If I wanted to set up a really nice cue shop.

lenoxmjs

lenoxmjs

Brazilian Rosewood Fan
Silver Member
I was thinking I might want start building some cues. I found out I might be comming into a bit of money and wondered what it would take to set up a sweet cue shop. I have a nice 40 x 60 Morton building that would serve as the shop. I used to build some really nice furniture in high school by have never done any work in a machine shop.

Just for ha ha's let's say I have a budget of $100K

How much money should I allocate for equipment? What should I buy?

How much for wood ?

How much for other stuff?

What are some good sources for these products?

Does anyone offer a class in cue building?

I know several cuemakers (Haley, Travis, Eric, Zinzola)fairly well from buying and selling their cues but have never visited their shops. That might be the place to start I guess.

Please feel free to post any info that you may feel will be helpful .

Thank You.
 
lenoxmjs said:
I was thinking I might want start building some cues. I found out I might be comming into a bit of money and wondered what it would take to set up a sweet cue shop. I have a nice 40 x 60 Morton building that would serve as the shop. I used to build some really nice furniture in high school by have never done any work in a machine shop.

Just for ha ha's let's say I have a budget of $100K

How much money should I allocate for equipment? What should I buy?

How much for wood ?

How much for other stuff?

What are some good sources for these products?

Does anyone offer a class in cue building?

I know several cuemakers (Haley, Travis, Eric, Zinzola)fairly well from buying and selling their cues but have never visited their shops. That might be the place to start I guess.

Please feel free to post any info that you may feel will be helpful .

Thank You.
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My guess is 2 yrs Machine shop, CAD/CAM, 150k for Machines, 12k for wood,10k for misc. supplies.
 
hangemhigh said:
My guess is 2 yrs Machine shop, CAD/CAM, 150k for Machines, 12k for wood,10k for misc. supplies.
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Are you suggesting a machine shop class like at a voc / tech school?
 
The very first thing you should do is purchase Chris Hightowers book and read it cover to cover. Then come back and ask questions.
 
I'll sell you my equipment & wood for that $100,000. I'll teach you all I know.

Otherwise, gimme a call if you are serious about what you might need & i'll point you in the right direction. No need to dump a bunch of cash on something you may not like. It's fun, but it's not the peaches & cream fun everybody thinks it'll be. So if you can spare $10G's for equipment & wood, you'll have the foundations if you want to go deeper if it's something you enjoy. You can build a beautiful & great playing cue with a $10G shop. You just aren't going to make a career out of a $10G shop. Give me a jingle & i'll be glad to offer some initial guidance.
 
i think for 100k you could build an awesome shop,especially if you have patience and wait for good deals on the machines.

i have put alot of time and research into this same question withour having the 100k of course and actually figured i could build a shop for 50k with wood that would be pretty good.

i have already spent a ton on wood,so much that i lost track actually and i have spent close to 20k on machines.i would guess that i have alomost 30k invested and to go on my own i still need table and band saws and would like another metal lathe,dust collection,and some other tooling.


i would spend 20k on wood and the rest on machines and tooling

i would buy 2 metal lathes,a CNC mill and a CNC saw machine,wood lathes,cue companion style lathe,tons of bits and tooling and etc.,band saw,table saw(good ones).i am sure there is other stuff but off the top of my head those are the major ones.


what i did and feel like i got lucky is beg a cue builder with a good rep to let me come to work for him with no pay.i asked him several times before he finally gave in.he showed me how to do everything and i learned hands on.even then they can't show you everything so it seems i learn new ways to do things every week.

anyway we built 5 cues with him doing each part of construction while i stood over his shoulder watching.i am sure it took alot of patience on his part,but i learned fast and after the first cue i was doing the rest mostly on my own stopping when i got confused to ask him what or how to do something.
 
qbilder said:
I'll sell you my equipment & wood for that $100,000. I'll teach you all I know.

Otherwise, gimme a call if you are serious about what you might need & i'll point you in the right direction. No need to dump a bunch of cash on something you may not like. It's fun, but it's not the peaches & cream fun everybody thinks it'll be. So if you can spare $10G's for equipment & wood, you'll have the foundations if you want to go deeper if it's something you enjoy. You can build a beautiful & great playing cue with a $10G shop. You just aren't going to make a career out of a $10G shop. Give me a jingle & i'll be glad to offer some initial guidance.
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I agree with qbilder.
Find out if you like it before investing all your money. Call Chris Hightower.
 
