Lathe gadgets for shaping tips

Guerra Cues

Guerra Cues

I build one cue at a time
Silver Member
Hey folks,
Got a question here.
Besides the gadget that Chris Hightower sells, Porper (never tried it) and Tiger (almost 1K) what gadgets are available out there besides using a blade.
I use Lenox blades for trimming and shaping per Chris Hightower suggestion and really like it. I know it takes a lot of practice to come out perfect and mine do come out pretty sporty and even but is there any other suggestions for shaping the tips, so they can come out shaped perfect?
Just curious to see your opinions and suggestions... If there aren't any good gadgets what would be your suggestion for one then?
 
BENFICA said:
Hey folks,
Got a question here.
Besides the gadget that Chris Hightower sells, Porper (never tried it) and Tiger (almost 1K) what gadgets are available out there besides using a blade.
I use Lenox blades for trimming and shaping per Chris Hightower suggestion and really like it. I know it takes a lot of practice to come out perfect and mine do come out pretty sporty and even but is there any other suggestions for shaping the tips, so they can come out shaped perfect?
Just curious to see your opinions and suggestions... If there aren't any good gadgets what would be your suggestion for one then?
Click to expand...

No BS....I use my hand turning tools from my wood lathe to shape the tip. Works great for me.
 
greyghost said:
No BS....I use my hand turning tools from my wood lathe to shape the tip. Works great for me.
Click to expand...

Nice to see I'm not the only one......I ended up making a custom tool that was like a two sided chisel...out of guess what a 1/2 chisel....custom ground it and then sharpen and temper....use a steady rest like the one taig sells and it works wonders.....but razor blades are easier and sharper....just not as safe if you don't have steady hands:eek:
 
I can't imagine anything much easier than a good sharp razor blade.
mount a little bar or a single point cutter in your toolpost and run it up close to the tip so you can hold the blade on top of it and rotate the blade it across the tip at the same time. Very quick, very easy. Shouldn't take much time at all to get any shape you want.
 
greyghost said:
No BS....I use my hand turning tools from my wood lathe to shape the tip. Works great for me.
Click to expand...

I agree. About any lathe tool will work but I use a skew as it's the easiest to sharpen. About every 5 tips or so I drag the edge over a stone so as to put a very slight wire edge back on. About every 300 or so tips I run it over a belt sander to get the correct angle back on it. It has a long handle which gives absolute complete control. I use this both for trimming the tip to the ferrule and shaping it. I've done thousands upon thousands of tips in this manner.

Dick
 
rhncue said:
I agree. About any lathe tool will work but I use a skew as it's the easiest to sharpen. About every 5 tips or so I drag the edge over a stone so as to put a very slight wire edge back on. About every 300 or so tips I run it over a belt sander to get the correct angle back on it. It has a long handle which gives absolute complete control. I use this both for trimming the tip to the ferrule and shaping it. I've done thousands upon thousands of tips in this manner.

Dick
Click to expand...

Me too, Dickie and I have been using the same set up for about 25 years.
 
BENFICA said:
Hey folks,
Got a question here.
Besides the gadget that Chris Hightower sells, Porper (never tried it) and Tiger (almost 1K) what gadgets are available out there besides using a blade.
I use Lenox blades for trimming and shaping per Chris Hightower suggestion and really like it. I know it takes a lot of practice to come out perfect and mine do come out pretty sporty and even but is there any other suggestions for shaping the tips, so they can come out shaped perfect?
Just curious to see your opinions and suggestions... If there aren't any good gadgets what would be your suggestion for one then?
Click to expand...

all you need is sharp razor blades and sand paper
 
wow....and here I thought I was being different useing wood lathe tools...now I find out some of the big guys have been doing the same for years.....this is a good discovery.....
 
rhncue said:
I agree. About any lathe tool will work but I use a skew as it's the easiest to sharpen. About every 5 tips or so I drag the edge over a stone so as to put a very slight wire edge back on. About every 300 or so tips I run it over a belt sander to get the correct angle back on it. It has a long handle which gives absolute complete control. I use this both for trimming the tip to the ferrule and shaping it. I've done thousands upon thousands of tips in this manner.

Dick
Click to expand...
I started out using the skew myself. The skew I was using was a little more noisy than the utility blade method when shaping. I was putting on tips at my first pro tournament and some pros were complaining about the noise, since I was right beside the players. So even though I had only tried the utility knife method a few times, I got out the utility knife and did the rest of the tournament with it and got confident with it and never went back to the skew for tips. That long skew handle sure was nice and solid though. I am sure I never got as good at sharpening the skew as I chould have and that is why it was noisy. I still faced joints and ferrules off, cut tenons and so forth on my early cues with the skew also. And I did that for months after I quit using it for tips.
 
