Indent in shaft.

8

8ball-alex

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hi, I have this ugly indent in my shaft, not a big one, but really annoying.
Somebody told me to buff it down, and somebody told me to have one drop of water on it and let it dry for 4-5 hours..

Could anybody give me like a tutorial for how to fix it?

ATM, I dont have sandpaper, or I have, but its so rough and i dont want to buff it thinner..

Sorry for bad english!

Tnx!
 
Alex,

Post this is the Ask the Cuemaker section, they'll be helpful.. It would really only be a dent in the shaft, not an indent, that's what you do to a paragraph.

Have a good day in Norway, JBK
 
http://forums.azbilliards.com/search.php?searchid=2262640

8ball-alex said:
Hi, I have this ugly indent in my shaft, not a big one, but really annoying.
Somebody told me to buff it down, and somebody told me to have one drop of water on it and let it dry for 4-5 hours..

Could anybody give me like a tutorial for how to fix it?

ATM, I dont have sandpaper, or I have, but its so rough and i dont want to buff it thinner..

Sorry for bad english!

Tnx!
Click to expand...
 
I recently took numerous spots out of a couple of shafts my nephews had been using. I took a automotive polishing cloth and wet it down, rung it out, and then placed it over the indentions and used a hot iron set on steam level and ran the iron over the indentations over and over until i could see that the water had evaporated from where I was rubbing the iron on the cloth. The smaller indentations came right out but I had a couple that required mutiple tries before they came out completely. Just let the shaft sit for 12-24 hours before you very lighty sand it if it needs sanding at all. Mine didn't require any sanding. Worked great for me as I was going to trash them if I couldn't get the indentations out. Try it on an older shaft first to get the hang of it before you tackle your good shaft. Hope this helps.
 
My wife owns a steam buggy. Actually its a Eureka Power Steamer. One of the attachments allows you to pinpoint the steam.

For a nonlaminted shaft, apply the steam to the dent and keep wiping the area down. Of course we are talking water on the wood. Next I wipe the shaft down with denatured alcohol. This helps evaporate the water. Once finished burnish the shaft as you normally do. If I feel like it I will reseal and burnish.

Not sure how well this would work on a laminated shaft because of the glues, etc.
 
I usually just sand out a small area where the dent is and lay a moistened Q tip on the dent. You can check it every so often and when the wood has swelled up just sand lightly with some 1200 then burnish with some 1500 or 2000. Then I seal it slip stic and burnish with leather afterwards.
Seems to do the job well enough for me.
 
8ball-alex said:
Hi, I have this ugly indent in my shaft, not a big one, but really annoying.
Somebody told me to buff it down, and somebody told me to have one drop of water on it and let it dry for 4-5 hours..

Could anybody give me like a tutorial for how to fix it?

ATM, I dont have sandpaper, or I have, but its so rough and i dont want to buff it thinner..

Sorry for bad english!

Tnx!
Click to expand...
I personally like spit...dont laugh... it will take longer to penitrate and it does not evaporate very quick so it goes deeper into the wood eliminating the need to do it multiple times. after dry, sand and burnish as usual
 
OILED said:
I personally like spit...dont laugh... it will take longer to penitrate and it does not evaporate very quick so it goes deeper into the wood eliminating the need to do it multiple times. after dry, sand and burnish as usual
Click to expand...
8 ball Alex I have recently bought about twenty five rolls of fantastic new 3M microfinishing paper in different microns most very smooth. Some of these films will make a shaft feel super smooth using hand motion only, if you don't have a lathe available. They are not for sanding the dent out, you need a drop of boiling hot water on a papertowel tip and wrapped the rest of the towel around the shaft for a few minutes and see if you need to repeat. After the swelling these films will smooth the raised area very nicely and you will never know it was there. I was planning on offering some small packages of these films with a few feet of each grade for 5 dollars plus shipping however if you can provide me with a working address I will send you a free package to see how you like it. Several of these films from 3M retail at more than 3 dollars a foot, and since it might be harder to come by in Norway and you are an AZ'er in need of very fine sandpaper feel free to pm me a address and I'll even pay the shipping for a Christmas present.--Leonard Holmes --- sorry about the quote I hit the wrong spot.
 
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I used the steam method on mine, worked great. While I don't have a tea kettle, there is another way. Take a piece of tin foil put about 1/4" hole in the center, and put it over a pot with a little bit of water in it. Boil the water and hold the dents in the cue over the little hole. That got most of the dent out. Finished it with using that same water that was boiling on the end of a qtip. Once it dried I used a piece of leather to smooth it out.

Oh, this is assuming the dent doesn't have a crease in it. If there is a crease in the dent you're out of luck with this method....

Brian
 
Assuming a ding (instead of indent) that is less than 1/2" long:

  1. Take a 2"x2" piece of paper towel, fold it 3 times, so that it is 1/2"x1" (give or take) and has 8 layers.
  2. Dip it in water (so it's completely soaked).
  3. Wrap it partially around the shaft, centered on the ding, holding it in place with your thumb and forefinger from the other side of the shaft.
  4. Take a 25-watt soldering iron (completely heated), and roll it back and forth across the paper towel at exactly the point where the ding is.
  5. When you start heating the paper towel, let go with your fingers (because the steam will be really hot and will burn you) and let the rolling soldering iron hold it in place.
  6. Also, take care to a) not touch the unprotected shaft with the soldering iron, and b) not let the paper towel dry completely and start to burn, or even singe.
Visually examine the ding to see if it has swelled back to the surface. Repeat the procedure until you are satisfied.

When you have completely raised the ding, the grain will also have been raised considerably on the shaft. Using 1500 grit sandpaper (or 3M polishing film - see above) smooth the grain back down, and then burnish the shaft with your favorite burnisher.

The good things about this technique is that the locale of the treatment can be made as small as you like, just depending on how small you fold the paper towel, and the 25-watt soldering iron can deliver a very controllable quantity of heat.

Obviously, practice this on something that's not precious to you before doing it to your cue stick.:grin:

Good luck.
 
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