I need to touch up a point. It is black veneer what would you use?
- Thread starter breakin8
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Some secrets even I don't want to share on an open forum. I will send you a PM.
Another option is to keep going until they're 'perfect' and adjust their position to the joint accordingly and add length to the butt plate. You're basically moving everything forward. Of course, there is a limit, but that may give you a little more wiggle room.
Differential cavity depth is a major cause of misaligned points. I measure them now and they are much closer before shimming.
The most precise machining possible and the most careful attention to detail will only go so far with wood. It's wood, and it's the real world. Things happen. This is the point where you must be a skilled craftsman and your precision machines can help you no longer. Do what needs to be done, in as low profile a way as you can, and NEVER tell anybody about it. It's none of their business. Your cue will look right, play right, and customer will be happy.
There are very few visual flaws that cannot be made aesthetically correct by the hands of a craftsman. Choosing to do it or not is nobody's business but your own. Do the best you can do. If I had a cue with one point an 8th inch off, you bet your ass i'd make it right & nobody would ever know it was done. There would be no funky finish lines or shadows or sharpie marks. The points would be even & cue would be true. How it happens is my business alone, behind the closed door of my shop. Don't ever let anybody make you feel like a crook or weasel because you go the extra mile to make things as good as they can be. If you trash every pointed cue that has slightly uneven points, then you'll never finish a pointed cue. Any builder who has put out a cue with even points knows exactly that. Don't let the forum dictate who you are as a builder. There's good advice on here at times, but a lot more often than not there's a whole lot of self righteous bullshit from folks who don't actually know what they're talking about. Consider advice for what it costs, nothing. Sometimes it's good, but don't expect it to be.
There are very few visual flaws that cannot be made aesthetically correct by the hands of a craftsman. Choosing to do it or not is nobody's business but your own. Do the best you can do. If I had a cue with one point an 8th inch off, you bet your ass i'd make it right & nobody would ever know it was done. There would be no funky finish lines or shadows or sharpie marks. The points would be even & cue would be true. How it happens is my business alone, behind the closed door of my shop. Don't ever let anybody make you feel like a crook or weasel because you go the extra mile to make things as good as they can be. If you trash every pointed cue that has slightly uneven points, then you'll never finish a pointed cue. Any builder who has put out a cue with even points knows exactly that. Don't let the forum dictate who you are as a builder. There's good advice on here at times, but a lot more often than not there's a whole lot of self righteous bullshit from folks who don't actually know what they're talking about. Consider advice for what it costs, nothing. Sometimes it's good, but don't expect it to be.
I agree 100% with every word in this post. Mechanically unsound aspects in a cue should not be sold or put out to the public but cosmetic flaws, which have absolutely no affect on a cues playability or length of service can and should be corrected at any means possible.
Inlays, stains, deco-rings and most other aspects that differ a cue from a plain Jane to a more desirable cue have no effect on making a ball. If colored glue or a point extended slightly makes the cue better looking, why not? I've refinished cues from many of the most respected builders in the world and you would be shocked at what you find as far as point length.
There are just to many Hippocrates on this forum who are just to quick to condemn on matters that really don't matter and act as if they are so shocked that someone would allow a cue to leave their shop in such a condition. They try to leave the impression that their own standards are so much higher than others. They condemn other's capabilities where as usually they have no clue and have never built a cue, they just dream about it.
Now this is just my opinion which, by the way, I should add more often than I do. Eddie Wheat's name was brought up in a post as he is notorious for being caught for making deco-rings with a sharpie. I absolutely do not include his actions in the same category with those who make small adjustments to the actions already performed. His action wasn't performed to touch up a small imperfection but was an attempt to perform a fraud upon the cues purchaser by giving the impression that the purchaser is buying something that is actually, not there.
Dick
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Agree with this post. Just a lowly cue collector but have had it happen twice both by bigname old timers cue makers. When the finish came off the points were no longer even. It happens more than people realize. So you have lots of time and matrial invested in the cue but have cosmetic flaw that would hold up a sale what to do do what you have to, you cant throw away a perfectly functioning item over one flaw. How many brand new 30 thousand dollar cars are perfect. Less than you think.
I guess I'm showing my lack of knowledge about the real world of.cuemaking. In the 15 years I've been at this I've only been to one cuemakers shop and very rarely talk construction with other makers.
I'm a third generation machinist. In my world you have one machine making part "A" and another machine making part "B" and at the end of the day they all fit together. A .010 error might as well be a mile.
I'm a third generation machinist. In my world you have one machine making part "A" and another machine making part "B" and at the end of the day they all fit together. A .010 error might as well be a mile.
I like this analogy.In alot of things I have made, a .001 inch error and the part is scrap.
I also realize that not everyone has the skill or patience or the thinking process to produce precision work.But there are alot of non formal trained home machinist that are more than capable of performing extremely precise pieces of work.
Hey Murray,
I knew you were a pro but did not know you were 3 rd generation. That must have been an awesome and a very interesting family background. I too grew up in a family business filled with 40 and 50 year veterans in my profession and family.
I can see your quality standards are a wee bit higher than most people that are building cues on a few machines that are set up on dove tale beds. Expecting results that are as close to perfect as possible is only an attribute that is directionally porportional to sound machinery and mechanical experience.
Btw, Guys like you and Neil is who I want making the Jesus Pin on my helicopter but I might be tempted to sand that .010 to fit on my cues when and if it shows up.
Everyone who builds cues comes to it from different places. I have blueprinted my cue and my tolerance in my QA Procedure is + or - .003 except for my pin install of coarse. In my heart of hearts I know I am not going to achieve this all of the time because as Eric pointed out it is wood we are machining.
When I first saw your post, I did not think it was high handed as I knew you were a professional machinist. Some machining tasks are difficult to some here but very easy and fundamental to a machine shop veteran.
I myself work to a blueprint whenever I am on task for most of my machine ops. I have had some people criticize me like I am a kook but that is ok. I might not be a pro but I would like to act like one as long as I am turning dials. Dialing in points grooves within a compound geometry is not rocket science and can be completely controlled if it is on a plan.
Rick
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thats exactly it, most guys wont even begin to comprehend the knowledge you have and or how your mind probably works differently all together. your lucky.
I offered to go to work for free in my local machine shop just so i could learn basic fundamentals, took about 5 occasions of asking before they said ok, now i just have to find the time.
If you have the opportunity,do it.The knowledge you will gain will last a lifetime.
Back to the op, if you calculate out the angle and the depth of cut to move the point, you will find that on shallow angles like that, .001 inches cut depth can be as much as .050 inches along the shaft.
From this, you will see that the method of cutting the slots needs to be done in such a way that the cutter is the same on all finish passes. It can be done by either using very accurate indicators on an axis and moving it in and out, or by leaving the cut depth locked, and moving the axis to an area outside the cue when indexing and then moving the axis back to the area of cut.
You will also notice that it does not take much movement from the handle for the points to become uneven.Also it does not take much to move the center line to bring the points back to being even.
The more you make the more you will learn. All the books etc are good to learn from, but the real learning comes from thinking about the project and the best way to achieve the end results with the equipment that you have.