player to repairman to cuemaker(any and all)
- Thread starter HDR10
- Start date
Cool....in 15 years how many dif. cue configurations do you think you tried?...like 57''-60'' length or SS collar with small/big pin,plastic collars<<stuff like that
Well, I loved the game from a very young age. When I was a kid I would go over to my neighbors house. They had a pool table. I would play for hours by myself. But, I did not take the game seriously until the late 90s. I had a friend that was an excellent player and I just marveled at his game. He has taught me so much and got me started in a league.
From there, my love of cues took over and I started collecting a few. Then the worst thing that could happen to a burgeoning cue addict fell upon me. I discovered AZBilliards.com!
My cue collection grew to over 20 cues and I got tired of paying to have tips replaced. I have always been a DIY kind of guy. So, I bought a used repair lathe from Mr. Herbert Rhudy, the OP of this thread. He spent about 3 hours showing me how to replace tips and ferrules, and even put a wrap on a cue for me. I was off from there.
I started putting tips on for friends, then a local pool room, and my repair business grew from there. People started asking me to do things that my little repair lathe could not handle.
So, in December of 2009 I bought a used deluxe with a lot of extra goodies including some wood and shafts ready to be turned. I got the lathe mainly to be able to do more extensive repair work and build some shafts. That thought lasted all of about a month and I had my first cue in process.
There is no better feeling to me than to tell someone that you built the cue you are playing with. Then point down the pool room and say I built that one and that one and that one. You see their expresion change to amazement. I am about 15 cues into my journey. People seem to like my cues enough to order new ones from me. That is such a huge validating compliment to me. I have made alot of mistakes already and learned a hell of a lot in the last couple of years. Mostly I learned that building cues is more addictive than playing pool. It is expensive, messy, and there is not much money in it, but it is damn satisfying when you finish a cue that you can be proud of.
Gotta go now, I have some joint rings to put onto a shaft.
From there, my love of cues took over and I started collecting a few. Then the worst thing that could happen to a burgeoning cue addict fell upon me. I discovered AZBilliards.com!
My cue collection grew to over 20 cues and I got tired of paying to have tips replaced. I have always been a DIY kind of guy. So, I bought a used repair lathe from Mr. Herbert Rhudy, the OP of this thread. He spent about 3 hours showing me how to replace tips and ferrules, and even put a wrap on a cue for me. I was off from there.
I started putting tips on for friends, then a local pool room, and my repair business grew from there. People started asking me to do things that my little repair lathe could not handle.
So, in December of 2009 I bought a used deluxe with a lot of extra goodies including some wood and shafts ready to be turned. I got the lathe mainly to be able to do more extensive repair work and build some shafts. That thought lasted all of about a month and I had my first cue in process.
There is no better feeling to me than to tell someone that you built the cue you are playing with. Then point down the pool room and say I built that one and that one and that one. You see their expresion change to amazement. I am about 15 cues into my journey. People seem to like my cues enough to order new ones from me. That is such a huge validating compliment to me. I have made alot of mistakes already and learned a hell of a lot in the last couple of years. Mostly I learned that building cues is more addictive than playing pool. It is expensive, messy, and there is not much money in it, but it is damn satisfying when you finish a cue that you can be proud of.
Gotta go now, I have some joint rings to put onto a shaft.
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I probably played around 10 years before starting to tip My own cues and tipping for some others in the late 80's to early 90's, by the end of the 90's I was doing tips, ferrules and shaft cleaning, and picked up enough regular business to warrant investing in better equipment, from there I just kept adding to My capabilities. I think I built My first cue somewhere between 2003-2005.
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I played for about 8 years before I started doing repairs. Started building cues a year later. I built my first cue in 1994!
I have played pool since I was a kid. I have repaired my own tips ever since I was a teenager. But when I first started doing cue repairs that I got paid for was when I was about 25. A couple of years later I started building cues. That has been twenty something years ago.
I started playing pool when I was a youngster, probably 6 or 7
I started repairing cues when the local cue guy(Popeye on here) moved away for work...
