Not really a tech question.. but I need some advice...

phinmole

phinmole

www.phinmole.com
Silver Member
Hello everyone.

I want to carry my main shooter cue in my car all the time but I wanted it protected as much as possible. Now, take into account my shooter cue is a 200.00 80's Hicks Stick so it is priceless to me even though its not a high dollar cue. So, I want to keep it from warping and safe from normal everyday driving.

Can anyone recommend a good case that isn't a 500.00+ one for this purpose?

Felix
 
I personally think that the Porper cases, with injected foam, would provide the greatest protection from rapid temperature change, which is the real enemy of wood. Any cases interior will reach the temperature of the enviroment if left exposed long enough. Delaying the cold or heat from the cue gives you more traveling time between stops. RA
 
I live in the North East where the temp ranges from 100 on a really bad summer day to 0 on a super cold winter day. I have been leaving my cues in the car every single day for at least 5 years now. I use a $20 Its George soft case. None of my cues have warped in all this time, including 2 predators and 1 custom.

Your millage may vary:)
 
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I don't know of a single cuemaker that would recommend leaving your cue in the car. The temperature & humidity changes, that you would be exposing your cue to are too extreame, for any piece of wood. Why take the chance. By the time you find out if your cue could survive such treatment, it could be too late. Don't do it...JER
 
iusedtoberich said:
I live in the North East where the temp ranges from 100 on a really bad summer day to 0 on a super cold winter day. I have been leaving my cues in the car every single day for at least 5 years now. I use a $20 Its George soft case. None of my cues have warped in all this time, including 2 predators and 1 custom Scruggs.

Your millage may vary:)
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It's not so much a warping problem. Think about what that freeze and thaw is doing to the glue joints in your cue. When you have a cue out in 0* temps and then bring it in to a warm and humid indoors what happens?? You have condensation all over your cue. I'll never understand why someone would do that to any cue.
 
I don't suggest leaving a cue in your car for long periods of times. I baked a dealer case of cues in Las Vegas one year and almost all of them warped. The car felt like an oven when I opened the door. When I travel and know I will be going inside for a couple of hours shopping or something here is what I do now. I picked up a space blanket when I visited the space museum and I wrap my case in it. In a couple of hours or so of summer heat or winter cold the case does not change temperature hardly at all. Now given all day I think the results would be different. The space blanket works like a thermos. I wonder why someone does not use that material like a double liner inside a pool cue case?
 
more of the same but i recommed a vaccume sealed case like its george gtf or ron thomas. your case with be worth the same if not more then your cue but vaccum sealed is the best option. as far as protection from the moisture and elements.

a zipper and foam doesnt keep the moisture out. i only use vaccum sealed cases
 
Be careful of the temp for sure:

I don't like the felt/foam cases, heres one reason we learned this year, We have a tahoe and the cues go in the back, well the first day they did get alittle hot, the cases, they are the 40x40 rolling cases J&J sells, anyway the cases got hot, and some of the glue melted inside the case and and got on the shafts, never the butts but the shafts? Lucky I think. but anyway, we were lucky our friend was out there with his lathe set up for the BCA, otherwise, it would have been strange showing cues and handing them shafts with glue on them. POINT, becare full of some of the injected molded foam cases, There made in stacked form, and have glue the length of the cues.
 
phinmole said:
Hello everyone.

I want to carry my main shooter cue in my car all the time but I wanted it protected as much as possible. Now, take into account my shooter cue is a 200.00 80's Hicks Stick so it is priceless to me even though its not a high dollar cue. So, I want to keep it from warping and safe from normal everyday driving.

Can anyone recommend a good case that isn't a 500.00+ one for this purpose?

Felix
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I have a Haluberton aluminum case that holds four cues. It has at least 3 inches of foam on each side of the cues. I still wouldn't leave them in the car. I would not be as worried about moisture as I would be about the wood and other cue parts heating up and cooling down. They rate of expansion for each type of materials is different and will cause all sorts of issues to say the least. You may concider buying a second cue so that you can through the first out when it gets too bad. That would be good money spent.

Jim.
 
Craig Fales said:
It's not so much a warping problem. Think about what that freeze and thaw is doing to the glue joints in your cue. When you have a cue out in 0* temps and then bring it in to a warm and humid indoors what happens?? You have condensation all over your cue. I'll never understand why someone would do that to any cue.
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The reason to leave the cue in the car year round for me is because I must always have it with me. I won't know what pool room I'll end up at on any given day. I play all the time and am always prepared for the local fish calling and asking to play at such and such room. I have to have my equipment with me. I know it is not recommended, and I would also not recommend it. However to me, it is more important to be prepared than to worry about cue damage. I look at is as simply the cost of doing business.
 
i would worry more about the effect of heat on the glue than cold.i would imagine in certain regions the trunk of a car can get over 150 degress which is getting close to the limit on some glues.
 
iusedtoberich said:
The reason to leave the cue in the car year round for me is because I must always have it with me. I won't know what pool room I'll end up at on any given day. I play all the time and am always prepared for the local fish calling and asking to play at such and such room. I have to have my equipment with me. I know it is not recommended, and I would also not recommend it. However to me, it is more important to be prepared than to worry about cue damage. I look at is as simply the cost of doing business.
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Very well, but you could bring inside where ever you are at. I've taken my cues into restaurants before. I would suggest a cue with no more parts than necessary and call it your "trunk cue". Minimal worries about climatic changes then.
 
Get a heavy fleece blanket, fold it up so there's an equal amount when you put it between layers. It allows the temperature to stabilize slowly.
 
phinmole said:
Hello everyone.

I want to carry my main shooter cue in my car all the time but I wanted it protected as much as possible. Now, take into account my shooter cue is a 200.00 80's Hicks Stick so it is priceless to me even though its not a high dollar cue. So, I want to keep it from warping and safe from normal everyday driving.

Can anyone recommend a good case that isn't a 500.00+ one for this purpose?

Felix
Click to expand...

get one of the premier instroke cases. they'll protect your cue well enough from banging around. if i were you i'd just take the cue out of the car if you plan on leaving the car. when you're in the car you'll probably have the heat or ac on so the temperature'll be fairly regulated but when you leave the car for long enough it slowly adjusts to the temperature outside.
 
There is no perfect insulator

SO the temp of the cue in any case will vary with the ambient temp. It may take a few hours to change temp appreciably, but it will happen. You have two problems from this: extreme heat which can loosen epoxy and other glues and soften some finishes, and: the issue of bringing an either hot or cold cue to room temp when it is time to play. A sudden change in temp is as harmful as the peak temperatures. So now we have to acclimate the cues to our playing room which takes as long as we can be patient enough for. A cold cue will be subject to condensing moisture, and a hot cue may have softened the glues enough to damage construction when you use it to strike the cue ball.
At least take the cue and case out of the trunk on the way over to the pool hall. The time in the back seat with the climate control of the interior of the car will help to bring things up to playing temp, and ease some to the shock.
 
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