How straight should a shaft be

CreeDo said:
The way I see it, if anything about your cue bothers you... anything at all... it will have an affect on your game, even if that affect is 100% mental. You can't shoot with a cue that bothers you in any way, even if it's something meaningless like the color.

If you have a choice and the money, get a stick that's as straight as you like. For me that just means I can't see a wobble when I roll it on the table. But if you can see or feel that 'nanometer' warp, then trade it in.
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"Life's too short to drink bad wine", my mom always says. So no use playing with a cue one isn't happy with either. Playing pool should be fun, after all. But (quoting myself):

"[…]the search for the holy grail in cues ends when the valiant knight decides to settle and live happily ever after - not because the "perfect cue" as a concept per se exists!"

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti
 
If you're expecting a runout tolerance of .001 nanometers for a cue shaft, you probably need to give up the game. No lathe I'm aware of is capable of holding that tolerance on a piece of wood the length of a shaft. I'm not a cue maker so I don't know what type of lathes they use but I expect a tolerance of .001 inches would be about as good as you could expect. I can assure you that the human eye cannot detect .001 inches and that wouldn't show up as detectable if you rolled it on the table. It most certainly wouldn't have any effect on your ability to draw the ball or execute any shot for that matter.
 
I generally try to shoot with the same side of the cue on top:

(1) When I used to use bar sticks that were warped (mostly for breaking) I'd roll them on the table and they would be warped like a banana. No problem. Just roll it until the concave side was pointed up and the tip was at its highest point off the table. Then use it in that position.

(2) With my personal cue the shaft is fairly straight but there are various grains in the wood that I don't like to look at. So I always orient my cue so that the same side is always on top. Once you find out what works best for you you can mark a spot on the top of the cue shaft (say near the joint) so you know which side to hold up in order to know that your cue is always oriented the same each time you shoot.

(3) Or, I guess, you could buy one of those radially consistant plywood shafts (Predator, OB, etc.) that are manufactured the same all the way around and not worry about orienting a real piece of lumber that is not radially consistant.
 
BilliardsAbout said:
You can guarantee you will have a perfectly straight cue--if you don't use wood in its construction. ;)
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And even THAT'S not a guarantee! I've seen non-straight metal, graphite, and fiberglass, too.

I've worked on thousands of cues - of all makes - and other than brand new ones, I've never seen any shafts that are perfectly straight.

Roger
 
I have a DVD match of Sigel playing Hopkins in the mid 80s. This was when Sigel was SIGEL. At one point in the match Sigel rolled his cue on the table, and you could see the wobble on his shaft a mile away. He proceeded to run 3 or 4 racks...and ended up winning that big final match. Just some food for thought. I'm guilty of NEVER rolling my shaft. I only roll the shaft or butt of a cue I'm going to sell. If it feels good and I'm pocketing balls, why concern myself, lol.
 
Absolutely right! Here's a story about warped cues that I've told before... More than 10 years ago I was traveling from UA in Phoenix to Texas Tech, in Lubbuck. I stopped overnight in Roswell NM, because I was a rabid X Files fan! LOL Roswell is a town of 50,000. Not only is there no pool room, there are only 3 bars with pool tables! :eek:...and they're, of course, cowboy bars! The biggest one was just across from my hotel and I wandered over. There were 7-8 barboxes...all going. The cues were in a galvanized garbage can. It probably had about 25 cues to choose from, most missing part or all of a tip, cracked ferrules, you name it. Out of all of them there was one cue that had a decent tip on it. I took it out and after examining the tip tried to roll it on the table. LOL It wouldn't even turn over it was so warped. Somebody saw me do this and said, "Nobody uses that cue 'cause it's so warped". "Really?" I said..."Well, watch this!", as I ran a few racks of 8-ball, without missing a shot. I then proceeded to teach them how you can just turn the warp upright, and you'll still be able to hit the CB well...even power drawing and breaking with it.

What's the moral of the story? Straight is nice, but you can adapt to anything...as seven_7days said! :grin:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

seven_7days said:
I'm not sure but if your shaft was at .0002 nanometers,I don't think it would be the reason you could "no longer get action on the cue ball."
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Tramp...got a question here. I'm not a woodworker, but I always thought that a good straight shaft should spin perfectly straight when put on just the screw end of the lathe? Is that not true?