Thanks for all the replies and advice. I think I'll start with the book. Look into the courses and Then some visits to the shops of the guys that I know to watch and hopefully ask some intelligent questions. That will keep me occupied until the cash comes through.

Where is the best place to get Chris's book? Does he sell them direct or Barnes & Nobel?
 
shop

lenoxmjs said:
I was thinking I might want start building some cues. I found out I might be comming into a bit of money and wondered what it would take to set up a sweet cue shop. I have a nice 40 x 60 Morton building that would serve as the shop. I used to build some really nice furniture in high school by have never done any work in a machine shop.

Just for ha ha's let's say I have a budget of $100K

How much money should I allocate for equipment? What should I buy?

How much for wood ?

How much for other stuff?

What are some good sources for these products?

Does anyone offer a class in cue building?

I know several cuemakers (Haley, Travis, Eric, Zinzola)fairly well from buying and selling their cues but have never visited their shops. That might be the place to start I guess.

Please feel free to post any info that you may feel will be helpful .

Thank You.
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You can spend around 20K, and be in business, with all you need, woods included.
blud
 
Wasn't really thinking of doing it as a business . It was going to be a Hobby . Somthing to relax and enjoy . If my stuff ever got to the point where I thought it was good enough to sell I would consider it but it wouldn't be my main focus.
 
lenoxmjs said:
Wasn't really thinking of doing it as a business . It was going to be a Hobby . Somthing to relax and enjoy . If my stuff ever got to the point where I thought it was good enough to sell I would consider it but it wouldn't be my main focus.
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If it is only a hobby here is how I would set up with a budget under $20,000.
One Deluxe Cue Smith #2 package $2900
One Cue Smith Tapering Machine $2900
One Self Contained Inaly Machine $1795
Extra Patterns $400
One Cue Smith Sanding and Finishing lathe $795
Two 10 pack wood specials $390
10 pieces of high grade birdseye and tiger maple $300
80 High grade shaft dowels $800
2 Coring Drills $315
Leather installation fixture $195
Leather blank assortment $100
Other small tooling likes taps, threaders, special cutters and such $500
Band Saw $600
Good belt sander with fence $300
For those un-forseen items $1000
Instructional materials $150.
Total $13,140 plus about $700 shipping.
So you can have a really nice non-cnc cue building shop for under $14,000.
Of course this is setting you up a lot nicer than most start out, so you could do it for less. But other than having one more second function lathe for $2100 that would be set up just about like I would want it. So a shop set up like I would want it would cost roughly $16,000. You could add a CNC machine into this mix for another $4500 to $20,000.
 
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I usually try to keep a low profile especially in the cue maker section but I can tell you I started a hobby cue making shop in my basement about 10 months ago and I have approximately 10K into equipment,tooling,materials such as pins & wood. It aint cheap but as with everything billiards related it can be fun as hell or aggrevating as hell all at once.
 
cueman said:
If it is only a hobby here is how I would set up with a budget under $20,000...
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Very helpful list Chris, but don't forget dust collection and finishing equip.
Mr H
 
For some strange reasons, i keep follow Matt's steps :D ... He started his "obsession" with custom cues with a Capone which i acquired from him and this cue was my entrance to custom cues and got me obsessed too!! lol ... couple of days ago i conducted Chris for the same thing! Parallel life i guess :)
 
JimL said:
It aint cheap but as with everything billiards related it can be fun as hell or aggrevating as hell all at once.
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I hear you on that one, personally the best way to get started is to build up a 'river of wood' as Dieckman would say. Get everything turned round and HANG them.
 
True

Craig Fales said:
I hear you on that one, personally the best way to get started is to build up a 'river of wood' as Dieckman would say. Get everything turned round and HANG them.
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You're absolutely correct getting a supply of good wood & having it seasoned is the hardest part of starting out. It's tough to be patient & then stay on a reasonable turning schedule. I bought a few prongs from prather at first just to be able to go thru the complete process of building a cue.
 
Mr Hoppe said:
Very helpful list Chris, but don't forget dust collection and finishing equip.
Mr H
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That could be part of that $1000 for other items I threw in.
 
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