Inlay machine
- Thread starter bubsbug
- Start date
dont know about the gorton. if it were me I would buy something a little more modern like a hightower inlay machine. you can buy premade patterns so you can inlay cues right away.
J&D CUSTOMS has one for sale http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=54920
pdcue said:
Silly question but I honestly don't know. Let's say that I am Joe upstart cuemaker with only a drill press and a metal lathe. Someone 500 miles away gives me a Gorton pantomill. By the time I pay to have it delivered and have all the jigs, fixtures, templates, etc. made so that I can inlay a cue how much money will I have spent?
Murray Tucker said:
I would guess and say around 3G's for the initial start up., and each time you have a new template made, I believe they start at 100 and go up.
How we doing so far?
And what's the average period of Gorton sitting in the shop collecting dust before being used?Michael Webb said:
I believe the over and under is 2.5 years.
John - I received you message today, and my suggestion is to start with Pantograph Machine. We sell our Inlay Machine for about $2k, and we have templates starting at $35 for the pair. I am not sure the price of the Hightower's inlay machine, but I know he sells one also. As Mike and Murray say, it is very expensive to convert machinery to do the task you are wanting to do. My honest opinion is to start building basic cues, and then once you figure that out, move into Inlaying them. I had to learn to Crawl before I could walk - And I still stumble a lotbubsbug said:
I agree with Jim. You have to learn to crawl before you can walk. As for the hightower machine cost here is a link to his inlay machine page. http://www.cuesmith.com/index.php?page=inlay_machine He also has permade patterns that are $100 a piece.
I use a gorton p1-2 for my inlay work and IMO it wasn't a bad way to go.
If you are going to purchase I would suggest you carefully select the right one. Allot of these machines are old war horses and completely worn out. As well you have to be careful which model of panto you choose because the table configuration on some make putting the whole cue under the spindle quite difficult. But with that being said if you did find a decent specimen it is not that difficult to get started. When I first started using my pantograph I only inlaid parts then assembled and tuned to final diameter. With careful planning and a simple dividing head this is doable. As far as the templates are concerned you can start out making them by hand. I started by making my original templates 4 times the intended size by hand out of 1/4" mdf. I would cut them out on a scroll saw. Then with my panto set at 2-1 I made a working template out of Plexiglas. You can use the same template for both male and female by using different sizes of stylus. I now build all my templates on cnc but only because it is available to me but if it were not I would still build them by hand. If interested I could post some pics of some hand made templates to give you an idea of one way to do it.
Best of luck
Vincent
If you are going to purchase I would suggest you carefully select the right one. Allot of these machines are old war horses and completely worn out. As well you have to be careful which model of panto you choose because the table configuration on some make putting the whole cue under the spindle quite difficult. But with that being said if you did find a decent specimen it is not that difficult to get started. When I first started using my pantograph I only inlaid parts then assembled and tuned to final diameter. With careful planning and a simple dividing head this is doable. As far as the templates are concerned you can start out making them by hand. I started by making my original templates 4 times the intended size by hand out of 1/4" mdf. I would cut them out on a scroll saw. Then with my panto set at 2-1 I made a working template out of Plexiglas. You can use the same template for both male and female by using different sizes of stylus. I now build all my templates on cnc but only because it is available to me but if it were not I would still build them by hand. If interested I could post some pics of some hand made templates to give you an idea of one way to do it.
Best of luck
Vincent
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machinery
Thanks Jim and I do agree with you. I need to start putting cues together and learn now! (crawling)! I purchased Plumlee's equiptment, the gentlements who makes the Fussion shaft. He show me how to do it from start to finninh. I even know where to get awsome lamanite. Even if it does cost $1500 for a 4 x 8 sheet. I think that I am going to go this route because it is an immedieate turn aroun. meaning that I can build a shaft from start to finninh in just a couple of hours or less. this i think will give me good experience untill I can define good mapel wood for myself. Now I need just a couple of thing to make this happen. First, I need something to support wood on oppsite end of metal lave 13x 40 1-1/2 through hole. I have read that a chuck is best. Where can I get one?? I need a center dril, drill bit, tap to put in the inserts into shafts. I want a set up for uniloc and the 3 most common size and inserts. Can anyone tell me exactly what I need and the best place to get it. Thanks everyone. I have read topics about good taps and bad taps. I want good ones.billiardbum said:John - I received you message today, and my suggestion is to start with Pantograph Machine. We sell our Inlay Machine for about $2k, and we have templates starting at $35 for the pair. I am not sure the price of the Hightower's inlay machine, but I know he sells one also. As Mike and Murray say, it is very expensive to convert machinery to do the task you are wanting to do. My honest opinion is to start building basic cues, and then once you figure that out, move into Inlaying them. I had to learn to Crawl before I could walk - And I still stumble a lot
I have a gorton 3u for 2 years now maybe three still havent used it and it is already setup for cue making just need to make templetes for it. Last month bought a Chris hightower Inlay machine give me a couple of month's to see witch i like better both look real nice....
Guess what it will cost to rebuild that worn out spindle? ABOUT $2K! ouch!
You will have to get lucky and know your &#%@ for a gorton to work out. And even then, you are stuck with something that offers very little in the way of innovation or precision. If you just like tinkering with machines, go for it. But if you are going to be serious about building cues, CNC is going to be a whole lot better in the long run.
You will have to get lucky and know your &#%@ for a gorton to work out. And even then, you are stuck with something that offers very little in the way of innovation or precision. If you just like tinkering with machines, go for it. But if you are going to be serious about building cues, CNC is going to be a whole lot better in the long run.
pdcue said:
Your advice was to get a Gorton so I assumed you had one and had modified it for cues. I've never even seen one in real life so I don't know exactly what is involved in making it usable for cues.
bubsbug said:
I hope that I'm reading this wrong, but you say you can "build a shaft from start to finish in a couple of hours or less". If you do that every one of them will be warped in a week. I take 7 cuts, over a 20 week period, for each shaft. The last, 4 weeks apart...JER
I will clarify for you. It is a laminated shaft! It is made by gluing 4 squares together, with grain running in opposite direction of each other and then turning round. Once glued up you can actually place shaft in saw machine, set depth and cut off 20 thousands untill shaft is slightly over size. Sand the rest by hand and presto. Because of the way its glued it isnt going to warp. My friend has made many, many, many of these and never no warping. infact he sells to atlas and mucchi, or did before selling me his equiptment. To me the shaft has a good feel. Kind of like a preditor, made similar to preditor but laminate instead of solid maple. maybe even better, Im experimenting now---jury still out?? I play with a z shaft preditor and i like it a lot but we will see! I will say that the shaft has a lot more give then I thought it would have. I just thought it would be a great way to practice procedural things like inserts and tapping, drilling.BLACKHEARTCUES said: