Possible to Straighten a Warped Shaft?

C

cuetechasaurus

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
A few days ago, it reached record temperatures where I live. It was around 110 farenheit in the early afternoon. The night before, I had planned on going to the poolhall, but my friend called me while I was driving, and I decided to go out with my friends instead. My cue case was in the trunk. When I got home, I completely forgot to take my case out of the trunk. It was left in there the whole day in the scorching heat. When I finally realized that my cues were in the car, I went outside, opened the trunk, and the case was very warm. Today I went to the poolhall for the first time since then, and I rolled the cues on the table to see if they are still straight. My break cue's shaft is severely warped, one of the shafts of my playing cue is somewhat warped, and my other shaft for my playing cue seems to be ok.

Is there any way I can straighten these shafts? I heard someone talk about soaking it and hanging it for a few days. Does that work? Is there any other way? Or should I just get rid of them? Thanks
 
Hand it like they hand arrows to straighten them

cuetechasaurus said:
A few days ago, it reached record temperatures where I live. It was around 110 farenheit in the early afternoon. The night before, I had planned on going to the poolhall, but my friend called me while I was driving, and I decided to go out with my friends instead. My cue case was in the trunk. When I got home, I completely forgot to take my case out of the trunk. It was left in there the whole day in the scorching heat. When I finally realized that my cues were in the car, I went outside, opened the trunk, and the case was very warm. Today I went to the poolhall for the first time since then, and I rolled the cues on the table to see if they are still straight. My break cue's shaft is severely warped, one of the shafts of my playing cue is somewhat warped, and my other shaft for my playing cue seems to be ok.

Is there any way I can straighten these shafts? I heard someone talk about soaking it and hanging it for a few days. Does that work? Is there any other way? Or should I just get rid of them? Thanks
Click to expand...

Hang it with rubber bands, slightly wetted wouldnt hurt, with a weight at the bottom end of the shaft to pull it straight. You can hang it without the weight, but that would take a long time to straighten out.
the Beard
 
freddy the beard said:
Hang it with rubber bands, slightly wetted wouldnt hurt, with a weight at the bottom end of the shaft to pull it straight. You can hang it without the weight, but that would take a long time to straighten out.
the Beard
Click to expand...

By a little bit wet do you mean just wipe it with a wet rag and then hang it, or should I soak it so the water seeps into the wood? And how long should I keep it hanging for? Thanks again
 
If the warp isnt bad I know they can turn the shaft down a little bit and it can take out small bends.
 
Turn it down

I had a slightly warped shaft and that is what I did. I had Willie turn it down to a 12mm, and it is one of my favorite shafts now. If you don't want the shaft turned down I don't know what else to tell you. I don't think that hanging thing is going to work though. Have you ever seen a door that swells and contracts from the moisture in the air? It never goes back to it's originally shape. So I don't think a shaft will either. By turning it down your changing the shape. So that would be the thing to do I think.
 
I'm no wood expert and haven't had a shaft warp on me yet... however, everything I've read on AZB and elsewhere indicates hanging it might get the warp out, but it will eventually come back. Wood will move where it wants to and it has already indicated once where it wants to be.
 
catscradle said:
I'm no wood expert and haven't had a shaft warp on me yet... however, everything I've read on AZB and elsewhere indicates hanging it might get the warp out, but it will eventually come back. Wood will move where it wants to and it has already indicated once where it wants to be.
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Here we go!

If the warp isn't really major, you may want to try this. I've done it successfully on several shafts, never had one that I had to get rid of afterwards.

Assemble the shaft and butt and roll the cue to see where the warp is. Then take the cue and holding it in both hands try to fix the warp by putting it behind your back and pulling on it, slowly, against the warped area. You sure don't want to crack anything! Put steady pressure on it and then roll it to see if the warp went away. You may need to do this several times. Be sure to not overdo it. If you get it close to being straight, playing with the cue for a while might help it straighten out some more. Do the bending thing on the cue again and again and it will probably be ok.

Also, Freddie's suggestion about hanging the cue with weights will probably work too. Try it, you've nothing to lose.

