How to start building cues?

JMS

JMS

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was just wondering how many cuemakers got started without any help from anyone. I don't know anything about making cues or the machinery. But I am very interested in cuemaking. I go every year to Valley Forge just so I can go and look at all those beautiful custom cues and always think to myself I would love to do that.

Should I seek out a cuemaker and seek apprenticeship?
 
I had taken metal shop, wood shop & drafting in both grade school & highschool. While in the US Army I attended the Army Engineering School. I have always been a person who could watch a craft being done & then do it. I taught myself to pinstrip as a teenager. I pinstriped show cars, til I was 30 years old (then I taught myself to be a signpainter. Which I did til I started to make cues). I had worked in a pool hall, the 4 years that I attended highschool. While there, I learned how to recover tables & retip cues with glue & razor blades. As it says on my web page, I started my cue business by repairing the cues I had sold. With one wood lathe & one metal lathe, I repaired cues & after a full year of trying, I made my 1st cue. With those 2 lathes I made about a dozen cues a year for the 1st 4 years. I now have 6 lathes & a half dozen other machines. Does this help?...JER
 
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Ist purchase should be a case of ALEVE!
Good Luck
MAx
JMS said:
I was just wondering how many cuemakers got started without any help from anyone. I don't know anything about making cues or the machinery. But I am very interested in cuemaking. I go every year to Valley Forge just so I can go and look at all those beautiful custom cues and always think to myself I would love to do that.

Should I seek out a cuemaker and seek apprenticeship?
Click to expand...
 
JMS, working under and for another cue maker will put you on the fast track to learning the craft and building your skills.
If the cue maker is well respected, it will give you some creditability when you break away and start off on your own.

However, your work will stand the judgment of the players on its own merit.
All the BS in the world will not hide or gloss over an unworthy or poorly made cue for very long ...
as some new cue makers have had to learn the hard way.
If you are not totally 100% dedicated to making the best constructed cue available on the market then you will fail as a cue maker.

There are also some very good videos and books from well known and respected cue makers that show and tell the entire cue making process.
Most cue making equipment will also come with an instructional video of some sort.

If you have the time and can find another cue maker willing to instruct you that would be the best way to learn.

Don't forget that once your cue is constructed ... it must be finished.
That is another skill set you will need to master.
A lot of aspiring cue makers don't give the finish much thought up front.

Willee
 
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I just got started myself not that long ago, here is my advice if you can't get in with a cue maker. If you can get in with someone, then that is the way to go.

www.cuesmith.com

Buy his book, and all the videos. You especially need to watch the finishing video before you buy anything so you can plan to have a proper, safe finishing setup. The first machines you buy should be a dust collector and air purification system. Then buy some low grade wood to practice on, and some better stuff to use once you have an idea on how to do things. You'll need to let this wood sit for awhile before you start using it. Also, buy a good dust mask. Then start looking at lathes.

If you can't afford to spend 5 or 6 thousand to see if it's for you, then don't bother even looking at it. Believe me, that number is on the low end of things. If you really want to give it a go, you better have 10 to 15 thousand. And the ROI on a project like this isn't a 1 year deal. Plan on 5 to 10 years on your original investment, unless you get a major repair business started, and even then it might be that many years.

Don't quit your day job.

Good luck, if you have any questions feel free to PM me.
 
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Do it because you love it, not to make your first million...If you love it the quality is going to show more and it will help you to keep on going when nothing seems right.

G.G.
 
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