Is there such a lathe ??

wjpjr

modulator
Silver Member
I'm looking to buy a portable (Maybe not so portable) repair lathe . The usual tips, ferrules, wraps ,facing joints ect.
But, It would be nice to be able to replicate a shaft via a fixture that rides an existing shaft and or taper bars I assume a router fixture ?
I'm not interseted in makeing butts at this time . Anyone know of such a lathe .
Thanks Bill
 
RDCustomCues said:
You could get a deluxe from chris hightower at www.cuesmith.com it could be portable if 6ft and 150lbs or so is manageable for you

This lathe is portable enough with one other person. I would guess it weighs under 100lbs though. I'm a weakling, and I can move it myself:rolleyes: .
 
wjpjr said:
I'm looking to buy a portable (Maybe not so portable) repair lathe . The usual tips, ferrules, wraps ,facing joints ect.
But, It would be nice to be able to replicate a shaft via a fixture that rides an existing shaft and or taper bars I assume a router fixture ?
I'm not interseted in makeing butts at this time . Anyone know of such a lathe .
Thanks Bill
Bill, pm billiardbum Jim should be able to help you out. Or here is another link for you to check http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=84942
Kenny
 
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wjpjr said:
I'm looking to buy a portable (Maybe not so portable) repair lathe . The usual tips, ferrules, wraps ,facing joints ect.
But, It would be nice to be able to replicate a shaft via a fixture that rides an existing shaft and or taper bars I assume a router fixture ?
I'm not interseted in makeing butts at this time . Anyone know of such a lathe .
Thanks Bill

I have seen a "copy" lathe that will do what you describe but it was a fairly big machine. It was a wood lathe that was used for turning spindles, etc. Although not as heavy as a metal lathe, it would still weigh in at 400 or 500 pounds. A fixture like
http://www.timbecon.com.au/products/lathe-copy-attachments-376_0.aspx
might work.
 
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Well I picked up the phone to buy this and then saw the fine print at the top of the page ...........sold .. http://www.cuecomponents.com/hightowerlathe1.html Could have added a router on to this one.
Looks like I have to buy a full fledged cue lathe in order to make shafts.
I was trying to stay in or under the 2k mark.
Still looking !!!
Thanks for the help so far
Bill
P.S. I have in my search found that Hightower lathes have a 100% positive feedback !! That says alot about the man and machine ..
 
wjpjr said:
Well I picked up the phone to buy this and then saw the fine print at the top of the page ...........sold .. http://www.cuecomponents.com/hightowerlathe1.html Could have added a router on to this one.
Looks like I have to buy a full fledged cue lathe in order to make shafts.
I was trying to stay in or under the 2k mark.
Still looking !!!
Thanks for the help so far
Bill
P.S. I have in my search found that Hightower lathes have a 100% positive feedback !! That says alot about the man and machine ..
yep its been sold for a while they need to remove it
 
wjpjr said:
Well I picked up the phone to buy this and then saw the fine print at the top of the page ...........sold .. http://www.cuecomponents.com/hightowerlathe1.html Could have added a router on to this one.
Looks like I have to buy a full fledged cue lathe in order to make shafts.
I was trying to stay in or under the 2k mark.
Still looking !!!
Thanks for the help so far
Bill
P.S. I have in my search found that Hightower lathes have a 100% positive feedback !! That says alot about the man and machine ..
With your lathe budget considerations have you thought about just buying shafts turned down to 13.5mm and sanding them into the exact shape you want? CNC is the only real easy option you have for copying exact tapers other than dialing the numbers in by hand. Copying/tapering devices put too much pressure to use a shaft for the template. So even on a Deluxe Cue Smith with taper bars you can't take a shaft and it automatically copy its taper. You can adjust your bar for a particular taper and then once you know how it tapers you can dial in the numbers while traveling down the taper bar to add or take away material in the new shaft. So since you have to dial in numbers to change a taper bar setting you could just dial in more numbers and make the entire shaft by dialing in numbers on your cross-slide. But the suggestion since that is tedious, would be to buy your shafts at 14.5 to 16 mm and just do the last few passes by numbers. That would take less machine, and make it to where you didn't need to do all the turns on shafts. A Midsize Cue Smith plus Router, power feed and 60 degree live center would do all you have mentioned so far.
 
wjpjr said:
I'm looking to buy a portable (Maybe not so portable) repair lathe . The usual tips, ferrules, wraps ,facing joints ect.
But, It would be nice to be able to replicate a shaft via a fixture that rides an existing shaft and or taper bars I assume a router fixture ?
I'm not interseted in makeing butts at this time . Anyone know of such a lathe .
Thanks Bill


Sorry but the answer is no ... there is nothing like that available today.

The best lathe for repair work is one designed for that task.

The best machine for duplicating a shaft is a CNC router.

What you need is two machines.
A Unique Cue Companion and a Unique CueMonster CNC machine.
 
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