how do you press a tip
- Thread starter SixOwt
- Start date
I press mine in a small drill press vise for 15 min and the benefits are instant compression of the tip for a more consistant hitting tip..
I use a small SMOOTH JAW machinist's vice. I clamp the tip in the vice for 15 to 20 minutes. This helps to keep the tip from mushrooming and gives a more consistant hit from the start. No break-in time. The tip will play pretty much the same for the life of the tip.
rhncue said:
Is that for your 38mm break shaft?
A huge part of cue repair/cue building is the ability to repeat favorable results accurately. I can't see how you can press tips by hand and consistently get the same results.
By pressing the tip, you are changing the "hardness" that the manufacturer meant for it. How do you keep a medium tip at that predetermined hardness if you press it?
Gene
By pressing the tip, you are changing the "hardness" that the manufacturer meant for it. How do you keep a medium tip at that predetermined hardness if you press it?
Gene
rhncue said:
Dick I press all my cheaper tips, Elkmaster, Triangle, and Le Pro. I place the tips in a vise and I snug it down by hand. This way if one tip is softer than another this will kinda equal things out. Next, I take a small hammer and tap the vise handle a half turn. Then after 15 minutes I tap the vise another half turn, and I leave the tip in place for another 15 minutes.
This while not exact, makes all the tips processed this way very similar in hardness and consistency.
I've been thinking about this for a while myself. My plan is to make a similar pressing arbor to Purdmans except with a flat instead of the concave. I will be trimming the tip flat before placing it in the arbor (or in the case of the laminated tips, just pop 'em right in.) I am also going to weld a nut to the vice's tightening mechanism and use an automotive torque wrench to get repeatable pressure. Then it's just trial and error with the tips until I'm happy with the results. I would love to hear thoughts and suggestions if anyone has them.
Purdman
Banned
shakes said:
A little heat on the brass makes em all the same. I usually just do LePro & Triangles with it. It makes all the difference in the world. Try soaking a layered tip in wood sealer overnight. Then put in the jig , apply pressure and a little heat. You will be shocked at the results.
Purdman
All this courtesy of Mr. Bludworth. Including the jig!
Purdman said:
Purd, do you mind letting me know what the difference in diameters on the two pieces is? I don't necessarily need to know the diameters themselves as I don't want to copy Mr. Blud, but I would like to keep from having the two pieces from freezing together. I was thinking about the heating aspect as well, in regards to breaking tips. Leather armor was hardened and shaped by soaking or boiling in water/oil. I was thinking the same would work to harden leather tips for breaking and jumping cues. My concern was the drying out and pressing process without making them razor thin and 3 inches in diameter. Thus the arbor idea. I was thinking of having some grooves cut the length of the "tenon" if you will, with a hole drilled into the side of the solid base for a soldering iron. The grooves will allow for evaporation. Probably more work than it's worth, but that's the fun part for me, playing and experimenting with shiat. How much heat do you apply? Would the soldering iron be too much?
Thanks for starting this thread Six!
As I was reading your post, I started to get the feeling that you were a single layered tip user. Your last paragraph confirms that. I would have to agree that pressing is a sometimes viable method for certain tips that certain players use. With the onslaught of layered alternatives, the need to doctor tips is moving in the direction of being a thing of the past. There will always be individual tips that are thought to perform better if they are doctored in some way, but the need to do this has lessoned.Klopek said:Any tip, layered or not, will settle in and get harder over time. The concept of pressing a freshly installed tip is that you speed up this process so the player feels his new tip feels relatively close to his older hardened tip. Another benefit is that the leather will have less ability to mushroom so you may only need to trim it once, maybe not at all.
Cuedog Why would you want to replicate the feel of the "old hardened tip"? Part of the reason it's being replaced is a combination of the worn down, compressed leather and the player is feeling more of the harder surface below the tip.
It's not a matter of getting precise repeatable results. When you install ANY tip without pressing it, it will not be the same as the tip you are replacing. Why?. Because that old tip has hardened up over time. So by not pressing it, you are creating a greater disparity between the old and new tips.
Cuedog WHAT??? I want to create a disparity between the old and the new tip. The old tip is useless and functions poorly. Players tend to play with a tip far too long. A leather tip just cannot last a year in the same condition, no matter where in it's use it becomes perfect to the user. The new tip should be more responsive to the action the player imparts. If a little maintenance is needed after a couple hundred balls, so-be-it.
As for the hardness the manufacturers intended, well when Tweeten figures that out, we'll all be better off. Buy a box of Triangles or Le Pro and tell me they'll all install at the hardness the manufacturer intended.
Cuedog Although I will install them for those that insist, I feel I am doing my customers a great disservice installing any of the Tweeten tips until and unless they put a greater conscientious effort into them.
Another argument is that if you like harder tips than buy hard layered tips. Well, okay, but those hard tips will likely harden up to a point where they are too hard, even unusable. A medium tip may install medium, but it will be a hard tip in about 2 months.
Cuedog If you get the two months you speak of out of say, an Everest tip (Medium), and you play only 10 hours a week, the cost amounts to a wopping 25 cents per hour. I would say that although we've been conditioned to believe our tips should last longer, that's not too bad.
Pressing is not necessary, but it most certainly is not without merit. I prefer to use solid tips and pressing creates very reliable results for me, even though I do this by hand. To each his own, but you shouldn't say poo-poo to it so quickly.
Gene
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Purdman said:
Purd, woule you consider selling some Pressed tips? Id like some Le Pro, a few triangle, and elk master
THANKS!
SPINDOKTOR