did everyone forget this from his last headstock thread????
Well now we're hearing the other side of the story. If the dude knew about a flaw in design and still sold them without disclosing the info about the flaws, then it's a raw deal no matter how you shake it. I understand what you are talking about. I have a steel bed from Todd that is too narrow for taig carriages, so the carriage is too big & the slop causes binding no matter what. Doesn't really matter to me because it's only used for a sanding/finishing lathe & has no carriage. But I am aware of what you are describing. I was under the impression that Bassel's beds were Taig, and only mounted on different base. I'm not that aware of his stuff so it's easy that I could be unclear. I had no idea he was manufacturing the bed itself.
Like I said in the beginning regarding Brianna and then Bassel, a machine must be thoroughly tested & abused to reveal flaws BEFORE marketing. Would be best if it could be done by a cue maker. I even explained this to Bassel via phone conversation. A knowledgeable, well established & experienced cue maker needs to work with these machines for a period of time so they can report to him the issues that need work (no i'm not interested, just suggested). I suggested he find a cuemaker near him & pay that cuemaker to use a machine & cut 100 or so shafts, build some basic cues, etc. to run it through it's paces. Apparently he didn't do that. No biggie, it was just friendly advice & doesn't concern me in the least. I thought he was a nice guy & I like the idea of somebody working toward advancing specialized cue equipment. But pretty quickly I caught the hint that that it wasn't nearly as passionate as it was hurry to start capitalizing.
People need to understand that Chris Hightower BUILDS CUES. He has for a couple decades. He knows what the lathe is supposed to do. He built himself a lathe, used it, and THEN when he realized he had a worthy machine, he marketed it. To his credit, he has altered & advanced the machines through the years. All these newer imitation machines are being produced by non-builders, and getting mods & 'upgrades' that are unproven, only theoretical. Guys are cashing in on wannabe cue makers with machines that have never been proven by real cue makers....or anybody for that matter. Point is, just because Hightower's machines are Taig based doesn't mean I can buy a bunch of Taig stuff & build a machines that works like his does, then add a couple of unproven gadgets & claim it's a better machine. I'd fail. Ask Joe Barringer about it. Love him or hate him, at least he had the sense to understand that making a cue worthy machine from Taig stuff wasn't as simple as it seemed, and he lost his ass in trying. And he admits such. At least he didn't market them anyway, knowing they didn't work. He had the idea a decade ago. If it was so easy, he'd be selling machines right now.
Anyway, i'm done with my soap box. Sorry you got duped, Snipershot. Bassel, like I advised before when you called, get your machines tested THOROUGHLY by EXPERIENCED cue makers before trying to market them, or this industry will tear you up. Looks like you are finding that out the hard way. Like I said, I will support anybody who is genuinely trying to advance specialized cue machines. But it's gotta be done right & not just a get rich quick scheme. A good product will sell itself. Junk will break you no matter how great a salesman you are. Tough lesson to learn.
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and that was posted by a very respected cue maker, who uses similiar products to build his cues.
now as far as calling you about a indexer yes i did because knockoffs are cheap big whoop.
you sir are a liar and trying to make it sound like your a saint on here, but your just a 2 faced SOB here to make a buck and nothing else.
chris hightower deserves everybit of the respect i give and as i usually state I would buy a hightower first if i couldnt fit a metal lathe which is how i started.
let me ask you this how often are there any threads like this about his product???
hopefully new people will learn from this and stay away.
I can't imagine its all that hard to fix if it does.
