need advice on TIP shaping

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VortexTed

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need advice on TIP shapeing

hi everyone,

I'm new to these forums and I just wanted to say WOW.. what a great board this is. Lots of helpful and knowledgable people here, glad I found it.


I need some help with tip shaping. I recently started loving pool again and just bought my first table (Connelly) and several Viking cues. My problem is I really dont know how to shape the tips correctly to get the nickle radius.

My game has been horrible lately with the main Viking VM31 cue I've been useing. I know its not the cue, its got to be the tip. Its almost flat, not nickled. I bought this one slightly used off ebay and I dont think the tip was ever shaped right. It still has a lot of tip left on it.

I started using the Viking VM25 I bought for my g/f and I shoot much better with it, and its tip is nickle radius.
Both cues are 20 oz.

So I started using a Porper tip shaper to try and get the tip more round on the VM31 and after 30 minutes of turning it in this little shaper its still not rounded enought to be a nickle radius. Although more rounded, its still flat on the end. It does shoot a little better now. Do I just need to keep working the tip in the porper shaper? Its taking a lot of the tip off at this point. Perhaps I should wet it first?

I've read some ppl like the Ultimate Tip Tool for getting a nickle radius.

So does it take a while of working on a tip to get the radius?
30 minutes later and lot of wearing down the tip and its still not a nickle radius.

I believe the tips are the standard medium Le Pro tips.

I also have a new Meucci FR-4 on the way, and I just got a Viking VM-U for Christmas (although I want to exchange that for a V2-V) I dont even want to shoot with these new cues until I konw what I'm doing to get a good tip on them.

I found some good advice here http://www.poolshark.com/cues.htm but I seem to run into a lot of conflcting information as well.

I also read somewhere that tip shapers are not good on layered tips, I believe that came from the Hercules sight. These shapers do more damage then good on layered tips?

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thank You

Looking forward to learning and sharing on this forum.
 
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You could try using the Willard shaper. It's about a silver dollar in size and has a gauge for checking the radius of the tip. I have seen people with regular tips as well as layered ones use this tool.
 
You could try a piece of about 80-grit sandpaper cupped in your hand. The movement is at an angle from the tip away & down. Keep rotating the cue til you get the desired result. Just take it easy.

Beware of the "Ultimate Tip Tool". I have replaced many ferrules after people badly scratch theirs using this gadget.

Troy
 
Troy said:
You could try a piece of about 80-grit sandpaper cupped in your hand. The movement is at an angle from the tip away & down. Keep rotating the cue til you get the desired result. Just take it easy.

Beware of the "Ultimate Tip Tool". I have replaced many ferrules after people badly scratch theirs using this gadget.

Troy
Click to expand...


Hi this is fast, troy is right on this, I use one of these $2 plastic files that are 6" long and I put in 100 grit sand paper. There is an art form to be learned on how to use it, but when you do you can then taper your tip to any shape that produces the best result for you. Find somebody to show you how to do this.

I use a dime shape, most of the old school is still stuck on the nickle. Either one works just fine, its really a personal preference thing, one can't really say one is better than the other.:D
 
The "legs" on the Ultimate Tip Tool should have their "feet/legs" flared outward more since I, too, experienced similar damage to my ferrules.
 
I just chuck it up in my lathe and,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,oops, most people do it by hand or use some kind of shaper. I always liked the old shapers that were about a foot long with replaceable sandpaper strips. Take your time and do it right..
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. Well I almost bought the Ultimate tip tool.. glad I didn't. Sounds like sandpaper might be the way to go. I will also look into this Williard shaper.

This porper shaper would be great if it worked faster. I dont think you could scratch your ferrel with this unless your tip was very small to begin with.


Thanks for the help.
 
Well your guys advise worked. I had sandpaper and a plastic paper holder from the tip replacement kit I bought. So I used it to sand most of the "dime" shape, and then used a tool similiar to the Williards dime shaper to finalize it and make it perfect dime radius.

Guess what.. my Viking VM31 plays MUCH bettter now. I'm shooting like normal with it now and I can see the balls are spinning correctly now.

Wow... who knew? I had no idea having the correct tip shape made such an important difference. I think I will buy the Williards universal tool just to try it as well. I love gadgets :)

As for the Porper nickle shaper. Well I like many of his products but I dont care for this product.

Thanks for the help guys. Now its time to start learning to replace my own tips so I can upgrade to higher quality tips.

Happy Holidays
 
Hello !

I've previously used a very good type of file for shaping the tip. It is one of those files which (old) ladies use to sand down the hardened parts on the soles of their feet. It has a piece of sand paper attached to a plastic frame thus with a very good solid structure for tip shaping compared to a regular piece of sandpaper. If you are not embarrast to use it, try it. Anyway, 90% of the players don't know what it actually is, all the comments I get are "isn't that a handy tip tool or what" :-)

Btw, I have also scratched my ferrule with Ultimate Tip Tool. But on the other hand, I think it's quite useful if you're careful.

Remember that a good (shaped) tip can make a decent cue excellent and a bad tip makes an excellent cue poor.
 
kokopuffs said:
The "legs" on the Ultimate Tip Tool should have their "feet/legs" flared outward more since I, too, experienced similar damage to my ferrules.
Click to expand...

That explains the scratches i just noticed on mine.
 
Mjantti, I am familiar with the material your talking about. Its called "Ladies Aid" or better yet... Pumis stone. Its the same textured material they sell at swimming pool supply stores to lightly sand the calcium build up off the tiles around your pool (and it does work as I spent a whole day doing that once :) Its also sold at Home Depot and places to get the stained ring off the inside of toilets. Its much cheaper at home improvement stores, only about $2.50 a stick. I could see how one of those would work well.

http://www.cuesforless.com/Merchant...Product_Count=35&Category_Code=CueAccessories

There is a link to the aluminum (Check Mate) tip pick, scuffer, shaper I have that worked great. After reading the description it says it makes a nickle radius ..so I guess I'm using a nickle radius :)
 
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