I'll post up this review here, since i'm not sure the best place for it.
I recently purchased all of Joe Barringers DVD's and just finished my first time around watching them. I was going to do an independent review of each separate disk, but decided on just a review off all of them in general.
The first thing I noticed when watching the disks' was how badly they were put together. There was very little (if any) editing done and it appears the whole thing was just thrown together last minute like. No preparation was put into the making of them besides perhaps the veneer disk where he had actually prepared some pieces the night before.
The second thing I noticed was the unprofessional manner in the dvds' Most of the time, Joe, was smoking a cigarette and even was using it as a "cue" in a demonstration he was giving.
Joe goes about and explains the way "you" should do certain tasks, but then goes and does them another way, never once showing you the way he says "you" should do them. I understand time is a factor, but at least do a small demonstraion. example: he tells you to always bore out a hole and don't drill it, but he never shows boring, just drills to final size every time because his equipment is "dead nuts" (a term you will hear alot) and he can.
You get the feel when watching the dvd's that he believes his work is the best, and almost degrades others work. He calls stuff "mickey mouse" productions and such. He never comes out and says anything, just get kind of a "cocky" vibe listening to how great his machines are set up and such.
These dvd's are made for the new cuemaker to show how its done, but he does not do the work on machines that would be available to the new cuemaker (for the most part). Most work was done on a full size metal lathe (nothing wrong with that), but some of it was on dedicated machines, such as the shaft tapering, and cutting the points grooves. Example: He cut his point groves on a dedicated machine that he only had to press a button and watch the machine do the work. Most beginning cue builders won't have access to this, they will be doing it on their lathe, why not show how its done there as well?
all in all, i would not recommend these dvd's to the begining cue builder. Many topics are not discussed at all, such as doing wraps, but capps, joint collars, and just finishing up the work. Although you will learn quite a bit, it will leave you with too many questions still unanswered. But, to be fair, I will re-watch all of them a couple more times with an open mind to see if I missed some stuff (which i'm sure I did) and if my opinion changes, I'll be sure to re-review this thread.
I recently purchased all of Joe Barringers DVD's and just finished my first time around watching them. I was going to do an independent review of each separate disk, but decided on just a review off all of them in general.
The first thing I noticed when watching the disks' was how badly they were put together. There was very little (if any) editing done and it appears the whole thing was just thrown together last minute like. No preparation was put into the making of them besides perhaps the veneer disk where he had actually prepared some pieces the night before.
The second thing I noticed was the unprofessional manner in the dvds' Most of the time, Joe, was smoking a cigarette and even was using it as a "cue" in a demonstration he was giving.
Joe goes about and explains the way "you" should do certain tasks, but then goes and does them another way, never once showing you the way he says "you" should do them. I understand time is a factor, but at least do a small demonstraion. example: he tells you to always bore out a hole and don't drill it, but he never shows boring, just drills to final size every time because his equipment is "dead nuts" (a term you will hear alot) and he can.
You get the feel when watching the dvd's that he believes his work is the best, and almost degrades others work. He calls stuff "mickey mouse" productions and such. He never comes out and says anything, just get kind of a "cocky" vibe listening to how great his machines are set up and such.
These dvd's are made for the new cuemaker to show how its done, but he does not do the work on machines that would be available to the new cuemaker (for the most part). Most work was done on a full size metal lathe (nothing wrong with that), but some of it was on dedicated machines, such as the shaft tapering, and cutting the points grooves. Example: He cut his point groves on a dedicated machine that he only had to press a button and watch the machine do the work. Most beginning cue builders won't have access to this, they will be doing it on their lathe, why not show how its done there as well?
all in all, i would not recommend these dvd's to the begining cue builder. Many topics are not discussed at all, such as doing wraps, but capps, joint collars, and just finishing up the work. Although you will learn quite a bit, it will leave you with too many questions still unanswered. But, to be fair, I will re-watch all of them a couple more times with an open mind to see if I missed some stuff (which i'm sure I did) and if my opinion changes, I'll be sure to re-review this thread.
