump in order to move the length of the points a certain amount. You are aware I'm sure that if the points were not made correctly no amount of bumping can ever make them all of equal length.

Dick
 
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