This is my first full custom build complete with screwups, redos, patience testing, and making lemonade out of lemons. Built with Love and determination for a very special person in my life.
I am inspired by the craftsmanship and skill I see in the professional cue makers here on AZB and other places on the web. I appreciate that they are willing to share with us to learn from. Being new to this I do not have a stock pile of wood to work with, nor the time to wait at my age. As I slowly attempt to build up a small amount of wood, I have been using old cues for some well-seasoned blanks and parts to help me get started.
Disclaimer: For all of you non-readers that do not like long posts, just look at the pictures and skip to summary
My journey thus far has included repairs, butt sleeve upgrades, and one-piece conversions. This cue is what I would consider my first full custom-built cue. Using the full splice butt end of a one-piece cue as a blank has been a great way to build my experience building cues. This cue is different because I am assembling a forearm, handle, and butt separately. This is also my first linen wrap and butterfly cut.
This cue started with an old cue I found for free. It was a cheap, possibility Asian cue that seemed destined for the trash bin. Noticing what appeared to be Birds Eye maple under the crappy finish, I started peeling down the layers to see what, if anything was worthy of saving. The butt was made of low-quality wood and had a big chunk of metal buried inside for weight, so it had to go. The forearm gave me some hope and a starting point.
I wanted to have rings between the forearm and handle, so I turned the handle down to the core and bored out a new handle from another broken cue to sleeve it with the rings.
I set this aside and began working on the butt. From the beginning the theme of this cue was going to be the color green. Wood does not really come in the color green, so I started looking into using green material like malachite or juma to accent the cue. In my search I found some green epoxy impregnated Poplar Burl that looked perfect to incorporate in the butt sleeve. I ordered a 4.5” x 1.5” piece to make a butt sleeve. Unfortunately, I assumed it was 1.5” square, but when it arrived it was 1.5” x 1”. Now what?
I really loved the green burl so rather than wasting time and shipping cost I decided to keep it and come up with a new plan. I did not want bits and pieces of it, I wanted it to stand out. A butterfly cut seemed like the best option. I only had one shot at this or the piece would be wasted. I made a jig and tested it on some scraps first. Satisfied, I decided to go for it. I took a piece of lacewood and made the cuts. First attempt was bad with uneven wings, but my second try was spot on.
I sandwiched a thin piece of Padauk between the lacewood and green burl. After a rough turning it actually started looking like this might work. I made some rings out of Chakte Viga wood and scraps from the green burl. Added them to the butt with a brown phenolic butt plate.
After completing the butt, I assembled all the pieces together. It looked great. I was feeling good about it until I realized the cue was not perfectly straight. The flaw was in the existing handle’s core. My inexperience led me down the wrong path. So let’s just ignore the first part and move on to how I should have done this in the first place. I cut off the butt and bored it out for a new tenon. Then I parted off the forearm, drilled out the existing A-joint pin and bored it out for a new one. The new handle came from an old Dufferin that had a cracked forearm. The handle is Sapele wood which helped add some weight I needed. This time with careful assembly I now have a nice straight cue.
The forearm diameter was only a couple thousands bigger than I wanted for the final diameter. The cue needed to be assembled as straight as possible so it could still be tapered. Until now I was tapering the cue by hand as discussed in an earlier post, but now I have my new router to make this easier. Definitely easier but way scarier. One tiny error and all that work would be gone in a nanosecond. Working slow and steady I watched excitedly as the cue took shape.
The ends of the cue were the next step needing my attention. Setting the 5/16-14 joint pin went extremely well. Dead nutz.
The butt end gave me a little more trouble. I bored the butt in order to thread it for the bumper. Unfortunately, Lacewood is not very conducive to threading with a tap and no live threading here yet. To fix the stripped-out hole without compromising the support for the butt plate, I bored it out a little bit more and inserted a phenolic piece and threaded that.
I had one more touch to add before applying the finish. The future owner loves turtles. I cannot do inlays yet, and since I was planning to try out making some waterslide decals for my logo, I figured I could try applying turtle images to the forearm just above the handle.
With assembly complete, the cue gets an epoxy base and Solarez topcoat finish.
Lastly comes my first linen wrap.
More Pictures in the next post.
Summary:
- Need to build a green cue
- Ohh! Birds Eye hidden in a crappy cue
- Build butt and add to cue
- Crooked! No good. Chop off forearm and butt. Reassemble with new handle.
- Taper
- Finish
- Wrap
Turtle cue:
- Birds Eye Maple forearm
- Sapele handle with black and green speck linen wrap.
- Lacewood butt with Padauk and green epoxy Poplar Burl butterfly accent and brown phenolic butt plate
- Chakte Viga and green Burl rings