Keeping a cue in the car during the winter.

slide13

slide13

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So, how bad is it to keep a cue in the car during the winter when it can get quite cold here in Wico? Certainly ruinous?

I'm not talking about my main playing cue, I never leave that in the car, but I have a decently nice sneaky pete that, unfortunately, just didn't stay straight after I got it from the maker. Has a bit of a roll in the forearm. Nothing that makes it unplayable but it's enough that I can't sell it and so these days I'm not really using it at all. I wouldn't mind having a cue in my car all the time when I find myself driving by the pool hall with some time to kill that I hadn't planned for.

So it's not like I'm worried about a perfectly straight cue getting a little off...this one is already a little off...but I'd hate for it to become unplayable.
 
Maybe the weather will straighten it back out?

I wouldn't think you could make it unplayable, but I would let it warm up before I broke with it, just in case. Extreme cold can make materials and glue much more brittle.
 
I would think it would be of greater concern to store it in your car in very hot, very humid weather. As Atlatien stated, I would think (speculation) it would be a good thing to let the cue warm up to ambient temperature before hitting with it but I'm not even sure that would be a huge deal. Going from very cold into a hot, humid environment could also cause moisture to condense on the cue which I wouldn't think would be ideal.

Again, just speculation, but as far as heat and humidity goes, I would think repeatedly going from very hot/humid into an air conditioned area would be the worst. I'm not a wood expert by any means but I would think the repeated dramatic changes in heat/humidity could cause it to warp.
 
Do it.

Come back after the winter's over and let us know if anything crazy happened.
 
nobcitypool said:
Again, just speculation, but as far as heat and humidity goes, I would think repeatedly going from very hot/humid into an air conditioned area would be the worst. I'm not a wood expert by any means but I would think the repeated dramatic changes in heat/humidity could cause it to warp.
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I would be far less concerned with warping, but in this aspect the warp might go away. I'd be worried about glue bonds being broken more than anything. How would you feel if you only pulled half a butt out of the case one night?
 
Find out

I live in coastal South Central Alaska and cues are left in cold vehicles for short periods of time. I am sure there is an ideal storage environment for cues, but don't know what it would be. If it is some thing you have to do and the butt is warped I would not worry about it. I am sure below zero temps for long periods of time will have some kind of effect on wood, but a properly dried, glued and sealed cue butt should be pretty safe.
 
All you can do is test it. If it's already a little warped, that's an indication that it might warp more.

I wouldn't bother letting it acclimate to the temp inside the pool hall. If it's been sitting in your car overnight, it would take hours for it to fully acclimate to room temp. Let it warm up to where it's comfortable to hold (5-7 minutes) and play.
 
I threw one of my house cues in my basement in an old cheap case, and threw it in my trunk for a few weeks in a very harsh cold Chicago winter..... cue was the same afterwards,,,, rolled straight as an arrow.

Gonna try this test again, but with 4 house cues and see if I can get one of them to "turn".......I will take them out once a week, let them warm up, then throw them back in the trunk.

The reason why I'm curious is I hate lugging my cue case to the office, no granted, I'm not gonna put my fully restored Hoppe pro model in there, but I don't want my Schmelke bending on me either ;)
 
Cool, thanks for the feedback, I think I'll give it a go and see what happens. I don't use it at all right now, so not much to lose at this point since I'm sure it would be hard to sell with the roll in the forearm.
 
Not a recipe for success I don't think. All materials react differently to freezing. Tip, ferrule, wood, glue and finish all will expand or contract differently to the extreme cold, and will respond differently during the warming up process. This process will repeat every time it freezes and thaws. You will most certainly have a glue joint failure somewhere, either the tip/ferrule or ferrule/shaft joints or both are likely to fail. The wood contains moisture, on a cellular level the freezing will cause some change. Two species of wood also will react differently to the temperature swings. you may even see glue failure in the butt of the cue as well, though less likely than the aforementioned. If it's a cue you don't care about it may be worth a try, but don't be surprised if, at the least, a tip flies off.
 