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poolplayer2093 said:
all you need is sharp razor blades and sand paper
Click to expand...

Sam,
I know how to shape a tip, remember?
This thread is just to see what else is out there. What JoeyinCali posted here is a good example.
I always followed the advice from Chris from day 1 and my tips always came out flawless.
 
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BENFICA said:
Sam,
I know how to shape a tip, remember?
This thread is just to see what else is out there. What JoeyinCali posted here is a good example.
I always followed the advice from Chris from day 1 and my tips always came out flawless.
Click to expand...

yeah i remember. i've always been the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" type of guy. that's why i posted that
 
My typical overkill solution. Best feature is VERY solid support for your razor blade.
 

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Mark I Mod I. I'm always intending to refine my original attempt, but since it works like I want it, it's hard to justify a refit...
 

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rhncue said:
I agree. About any lathe tool will work but I use a skew as it's the easiest to sharpen. About every 5 tips or so I drag the edge over a stone so as to put a very slight wire edge back on. About every 300 or so tips I run it over a belt sander to get the correct angle back on it. It has a long handle which gives absolute complete control. I use this both for trimming the tip to the ferrule and shaping it. I've done thousands upon thousands of tips in this manner.

Dick
Click to expand...

Dick & Sherm dam thats awesome.....of course Joel is the only cuemaker I've ever really seen do work live besides Farris and Petree.....I didn't really think it was kosher for cuemakers to use wood lathe hand turning tools on anything to do with a cue......I never really talked about it b/c I was worried some of you masters would laugh and tell me how much of a dam rube fool i was lmfao......so thanks for a good sigh of releif lol I know I'm not nuking futz now :)

Same here I use a skew....I don't have a grinder just yet but made a tennon on a grind stone and chuck up to it and spin it in the lathe (works great and cost me $5)

I got all my wood turning tools and wood lathe from my grandfather....lathe and tools are probably 30+ years old and its all in excellent working condition......I use the wood lathe to turn down big stock so it can fit in my mini machine lathe.

I keep my turning tools pretty sharp.....i have a very nice strop and flat ceramic bulb that i use prior and after each use so it keeps the best edge possible at all times. Thats what my grandfather always did and his stuff always stayed in excellent shape....just like a good pocket knife the sharper you keep it the longer it lasts.

Anyways I had seen and heard of people using the razor blade for i dunno I guess a decade maybe.....I tried it a handful of times when I was apprenticing in the Weinstock shop and gave it another swing last year when I got my own equipment.....DON'T LIKE IT ONE F'N BIT.....

for starters its dangerous as all sh*t......second I put a big big scratch/ring whatever in an Ivory ferrule.

There is not enough control with the razor blade IMOP (and yes i used a handle and tried it with just the blade itself) I'm sure I could pratice it and get it down....but its pointless to me to save 30 dam seconds when I been patient as all hell with the whole process of building the cue up to that point.

I chuck up to the shaft and leave around an inch or two showing......I use my right hand and rest my index finger on the back of the spinning tip/ferrule....I let my thumb hang down a little bit and bring my tool in with my left hand and use my right handed thumb as my guide and steady rest.......

I use a fairly minute amount of pressure....just enough so i don't get no chatter...just a thin removal of the excess shoulder and then I will use my extra steady rest i robbed from my wood lathe ( i mount it same as my tool post) And I will work the radius of the tip off of that since I need just a bit more pressure.

ITS NOT LOUD!!! I'm scraping not gouging, sounds about like a decently light pass would sound when facing off a part....my lathe motor is louder....

You have to learn a fairly light handed touch to be able to turn smaller stock such as shaft wood on a wood lathe, its uber easy to "PUSH" get chatter and take a big arse gouge out your wood.....SUPER DUPER SHARP HAND TOOLS AND A LIGHT TOUCH.....something Abe Rich was a master at!!!

I've never had not one thing go wrong while using my hand tools on my machine lathe for my tips I can adjust the speed to whatever speed i may choose as opposed to my wood lathe that just switches b/t 4 speeds by moving a belt)

I have a great amount of control, I've never even came close to losing control and damaging the tip or ferrule. And it would be pretty hard to get hurt by cutting myself or something of that nature (unlike a razor blade)

B/c of these reasons I choose to only use razor blades for shaving my face lol not for shaping a tip.

It would be pointless/waste of money for me to buy one of those swinging tip shaping tools or buy a butt load of razor blades.....I already have the perfect tools.....I don't mean to sound cheap but hey a dollar is a dam dollar and i would rather spend that dollar on something much more useful than packs of razor blades. Rather use that little bit of money for epoxy or CA or whatever ANYTHING lol


-Grey Ghost-
 
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