I recently got suckered into buying and heavily modifying a cheap lathe set up on ebay in order to do my own repairs since there are no local cue makers or cue repairmen reasonably close to my home.
Anywho, I wanted to buy a bunch of tips fairly cheap in order to practice with before I tried my hand on my OB130. So I bought a junk cue from walmart and placed an order for some Le Pros and 10 ultraskins. As soon as they arrived I got to work and I must say that it was a learning experience. However on to my review...
At first glance without knowing anything Ultraskin tips look just like the Kamui black tips I've seen. So I was excited to slap one on and see how it played. After about 8 attempts with the Le pro tips on my walmart stick I felt confident I could do one without destroying the tip. So I glued up the ultraskin very soft and went to town. Almost immediately I noticed that layered tips cut differently than the single layer tips. It took some time, but eventually I got it. My first try at installing a layered cue tip wasn't pretty, but it was on and it was playable.
Fast forward again to this past Saturday and I'm feeling brave enough to try one on my play cue. The tip went on nicely compared to my first time, and even seemed to shape without much trouble. The sides burnished up to a fairly nice shine and I set up a rack on my table to play. I noticed that it felt very different from the kamui soft that I was used to, but with time it broke in and I fell into a rhythm. I had to retouch the radius once initially which to my understanding is fairly common on a new tip. After that I've had about 12 hours table time and haven't touched it since. The tip plays great, I don't have any issue with it holding chalk of any kind. (I tried a few different brands just to see if any would hold up better over the others)
So in conclusion I must say that I couldn't be happier with my Ultraskin tips. They're very reasonably priced (I got 10 for $35.00), they play as well as any other tip I've ever tried, and so far I have had no problems with mushrooming, glazing or delaminating.
Kudos to Mr. Tom Hay for a great product.
Not the greatest picture quality in the world but, if a first timer like me can get one of these on and looking half ways presentable then I'm sure a professional should have no problem at all.
Anywho, I wanted to buy a bunch of tips fairly cheap in order to practice with before I tried my hand on my OB130. So I bought a junk cue from walmart and placed an order for some Le Pros and 10 ultraskins. As soon as they arrived I got to work and I must say that it was a learning experience. However on to my review...
At first glance without knowing anything Ultraskin tips look just like the Kamui black tips I've seen. So I was excited to slap one on and see how it played. After about 8 attempts with the Le pro tips on my walmart stick I felt confident I could do one without destroying the tip. So I glued up the ultraskin very soft and went to town. Almost immediately I noticed that layered tips cut differently than the single layer tips. It took some time, but eventually I got it. My first try at installing a layered cue tip wasn't pretty, but it was on and it was playable.
Fast forward again to this past Saturday and I'm feeling brave enough to try one on my play cue. The tip went on nicely compared to my first time, and even seemed to shape without much trouble. The sides burnished up to a fairly nice shine and I set up a rack on my table to play. I noticed that it felt very different from the kamui soft that I was used to, but with time it broke in and I fell into a rhythm. I had to retouch the radius once initially which to my understanding is fairly common on a new tip. After that I've had about 12 hours table time and haven't touched it since. The tip plays great, I don't have any issue with it holding chalk of any kind. (I tried a few different brands just to see if any would hold up better over the others)
So in conclusion I must say that I couldn't be happier with my Ultraskin tips. They're very reasonably priced (I got 10 for $35.00), they play as well as any other tip I've ever tried, and so far I have had no problems with mushrooming, glazing or delaminating.
Kudos to Mr. Tom Hay for a great product.
Not the greatest picture quality in the world but, if a first timer like me can get one of these on and looking half ways presentable then I'm sure a professional should have no problem at all.