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Tramp Steamer said:
Checking the run out on a lathe is okay for the butt of the cue, but is probably asking too much of the shaft. Use the sight method. :smile:
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jeff...Tap, tap, tap! You hit the nail on the head...so to speak! LOL :thumbup:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

jschelin99 said:
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Finally, even before I made pool cues, I just never understood players that worried about the tiniest little details that just don't matter. You turn your cue because you can see the warp in your shaft as you're stroking? Really?!? Your stroke is so laser perfect that you can detect that slight imperfection. And that imperfection gets into your head, damaging your confidence, thereby throwing your whole game off? I'm guessing there's a bit more wrong with your game than your warped shaft.
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Scott Lee said:
Tramp...got a question here. I'm not a woodworker, but I always thought that a good straight shaft should spin perfectly straight when put on just the screw end of the lathe? Is that not true?

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
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Scott, I think you're into a physics situation. Perfect, taken literally, wouldn't mean just that, perfect. All machinery is rated for a certain tolerance. I'm not a wood guy but I'm guessing the tolerances in wood working are less than metal. With a normal higher end machine, you could hold tolerances in the .0001" range. Technically, that's not perfect but it takes some very sensitive, high end gages to tell the difference. Again, I don't know what the cue makers work at but for the length of a shaft, if the runout was .01", that would be quite good. Keep in mind, a piece of wood isn't "perfectly" balanced. Were that shaft wobble even the slightest amount while being turned, you could end up with a slight "uneveness". For the purpose it is being used, it is irrelevant. Unless it is a really sloppy cue maker, the problems occur after the fact from some degree of warping.
 
Scott Lee said:
Tramp...got a question here. I'm not a woodworker, but I always thought that a good straight shaft should spin perfectly straight when put on just the screw end of the lathe? Is that not true?

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
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Doesn't work like that with wood.you can spin the same shaft on the same lathe and get a different result at different times.shaft might run perfect in the early spring and not so good in the summer.just hope humidity doesn't knock it for a loop so bad it doesn't come back.


bill
 
Well, old buddy...know what that means, don't ya? LOL Forget about that "perfect" stroke we've been working on...and start playing with a small "tolerance". Hot damn, that should mean you'll never miss again, right? LOL :smilewinkgrin: Great to see you again! Practice up...I expect you to WIN more next time! :grin:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

nobcitypool said:
Scott, I think you're into a physics situation. Perfect, taken literally, wouldn't mean just that, perfect. All machinery is rated for a certain tolerance. I'm not a wood guy but I'm guessing the tolerances in wood working are less than metal. With a normal higher end machine, you could hold tolerances in the .0001" range. Technically, that's not perfect but it takes some very sensitive, high end gages to tell the difference. Again, I don't know what the cue makers work at but for the length of a shaft, if the runout was .01", that would be quite good. Keep in mind, a piece of wood isn't "perfectly" balanced. Were that shaft wobble even the slightest amount while being turned, you could end up with a slight "uneveness". For the purpose it is being used, it is irrelevant. Unless it is a really sloppy cue maker, the problems occur after the fact from some degree of warping.
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bill...Interesting! I've had my cues in minus 30 degree temps and 120 degree temps, and never experienced any 'changes' in my cues, in particular to playability (going strictly by feel and visually checking the cue's straightness). I'm certainly not saying it can't happen...just that it hasn't happened to me in 40+ years of playing, with all manner of cues, from inexpensive to custom cues worth thousands of dollars.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com


vasilios said:
Doesn't work like that with wood.you can spin the same shaft on the same lathe and get a different result at different times.shaft might run perfect in the early spring and not so good in the summer.just hope humidity doesn't knock it for a loop so bad it doesn't come back.


bill
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acousticsguru: I'm really not trying to make this an adversarial debate. My apologies if I'm coming off that way. Sometimes it's difficult to effectively communicate in text.

I was just trying to defend cuemakers a little bit when questioned whether or not 1/100th of an inch of warp in a shaft was acceptable. As I stated, far too often the finger of blame is pointed at the cuemaker when the customer may be to blame as well.

You are absolutely correct that properly-seasoned quality wood that is turned down slowly will result in a straight shaft. But, being a natural material, even the straightest shaft ever built is still subject to expansion and contraction due to changes in temperature and humidity and may warp over time.

I also agree that if anything negative is in your head during a match, it obviously will be a detriment to your performance. But, it is my assertion as a pool player (not a cuemaker) that far too often players blame their mistakes on their equipment, rather than their lack of concentration or poor stroke. This is backed up by the countless stories of players, both pro's and amateurs alike, running rack after rack with badly warped cues.

Basically, this whole thing boils down to this: (1) I agree with you on almost every point, and (2) I personally believe 1/100th of an inch of warp in a shaft is acceptable.
 
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