No pissing Joe and I always respect your experience and candor. I did ask you your opinion concerning wood shock.
I know there is always some tongue and cheek in your posts and you make a valid point that your shafts are sold then processed by the CM. Vern brought some of you shaft into my shop and he processed them here. They were very straight without bumping.
All is good,
Rick
Life is too short to take things so seriously. We all have our opinions. I think you have overkill in your set-up but if it makes you happy, then great. I don't think it's necessary and most others produce fine quality shafts with their set-ups either simple or engineered to put a man on the moon. I just don't think we need to over engineer simple things. I know I have better things to do but to each their own. Like I said, I think your set-up is ingenious with that Teflon thing for chatter. That's exactly what is needed when you encounter chatter.
I meant to reply to that query and forgot not to mention got sidetracked.
Re: Shaft wood shock
I wrote way back when I had my other web site prior to converting to CueCom in 2003, an article about
stress relieving maple wood. No one knew what it was nor did anyone every hear about it and the effects it has on wood. That was around 2000. Today everyone is an expert with regard to stress relieving maple. Imagine that. :thumbup: It's a very important part of drying wood. Lumber, pretty much is not stress relieved. Many purchase lumber and that's not the way to go. Let's not get into it as that is another whole can of worms.
If your wood is stress relieved and dried properly, there is less wood shock and any shock will be minimal. We have to remember, some wood just doesn't want to be a shaft or pool cue and there is nothing you nor I can do to help that fact.
The maple we receive and have been receiving for many, many years comes from the same two suppliers. They know how to dry wood. We no longer buy planks as it's just as effective to buy squares today. 15, 20 and 30 years ago it was a different story; not so today. There is some really good wood out there if you know where it is. Technology with drying wood has advanced to the point of creating perfect wood for our industry if such a thing exists. Going into the forest in December with a compass, longitudinal device and a hatchet are no longer necessary and in fact quite ridiculous. Time is better spent in other more productive areas and let the wood drying experts do their job so that we can do ours.
When we get a new shipment, we like to let it sit for at least 6 months in our shop. We're processing last years shipment, this year. We have shafts hanging for years prior to sale because of the depth of our inventory. That helps in getting and making a quality shaft and we recommend that everyone stocks their shop with wood so they have shafts in the pipeline.
As far as shock:
I think the best and biggest shock is running a 1" square through a doweling machine. I think it does wonders for the wood. It's not different than turning a square on your lathe or CNC. Some think it's more violent but I don't think so. We all have to get to a 1" dowel and turning round is turning round regardless how we get there. You can whittle it down for all I care. This is the initial shock of the wood and separates the good ones from the bad ones.
We recently dowelled over 2,000 shafts and lost less than 50 (I think it was 36). I'll repeat that. We ran over 2,000 shafts through our doweling machine and lost less than 50 to warping. That's because the wood is dried properly or stress relieved.
Once the wood is doweled, we let it sit for a few weeks and then begin the coning process. This is where we cull out the bad shafts from the doweling which amounted to less than 50 or so we quoted above. From the coning process forward we do not have any loss of shafts. I know that may sound unbelievable but that's the truth. The wood is very stable at this point. I should further point out that we seal the cones at .750. We believe this helps too.
I would like to add that going from 1" rounds to a .750 cone is acceptable for a first cut if you know what you're doing and if you've done it and tested it before doing all your shafts. Wood reacts differently in different areas, climates and humidity so proceed with caution. Just because ignorant people in the desert can go from round to a taper of say, 640/975 doesn't make it right for you so this information is misleading and quite ignorant. I cannot stress it enough to be careful of ignorant AZ know-it-alls who say that a 640/975 taper is the way to do it for a first cut. If you do, you'll have warped shafts guaranteed. For the average cue maker and especially newbie starting out, it is entirely too much meat to cut after being a 1" round.
If you have a shop that is controlled, good quality wood, sharp cutters traveling at high speeds then you'll help reduce "shock" and maintain happiness within the wood. Playing a little music also helps.
We were the first to introduce 6 wing cutters when everyone was using the standard cutters. We sell two types and both have their uses as described. We believe these will serve you best when cutting shafts or anything for that matter. Of course, we still use a straight cutter on our CNC for coning and it works well for us. We do use the 6 flute for tapering and final passes which takes approximately 15 or so minutes. You final pass should be slow.
As I stated earlier, no need for high precision when coning. When you start tapering, then start paying attention.
