making points...

Please understand that I am NOT a cue maker and defer to you guys and your experience. However, the problem I have with any sander is that the sandpaper is never as "tight" and true as a metal blade and fence. As a result, you can get high or low spots as the sandpaper (belt or drum) moves slightly.

Scott
 
ScottR said:
Please understand that I am NOT a cue maker and defer to you guys and your experience. However, the problem I have with any sander is that the sandpaper is never as "tight" and true as a metal blade and fence. As a result, you can get high or low spots as the sandpaper (belt or drum) moves slightly.

Scott
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I can't remember what the product the commercial was advertising back when I was a kid, but it simply said, "Try it, you'll like it!"
That saying applies to the belt sander method, but maybe not to cue building itself. It is not for everyone.
 
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I use a cheap 6 inch joiner (H/F) with good blades. I make perfectly square and then send them through a good drum sander with very fine sandpaper. This takes off any blade marks that may be present and makes the 90 deg corners nice and sharp and clean. The sander is probably not needed but it seems to make for a cleaner edge.

Joiners do take a little practice and a good set up to perform well especially on small squares where it is easy to put more pressure on one area than another. Like most machinery, once the machine is set up square and the tables leveled and at the correct height, it will do an exceptional job for the purpose that it was created for, which is making perfectly flat and square material.

Dick
 
Blue Hog ridr said:
Nostalgia night, Chris, was that a coffee comercial?
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It was an Alka-Seltzer commercial. Remember, "The waiter kept saying try it you'll like it, try it you'll like it, so I tried it". Then you see the guy moaning as he takes an Alka-Seltzer.

It ran about the same time as "I can't believe I ate the whole thing".
They even had a hit song with one of their commercials with
"No matter what shape your stomach is in"
Alka-Seltzer did some good PR back in the 70's and 80's
 
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Like as in: Plop Plop Fizz Fizz?
Remember that one, and If I remember corectly, Sammy Davis JR did one for them.
 
Great video! Shows how important table setups are for jointers as well as knife setup.

Thanks for sharing,
Alan
 
SK Custom Cues said:
Here's another link by Marc for setting up your jointer knives

This guy is fun to watch....... good luck, Tom.
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That site is great and I have bookmarked it and will take a look at everything he has. You can never learn enough or relearn things you have forgotten.

You know, there was a day when there was not an internet.
I once took a trip to Atlanta to a wood workers show to take a seminar on finishing. It was pretty good and there was some hands on training. I enjoyed the whole show but the finishing thing is what made me go. That trip cost me with rent a car an all maybe $800.00. Today you can get more information just sitting in front of your computer then you could have 25 years ago no matter what you did. Video clips, youtube you name it it's all there and it's for the most part FREE.

I just did a break job on one of my cars. This was the first time I had done this car and there were a couple of clips I was not sure how to deal with. Went on line and sure enough there is a video showing doing a break job on my car.
What a day we live in, even this forum. Try to learn to build cues 25 years ago or even find a source for any materials. It was impossible. In fact if you even tried to ask a question of a cuemaker you were insulted.
 
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macguy said:
That site is great and I have bookmarked it and will take a look at everything he has. You can never learn enough or relearn things you have forgotten.......
What a day we live in, even this forum. Try to learn to build cues 25 years ago or even find a source for any materials. It was impossible. In fact if you even tried to ask a question of a cuemaker you were insulted.[/QUOTE]

I ran into that myself back in the 80's. Early on I realized the best consistant hourly money in cues was in doing repairs, so I was content taking my lathe and doing repairs and selling other peoples cues at tournaments. Then a local cuemaker came up to me telling me another repairman told him I was going into the cuemaking business to compete with him. I told him cues were not worth building for me, as I could sell other peoples cues and not have any labor in them. Then he said something like, "I don't think you have what it takes to put a cue together." He may have meant I did not have the machinery equipment that it takes to put a cue together, but I took it as an insult, went home ordered some wood and built a cue. The rest is history.
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cueman said:
macguy said:
That site is great and I have bookmarked it and will take a look at everything he has. You can never learn enough or relearn things you have forgotten.......
What a day we live in, even this forum. Try to learn to build cues 25 years ago or even find a source for any materials. It was impossible. In fact if you even tried to ask a question of a cuemaker you were insulted.[/QUOTE]

I ran into that myself back in the 80's. Early on I realized the best consistant hourly money in cues was in doing repairs, so I was content taking my lathe and doing repairs and selling other peoples cues at tournaments. Then a local cuemaker came up to me telling me another repairman told him I was going into the cuemaking business to compete with him. I told him cues were not worth building for me, as I could sell other peoples cues and not have any labor in them. Then he said something like, "I don't think you have what it takes to put a cue together." He may have meant I did not have the machinery equipment that it takes to put a cue together, but I took it as an insult, went home ordered some wood and built a cue. The rest is history.
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And now you know the rest of the story.(Another flashback moment). Thanks Chris for the story.
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Point Wood

I cut them on the bandsaw and then square them up on the table saw with a fine tooth blade. Basically just shaving them on the table saw. It has always worked well.

