Layered Tip Installation

Majic

Majic

With The Lights ON !!
Silver Member
My question is:

Can a tip such as Kamui be slightly damaged from being shaped or turned at a high RPM? I recently had a Kamui installed and when I tried to chalk it, the surface looked like a stone from the beach. It was hard , so hard it was unplayable. I ultimately removed some leather from the tip and it now plays fine. It looked to me that perhaps the glue melted from the tip install.
 
A few things can cause a tip to glaze over during installation. One is the "burnishing" chemicals people like to use on the side of the tip that may get onto the crown of the tip. Another common mistake is using fine grit sandpaper like 400 or 320 on the crown and it polishes the tip instead of slightly roughing it. Others can carelessly burnish the crown of the tip when they are burnishing the side with their paper towel.
 
Jimmy Lee said:
I have seen this happen at many repair shops and tournaments. What I seen the do is to replace the tip, and do a fine job shaping, then take the shaft out and put in between centers to clean the shaft. The tip being pressed into the live centers smashes down the shape job just performed, and presses the tip back down. Not saying this is what happened in your case, but something to watch for.
Click to expand...

What usually happens in this case is if they don't put enough pressure with the cupped live center, the tip will spin according to the drive center, and will then make the tip spin faster than the cupped live center due to not enough pressure applied... thereby causing the tip to burnish the playing surface against the inside of the cupped live center. The fix is quick if the repair person realizes it's happening, Re-adjust the tailstock pressure and just re-scuff the tip slightly and all is well. Usually one can hear it happening right away, at least I do. Once you know your equipment, you can tell by sound if it's running right. I now have a small piece of 80 grit sandpaper glued to the inside of all my cupped live centers, it helps avoid this issue.
 
I've never had a tip get burnished by my concave live center to the point where it covers the entire tip,or come close to rendering it useless,so my guess is there is another issue present.

Even if I had this happen,it has ALWAYS been part of my finishing process to touch the tip up in the lathe after I move the tailstock away,while it is still on the drive pin when possible. I do this because I have the small diameter tipped live center and it does leave a little ring on the tip but Chris mentions this in his basic repair video,so I compensate but this only takes a couple seconds max.

If the tip was glazed or something happened to the tip during the install that made it unusably hard or unable to hold chalk until someone other than him corrected it,my guess would be somehow the crown of the tip got soaked in CA glue,and it wasn't touched up properly.

I've never had a tip do anything funky like that because of a dull blade,because something like that would feel like you were trying to cut a ferrule rod with it,the chattering alone would immediately tell me to change blades.

That's just me though,Tommy D
 
Lot of great info here just on installs in general. I agree with a lot of what the different guys say here but your problem sounds unique, Leather turned into stone.

I would tend to agree with Chris Hightower the most, in the burnishing. If the leather is pemeable it will suck fluid in. If the installer used a thin superglue or Shaft sealer to burnish and get an ultra high gloss it could wick right through the tip making it a rock.

While doing different tests on my old Oinkers I threw an Oinker in a glass of water and an UltraSkin in another. Before two days the Oinker was sitting at the bottom of the glass, UltraSkin still floating at top. This means the Oinker sucked the water in and water is not as thick as common Super Glue. Main reason I pulled the Oinkers off the market.
 
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