Phenolic Tip Care

[murdoc23]

Sorry for a noob question, but I just got a break shaft with a Phenolic tip on it, and was wondering if there is any special care required of it? Do you cut a standard nickle / dime radius to it? Or leave it more squared off? And when breaking do you tend to try and keep it heavily chalked or light?

 

[ctyhntr]

The whole point of having a phenolic tip is that it doesn't deform or mushroom like leather tips under hard breaking. I haven't touched my breaking shaft since buying it from Mike Gulyassy. You're free to modify to suit your taste, but I figure Mr Gulyassy may know a thing or two about tips.

 

[MitchAlsup]

My phenolic tip on my jump cue is a quarter radius and is 14mm in size.

 

[Snapshot9]

tip

They require no maintenance at all after they are put on right. You want them not high, and kind flatten out, I would say quarter or half dollar radius.

BUT, if you play anywhere that has BCA rules, you can not use a phenolic tipped break cue. I have 2 shafts for my J&J break/jump cue, and have a phenolic tip on one of them, and I just got a super 'dud' put on the other shaft, so I can use it for tournaments with BCA rules.

 

[purpdrag]

I have a Predator BK2 (they all come with phenolic tips) and I tried to shape it a little bit before I realized that was probably a mistake. It's so hard it didn't really change the shape anyway and just seemed like it was abrading it. Didn't seem to hurt it though.

The shape it arrived in is just fine for a break cue. I've had it for over a year without ever touching it since and it still works awesomely, and I expect it will continue to do so for many years to come.

My advice is don't touch it. All it ever needs is a little chalk before each break.

 

[gulyassy]

There is a maintenance on phenolic tips. They do actually mushroom out a little depending on the breaker. One thing is for certain. If it is the canvas phenolic which is most of all the tips used for breaking, will probably fail as a break tip. A percentage of them have broke already, the rest have a good chance to chip or crack eventually because of the the way they are manufactured. I would suggest a piece of 60 grit sand paper to keep the tip roughed up. Depending on the grade of phenolic, it will fuzz up to hold chalk. This will help out the miscues. If the ferrule does bulge out, it can be sanded back down. I have seen may of the ferrules from hard breakers that can mushroom the ferrule but if id does not mushroom it will break. I know that there are many cue repair men out there to support this. Do I have an answer for this problem? Yes I do. My break jump and jump cue ferrules are built to hold up to even the fastest breaker. They are unconditionally guaranteed not to break and hold chalk better. These new my new FT2 ferrules.

 

[Black-Balled]

The whole point of having a phenolic tip is that it doesn't deform or mushroom like leather tips under hard breaking. I haven't touched my breaking shaft since buying it from Mike Gulyassy. You're free to modify to suit your taste, but I figure Mr Gulyassy may know a thing or two about tips.

:withstupid:
I figure Mr Gulyassy may know a thing or two about tips.[/

 

[Ghosst]

They do actually mushroom out a little depending on the breaker. ... A percentage of them have broke already, the rest have a good chance to chip or crack eventually because of the the way they are manufactured. I would suggest a piece of 60 grit sand paper to keep the tip roughed up. Depending on the grade of phenolic, it will fuzz up to hold chalk. This will help out the miscues.

I've seen a few crack and break too, but figured these were the exception rather than the rule. The sandpaper advice is good, I've done the same with mine to help it hold chalk a little better.

As far as mushrooming, I haven't seen that before although I'm sure it's possible but I can't imagine how much force it would take. I've been breaking as hard as possible over the last year with my Stinger shaft and this is what it looks like today.