I got a small 10" performaxx drum sander. I'm going to see how that works. I ran some through the other night but on the end that goes in first I noticed a small dip. It looks like it shaves it a bit more before it hits the second roller and then it is all good. I tried holding the piece flat against the belt as it was going through and that seemed to fix the problem. Any one have any tips for using the drum sander for point squaring?
 
Remember, you need to hold the material against the fence. On the jointer, if you material is not already square and you rest it on the table then you will just make it thinner and still out of square. The fence is square to the blade, so you must hold the material against the fence if you want to cut the bottom edge square to the side against the fence.
 
RBC said:
Remember, you need to hold the material against the fence. On the jointer, if you material is not already square and you rest it on the table then you will just make it thinner and still out of square. The fence is square to the blade, so you must hold the material against the fence if you want to cut the bottom edge square to the side against the fence.
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Exactly, the fence is the registration because the cut comes from the bottom. That's the case be it a the belt sander of the jointer.
 
For added safety when working with squares of wood in the sizes being talked about, moving the jointer fence so it covers all but 1" of knives might be a good idea. If this operation was all you used the jointer for, maybe moving the fence, in addition to a custom guard would be better than the standard spring loaded guard.

I know I would never join a 1" square stock of wood without making some sort of jig to push it through. One slip of your hand, or if you pinky hangs down to far, and its gone.

I would think for this operation, a good jig would be a wood push block with an integrated handle. The block could have a "V" groove on its edge, so that you can simultaneously push the stock down against the table and to the right against the fence, with one hand. The end of the V groove should be stopped or have a tail hanging down so that the push block would not slip relative to the stock being jointed.

If you are getting snipe on a jointer, double check your knife height relative to the outfeed side of the bed. Also working on your technique and how you shift the weight of your hand while passing the wood through might help.

All of the major woodworking magazines have an article every few years on jointer set up, tune up, and use. Definelty worth finding one to help you on technique and set up.
 
iusedtoberich said:
.

If you are getting snipe on a jointer, double check your knife height relative to the outfeed side of the bed. Also working on your technique and how you shift the weight of your hand while passing the wood through might help.
.
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If you follow the grain and set the table and knives correctly, Snipe shouldn't be a problem on a jointer. The biggest problem I have heard from people boiled down to them trying to take to much off.
 
I have always used a 89 inch sander. i have two of these set at different heights the table has has extra bolts so it doesnt move. the reason for two sanders i can flip the sand paper a use 4 different spots on the sandpaper. the sander is set at a perfect 90 and never moved or adjusted, if adjusted a half of a degree off will be too much. Jeff O
 
Thank you all for the great advice and tips...

I understand perfectly well now how to get at least one edge of the stick absolutely square with a jointer.

But I still have the most difficulty to get a clean surface when trying to shave of some ebony, pink Ivory, snakewood or even elephant ivory...

Okay, no problem with brand new blades, but I certainly can't afford new blades three times a year... Any suggestions on keeping them sharp and nice for longer than a few months???

Thanks again for your sharing of ideas...

Greetz,

Tom
 
Another tip with a jointer or planer, is that dust collection is a must... not for health reasons, but for quality of cut. Without it, you will have little chips of wood that can get pressed into your stock, causing dimples in the surface.

I can't comment on sharpening the knives, mine have been on for over 15 yrs! lol. But I do woodworking, not cuemaking, so I don't work with a lot of exotic wood that can eat away at the knives.

They do sell carbide knives for most jointers. Might be worth the cost. If you stick with steel knives, you can sharpen anything with a few stones. I like the diamond stones for course work, and a ceramic stone for the finishing. I can get all my chisels and plane irons razor sharp with them, with a mirror finish. If you have the knives professionally sharpened, they will probably use a grinding wheel. It won't be as sharp as if you hone it on a stone by hand. That extra sharpness might go a long way towards improving the cut quality of the exotics and irregular grain wood.
 
Penrose Cues said:
Thank you all for the great advice and tips...

I understand perfectly well now how to get at least one edge of the stick absolutely square with a jointer.

But I still have the most difficulty to get a clean surface when trying to shave of some ebony, pink Ivory, snakewood or even elephant ivory...

Okay, no problem with brand new blades, but I certainly can't afford new blades three times a year... Any suggestions on keeping them sharp and nice for longer than a few months???

Thanks again for your sharing of ideas...

Greetz,

Tom
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Tom, these are very hard woods finish them off in a sander. a 48 inch will work fine, each edge should feel like a knife you can use the back of your fingernail to check this. if any edge has a bad or low spot and ends up right at the point tip the point tip will be wiped out and not be sharp. setting the sander at exactly 90 degrees is very important. Jeff
 
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