Does anyone STILL use/recommend these for either cleaning or sealing their shafts???
Lighter Fluid and Dollar Bills...
- Thread starter Dakota Cues
- Start date
NO NO NO 
I never did, and never will. There are just so many other product options out there. Lighter fluid on my Scruggs?.... Yikes 
Lighter Fluid, and Dollar Bill + Friction =
I never did use lighter fluid (though Mizerak claimed to have done so on his Bushka).
I still do, though, use crisp bills to slick up my shaft when I notice it's feeling a little sticky and I'm about to play. Not the kind of thing I'd say to use as a maintenance regimen, but it does a good job - notebook paper might too, I suppose. It takes the gunk off fast & leaves the shaft nice & smooth - for the time being.
I still do, though, use crisp bills to slick up my shaft when I notice it's feeling a little sticky and I'm about to play. Not the kind of thing I'd say to use as a maintenance regimen, but it does a good job - notebook paper might too, I suppose. It takes the gunk off fast & leaves the shaft nice & smooth - for the time being.
Thanks for the input so far.
Looks like lighter fluid is out, but does anybody else use a bill for burnishing???
Looks like lighter fluid is out, but does anybody else use a bill for burnishing???
ME.......CLEAN & NEW SEEMS TO WORK THE BEST
Thanks Cowboy.
Do you use both sides, or just the white side???
Never noticed what side works best, but a NEW ONE Dollar Bill is fine also.
I also use dollar bills before i shoot, while i still have them....
I can't remember doing this in recent years. I have, though. I think I learned this from Mizerak like another poster said. Mostly, I use wet but not soaked, paper towels buffing with a dry paper towel or a piece of leather. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser with a bit of water or alcohol {not the drinking kind:grin:} works well also.
I have done just about everything to a cue I had a while back. It had the SMOOTHEST shaft I have ever felt, and it was sealed great. The cue even had a slightly different sound with this shaft than with the other shaft that was still new, probably due to the fact that it was sealed. In fact, I remember somebody else saying that when he had his shafts turned down, they lost that patina and sounded/played differently. They came back, but I didn't get to ask what he did.
I guess I'm trying to find that magic formula, but don't want to try everything all over again! LOL!!!
I guess I'm trying to find that magic formula, but don't want to try everything all over again! LOL!!!
naphtha
Naphtha is used for lighter fluid and cleaning fluid, not really a stretch. I think naphtha is what the Dry Cleaning establishments once used, may still be.
My only minor quibble with burnishing with currency is that the dye will come off of any of it, particularly new money. If your shaft is blue already it doesn't matter but I too like the barely damp paper towel followed with a dry one for cleaning and burnishing. I always have a small piece of soft leather with me for final burnishing too.
Using anything on your cue shaft that will penetrate to some degree like lighter fluid is usually a little iffy because you don't know what is already in the wood. If what is in the wood is compatible with the lighter fluid it is just fine to clean with. I would strongly suspect that a shaft treated with the commonly used stabilizers and unsealed would be just fine to clean with lighter fluid. Some other things already in the wood might cause issues with the oil based lighter fluid. As a general rule, waterbase can go over oilbase but not vice-versa.
Hu
Naphtha is used for lighter fluid and cleaning fluid, not really a stretch. I think naphtha is what the Dry Cleaning establishments once used, may still be.
My only minor quibble with burnishing with currency is that the dye will come off of any of it, particularly new money. If your shaft is blue already it doesn't matter but I too like the barely damp paper towel followed with a dry one for cleaning and burnishing. I always have a small piece of soft leather with me for final burnishing too.
Using anything on your cue shaft that will penetrate to some degree like lighter fluid is usually a little iffy because you don't know what is already in the wood. If what is in the wood is compatible with the lighter fluid it is just fine to clean with. I would strongly suspect that a shaft treated with the commonly used stabilizers and unsealed would be just fine to clean with lighter fluid. Some other things already in the wood might cause issues with the oil based lighter fluid. As a general rule, waterbase can go over oilbase but not vice-versa.
Hu
call me crazy
About naptha or other powerful grease solvents. They absorb whatever oils there are in wood, leaving them dangerously dry and prone to splitting , warping and other bad stuff. Without the natural oils the wood can absorb moisture (water) which contributes to bad stuff. By the way, I was a dry cleaner. The solvent used was perchlorethylene (trichlorethlyene 1,1,1,), the same solvent auto repair shops used to clean parts with. But I digress.