Good idea.Just keep all of your cues in a car and you will automatically decrease their value for half,half at least,and you wouldn't be able to take it out of your cases any more.Even if you succed to take them out,you wouldn't suceed to put them in once again:cool::cool::cool::p:cool::cool::cool:
 
My girlfriend kept her cue in the car and the shaft cracked from the ferrule to about 8 in. down. She didn't even hit with it while it was cold, just pulled it out with it cracked. We live in Maryland and it definitely doesn't get as cold as Wisconsin. The shaft was a solid maple.
 
TheTalentASP said:
My girlfriend kept her cue in the car and the shaft cracked from the ferrule to about 8 in. down. She didn't even hit with it while it was cold, just pulled it out with it cracked. We live in Maryland and it definitely doesn't get as cold as Wisconsin. The shaft was a solid maple.
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Just curious was there any crack in it before? I've seen that happen one time but it was because a buddy had a small crack in it, left it on his backseat and the next day it was cracked all the way down. I suspect it's because while getting cold condensation got in the crack froze up, expanded and made a nice little surprise. I rarely leave my cues in my car but league nights when I know I'm going to have to work late and be short on time I will leave them in there for 10-12 hours while I work and I've never had one warp but I did have a tip fly off a breaker after being in my car all day.
 
I also like to keep my player with me. You never know when you leave the house in the morning how you'll feel later in the day. Many days I've left the house thinking I wouldn't be playing that day and ended up playing. Someone calls and you meet up or whatever. I bring my stick into work with me if it is going to be over 75 degrees or under 60. Don't want to take a chance on warping.
 
You should definitely let it warm up as much as you can before screwing it together. We all know about contraction and expansion. In high school, I learned the hard way with my dad's cheap (but actually pretty nice) two piece cue that he had stored in the garage. I screwed it together as soon as I brought it inside (it was December in Ohio). As the pin warmed up, it expanded to the point that I thought we were never going to get it unscrewed. We finally did but I never wanted to go through that again. For what it's worth, it was a brass 5/16-14 joint.

I try to never leave my cues in my car anymore. If the elements don't get them, the thieves will.
 
Why Even Risk It?

Unless you have absolute certainty about doing this, you're crazy to do that with your pool cue, assuming of course that the cue is one you really care about. If it's some inexpensive player you can easily replace, or a cheap catalog cue, don't worry. But if it's an expensive custom, its not worth the risk.....If you have doubts, just ask the cue-maker who made your pool cue......it's a dumb thing to do.

Matt B.
 
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The finish

slide13 said:
Cool, thanks for the feedback, I think I'll give it a go and see what happens. I don't use it at all right now, so not much to lose at this point since I'm sure it would be hard to sell with the roll in the forearm.
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Cold weather or extremely cold weather will make the wood shrink and the finish sometime making the finish bubble or crack..

A cold cargo hold under a jet liner gets real cold and normally they don't turn the cargo hold heaters on in less there are animals in there.
 
slide13 said:
So, how bad is it to keep a cue in the car during the winter when it can get quite cold here in Wico? Certainly ruinous?

I'm not talking about my main playing cue, I never leave that in the car, but I have a decently nice sneaky pete that, unfortunately, just didn't stay straight after I got it from the maker. Has a bit of a roll in the forearm. Nothing that makes it unplayable but it's enough that I can't sell it and so these days I'm not really using it at all. I wouldn't mind having a cue in my car all the time when I find myself driving by the pool hall with some time to kill that I hadn't planned for.

So it's not like I'm worried about a perfectly straight cue getting a little off...this one is already a little off...but I'd hate for it to become unplayable.
Click to expand...

While this is not a good idea, I did keep my early 90s Joss in my trunk for probably 3 years straight during a time when I played a few times a year. When I got back into playing it was as good as new.
 
Wrap your cue in a wool blanket or a comforter.
It's amazing how well it will stand up.

I once had a plastic bottle of water in my truck, half was sticking under a wool blanket....that part was water, the part uncovered was solid ice.
 
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