How It's Made - Billiard cues - Video

Ralph Kramden

Ralph Kramden

BOOM!.. ZOOM!.. MOON!
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Here are 2 videos. One shows how cues are manufactured by CNC equipment. The second one shows how handmade cues are assembled.

This video shows how Fury cues are made. The cue in the video has floating points that are machined on a CNC (computer numerical controled) milling machine.

Points and inlays can also be made on a Pantograph machine but would be made by tracing over a pattern instead of using a computer program. The same type of cutter would be used.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=adUbpn7WZYA

This video is showing legendary cue maker Gus Szamboti as he explains how he made cues. Cue maker George Balabuska used Titlist blanks or Burton Spain blanks as a basis for his earlier cues. About 1971 he started using Szamboti blanks.

The points shown are placed by hand into machined cuts before being turned down on a lathe.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9EtqCqbUaE&feature=related

Enjoy.

Edit: Fury cues should read Falcon cues.
 
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In the video Gus Szamboti was asked how long it took to make a custom cue for Steve Miserak. I was surprised by his answer.

I read that George Balabushka was making 75 cues a year. Thats about 1 every 5 days! They are beautiful and worth thousands today.

Many people ordering cues today wait for months to get a cue, even though they say it is in the progress of being made. I was just wondering if anyone had a comment about this.
 
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Bushka certainly didn't make 1 cue in 5 days. He made several at a time, turning them slowly. Cuemakers age wood sometimes for years before it being suitable for their cues. They are constantly turning shafts little by little for mating with future cues. If you start with a blank, obviously there's less time involved.
 
Ralph Kramden said:
Gus Szamboti was asked how long it took to make a custom cue for Steve Miserak. I was surprised by his answer.

I read that George Balabushka was making 75 cues a year. Thats about 1 every 5 days! They are beautiful and worth thousands today.

Many people ordering cues today wait for months to get a cue, even though they say it is in the progress of being made. I was just wondering if anyone had a comment about this.
Click to expand...

You have asked a very complicated question, and a relatively short post can't cover it all.

I know the video you are talking about. I believe the answer was 3 man working days or something like that. While that sounds surprising, that estimate is added up over a very long time, and cues are only affordable due to the efficiency cuemakers work. You don't make 1 cue at a time, you make 10, or 20, or 100. A cuemaker that might make/sell 40 cues a year will probably have 300+ shaft blanks in the works all at varying stages, so that when the group of shafts nearest to completion are finished and can be mated to cues and sold, you have another group nearing completion. Otherwise, the wait might be a year or more.

When you turn shaft blanks, you don't turn one at a time, you turn as many as you can stand before you get sick of it. Same thing for turning butts, making rings, etc etc. In the end, you would have to take all of the time you spent turning shafts, and divide by 100 (or however many you turned) to get the time per cue. The same for handle stock, the same for everything else that you do in bulk before you decide to change setups. Even when you finish a cue, most cuemakers try and finish several at once, all batched up in a queue. You might have to wait between coats, or wait before you buff. Everything that gets glued (a lot!) might require a wait time.

So the supply of interchangeable parts, and the ability to work efficiently, and the availability of exactly what the customer wants, and how many cues the builder is working on all affect how long the customer waits. Even the supply of somewhat interchangeable parts are all oversized, and there has to be some waiting between operations. If a customer wants a ring design that is nonstandard to that builder, more wait time. If he wants a piece of wood that builder doesn't have already, more wait time. If the builder turns that special piece of wood, and suddenly a hidden defect is revealed, more wait time for a replacement. That 3 man working day answer is ignoring wait time, time for wood to season, investment of time to research sources for buying materials, time for setting up equipment, etc. It is purely the actual time in turning, and boring, and inlaying, and cutting grooves, and more turning, gluing, and finishing, and then dividing all of those times by the respective number of pieces the cuemaker is working on to get a time estimate per cue. That is all based on if everything goes well also.

All of that is pretty general, but I hope it helps.
Kelly
 
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Watching Gus's video, I seriously threw up a little in my mouth when he said that his cues go for around $325 and the one seen is $950.


Just to think, one of those $6000 cues on ebay could have been bought for $325. Thats just amazing.
 
Just for the record the first video is by Falcon Cues and the inlays are being put into a Predator 4K something.Not fury.
 
dbCustomCues said:
Just for the record the first video is by Falcon Cues and the inlays are being put into a Predator 4K something.Not fury.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. Actually I think they are all Falcon cues.
At :24 and at 4:15 the cues shown have Falcon logos.

I didn't see a predatory cat lurking anywhere in the shadows.
 
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No no cats they wouldnt let them see that but I know that cue all the black epoxy is being poured into is a Pred....
 
Ralph Kramden said:
I stand corrected. Actually I think they are all Falcon cues.
At :24 and at 4:15 the cues shown have Falcon logos.

I didn't see a predatory cat lurking anywhere in the shadows.
Click to expand...

Last I heard Falcon makes the butts for Predator ? Then lately I hear Lucasi, so who really knows.

highrun55
 
dbCustomCues said:
Just for the record the first video is by Falcon Cues and the inlays are being put into a Predator 4K something.Not fury.
Click to expand...
Yeah I sent him a PM on Saturday to edit it
 
Anyone knows if the Szamboti in the video is still around? wonder how much that beast would go for now?

Duc.
 
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