Try this on a shaft that you do not care about: Wipe it down with a cloth soaked in Clorox bleach until no more color comes of on the cloth. Wash with warm water and hand soap and rinse with warm water. Dry with a hair dryer. The grain will have raised slightly so polish shaft with 1000 + paper. Apply neutral wax shoe polish and buff and buff and buff. It will be gorgeous and slicker than snot. I say experiment with an old shaft first because I know you'll think I'm crazy. And truthfully, I am a bit bonkers.:grin-square:
About naptha or other powerful grease solvents. They absorb whatever oils there are in wood, leaving them dangerously dry and prone to splitting , warping and other bad stuff. Without the natural oils the wood can absorb moisture (water) which contributes to bad stuff. By the way, I was a dry cleaner. The solvent used was perchlorethylene (trichlorethlyene 1,1,1,), the same solvent auto repair shops used to clean parts with. But I digress.
Try this on a shaft that you do not care about: Wipe it down with a cloth soaked in Clorox bleach until no more color comes of on the cloth. Wash with warm water and hand soap and rinse with warm water. Dry with a hair dryer. The grain will have raised slightly so polish shaft with 1000 + paper. Apply neutral wax shoe polish and buff and buff and buff. It will be gorgeous and slicker than snot. I say experiment with an old shaft first because I know you'll think I'm crazy. And truthfully, I am a bit bonkers.:grin-square:
crazy doesn't mean you are wrong!
I've always liked the the line "I have always been crazy but it has kept me from going insane" probably because it makes perfect sense to me! I suspected that naphtha might be a century or so outdated, never been closely involved with dry cleaning. Thanks for the info. The lighter fluid actually leaves a little lubricant behind, it does make a fine cleaner for precision small mechanisms. Not recommending it for anything other than the target triggers I used it on but it was the hot ticket for one to two ounce triggers.
I used the parts cleaner for engine flush for many years in my 454. Drained a quart out of the parts cleaner every time it was serviced and used it for engine flush just before changing oil which I didn't do none too often. I took care of the truck until it had over a hundred thousand, figured that was life of the engine and neglected it for fifty thousand and then halfway took care of it. Ran it for 275,000 before it started smoking a little and when I took the engine apart it had the tiniest amount of gray sludge in the bottom of a couple of the socket head plugs. Other than that, the engine looked like you could have eaten off of it when I took it apart. Think I need to go find a five gallon bucket of pars cleaner for this newer truck. A lot cheaper than the flush and it worked for me. Usual warning, everybody else's mileage may vary!!
Hu
I've always liked the the line "I have always been crazy but it has kept me from going insane" probably because it makes perfect sense to me! I suspected that naphtha might be a century or so outdated, never been closely involved with dry cleaning. Thanks for the info. The lighter fluid actually leaves a little lubricant behind, it does make a fine cleaner for precision small mechanisms. Not recommending it for anything other than the target triggers I used it on but it was the hot ticket for one to two ounce triggers.
I used the parts cleaner for engine flush for many years in my 454. Drained a quart out of the parts cleaner every time it was serviced and used it for engine flush just before changing oil which I didn't do none too often. I took care of the truck until it had over a hundred thousand, figured that was life of the engine and neglected it for fifty thousand and then halfway took care of it. Ran it for 275,000 before it started smoking a little and when I took the engine apart it had the tiniest amount of gray sludge in the bottom of a couple of the socket head plugs. Other than that, the engine looked like you could have eaten off of it when I took it apart. Think I need to go find a five gallon bucket of pars cleaner for this newer truck. A lot cheaper than the flush and it worked for me. Usual warning, everybody else's mileage may vary!!
Hu
Here's what I do. After I get done playing or any other time my hands get dried off I wipe down the shaft with the damp paper towel.
When I decide to clean I use a strip of MR Clean Magic Eraser damped with denatured alcohol (Home Depot). I stroke along the shaft and spin it using a hand drill. After it's clean I have 3M micro polishing pads. They are over 1000 grit (pink) I got a stash of them from a production area at work. The used them to polish scanner glass and glass printheads.
Then it burnished with a leather scrap. I place wax paper inside the leather and spin with the drill. After I get some heat I take out the wax paper.
That is all I ever do. My shafts are NOT bright white, they are clean. Other than temp/humidity changes they have not seen loss of diameter due to abrasion.
Most of my cues are wrapless, the wood gets wiped with damp towel and then waxed with cue wax.
Usually takes about 15 minutes tops. Generally it's done at tip changes, which takes another 30 minutes.
my way.........Paul
One yoiu Shaft is CLEAN, use Cue Wax on it PRN, and it will stay clean.
Nope. Magic Eraser for me.