That was 99 or 2000
I have been making jump cues for the last 5 years or so and am just making the jump to building full cues
I started repairing cues when the local cue guy(Popeye on here) moved away for work...
That was 99 or 2000
I have been making jump cues for the last 5 years or so and am just making the jump to building full cues
I started fixing, refinishing, and inlaying cues 3 months after I started playing. Eisenhower was still in office. I started building full time 28 years later. I'm still experimenting, learning, and having fun.
Hey Chris,
I always wondered, which cue maker do you feel was the biggest influence or inspired you to start building cues.
Also when did you design the first double chuck headstock?
Rick
I started playing pool at 13. I was about 42 when I started trying to make laminated shaft blanks to sell and made my first laminated butt when about 45, now I will be 58 in about.....18 days.
Bob Danielson
www.bdcuesandcomix.com
Bob Danielson
www.bdcuesandcomix.com
Leonard Bludworth and Danny Tibbitts helped me develop the itch to build cues. Leonard got me to wanting to do serious repairs and Danny inspired me to build cues. Danny and I lived a few miles from each other and were pretty good friends. It was Danny who told me I should get into the Lathe business after he saw how far I had modified a Home Depot wood lathe for cue work. So I bought some of them and converted them like my lathe was converted. I think we built the first double chuck cheadstock in 1994.
I've played for about 20 years and have been itching to make cues since my first visit to Ray Schuler's shop in 1991. I got another dose of that itch when I went to Samsara to get a ferrule replaced. They were a one minute walk down the street. Finally, last year, I got a lathe from Chris Hightower. I don't play with my Schuler cues as much as I used to. Now, I play with one of my own. Somewhere around 1996, I started replacing my own tips.
Had a love affair with pool since I was 10 years old when I was too young to get into a pool room but looked through the windoe at the characters who frequented the place. I am now 75.
Started collecting cues about 15 years ago but always wanted a 60 " cue.
My wife passed away some 4 years ago and I had the place all to myself and needed something to do so I built a shop; got a Deluxe lathe from Chris and have been chewing up wood since then.
For an old guy, I still shoot good stick and have sold over 30 cues to the local's here in the Beantown area. Still amazed at my enthusiasm and desire to go into the shop and work on my latest creation.
Love the game and those who play it.
It has changed a lot over the past 60+ years. Pool rooms don't have the flavor that they had those many years ago. They were really seedy then.
When I watch The Color of Money and Fast Eddie is coming up the stairs to that old time pool room and he asks Vinnie,"Can you feel it"
I know what he's talking about. Those rooms had real character and characters.
Started collecting cues about 15 years ago but always wanted a 60 " cue.
My wife passed away some 4 years ago and I had the place all to myself and needed something to do so I built a shop; got a Deluxe lathe from Chris and have been chewing up wood since then.
For an old guy, I still shoot good stick and have sold over 30 cues to the local's here in the Beantown area. Still amazed at my enthusiasm and desire to go into the shop and work on my latest creation.
Love the game and those who play it.
It has changed a lot over the past 60+ years. Pool rooms don't have the flavor that they had those many years ago. They were really seedy then.
When I watch The Color of Money and Fast Eddie is coming up the stairs to that old time pool room and he asks Vinnie,"Can you feel it"
I know what he's talking about. Those rooms had real character and characters.
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Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!Im not even close to your age but I remember some of the end of that pool ''era''!Very sorry to hear your wife passed!!!!Would love to do a meet/greet sometime....I always loved talking to the fellas of your generation about the good'ol days when I was a kiddie.........
Thanks for your nice reply.
Like all "ol guys" I have more than a few stories to tell.
When I wuz in high school a few of us would often skip school and go into Boston to the "mines": a real pool room. We would play for our lunch money and the winners would go to the Berlesqe show in Scolley Square while the losers would hang out and watch the shooters.
Boston Shorty was a regular there but I was not aware of the reputation he would receive in later years.
All I knew was that you did not mess with him.
I am always up for a lookback at the "good o'l days".
Thanks for your interest
Weegee aka Herb Whiffen
781-248-9594
I've been playing for 16 years and I am getting very curious about building some cues. (Against the good advice of many cue builders)