Flex
 
I always had the same question

I probably have an appropriate avatar for this subject, but I always wondered about this anyway.

I've never heard of cue repair guys doing this, but when I was a wee lad, I had a fiddle bow that was not so much warped as seriously bent to the left about 8" from the tip. We took it to a highly recommended violin repair place and the guy looked at it, lit one of those bunsen burners, and very gently started warming up the bow around the bent area and started working the bend out by hand. Took about 5 minutes, got it pretty close, not perfect, but playable. Didn't charge us. The adjustment stayed put for years.

I don't know, anyone heard of this technique ever used on cues?
 
apply a little heat

Flex said:
Here we go!

...Assemble the shaft and butt and roll the cue to see where the warp is. Then take the cue and holding it in both hands try to fix the warp by putting it behind your back and pulling on it, slowly, against the warped area. You sure don't want to crack anything! Put steady pressure on it and then roll it to see if the warp went away. You may need to do this several times. Be sure to not overdo it. If you get it close to being straight, playing with the cue for a while might help it straighten out some more. Do the bending thing on the cue again and again and it will probably be ok.

Also, Freddie's suggestion about hanging the cue with weights will probably work too. Try it, you've nothing to lose.

Flex
Click to expand...

Now I'm starting to remember another oldfashioned fix. Similar to the above solution, gently push the tip of the shaft against the table bed holding the end of the shaft,and push down gently against the warp with the palm of the other hand. In effect bending the shaft. I seem to recall running a warm iron over the wood before attempting to bend the shaft back.

the Beard
 
freddy the beard said:
Now I'm starting to remember another old fashioned fix. Similar to the above solution, gently push the tip of the shaft against the table bed holding the end of the shaft,and push down gently against the warp with the palm of the other hand. In effect bending the shaft. I seem to recall running a warm iron over the wood before attempting to bend the shaft back.

the Beard
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I've done it tis way also freddie, also I used the steam from the iron over the warped area, and then start bending and working it back straight.

BTW, have ant of you seen Sigel adjust his cues before breaking? I have a few vids that show him doing this. He really puts a ton of flex on those shafts.

Gerry
 
freddy the beard said:
Now I'm starting to remember another oldfashioned fix. Similar to the above solution, gently push the tip of the shaft against the table bed holding the end of the shaft,and push down gently against the warp with the palm of the other hand. In effect bending the shaft. I seem to recall running a warm iron over the wood before attempting to bend the shaft back.

the Beard
Click to expand...

That's a technique I use on occasion...when they're real bad I steam 'em straight....
________
 
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I made a bow once out of a piece of oak. I threw it in a swimming pool for a day or so, then tied it to a fixture that had the bend I wanted. Let it dry and voila, a bow! I wouldn't completely soak a shaft, but dampening it pretty good and then clamping it to a wall or some flat surface may just work. Also, working off of the stuff above, drill a good sized hole in a piece of softwood anchored in a vise, then locate the bend against the edge of the hole while applying pressure to the joint end of the shaft and working along the length of it you should be able to straighten it back out.
 
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Check this out

cuetechasaurus said:
A few days ago, it reached record temperatures where I live. It was around 110 farenheit in the early afternoon. The night before, I had planned on going to the poolhall, but my friend called me while I was driving, and I decided to go out with my friends instead. My cue case was in the trunk. When I got home, I completely forgot to take my case out of the trunk. It was left in there the whole day in the scorching heat. When I finally realized that my cues were in the car, I went outside, opened the trunk, and the case was very warm. Today I went to the poolhall for the first time since then, and I rolled the cues on the table to see if they are still straight. My break cue's shaft is severely warped, one of the shafts of my playing cue is somewhat warped, and my other shaft for my playing cue seems to be ok.

Is there any way I can straighten these shafts? I heard someone talk about soaking it and hanging it for a few days. Does that work? Is there any other way? Or should I just get rid of them? Thanks
Click to expand...
Check this site out Cue. This guy went through a lot to find the same answers you are looking for. Interesting stuff.

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/billiards.htm#straight

Gene
 
Here is another way to straighten a shaft.

Roll the shaft on a pool table, mark the high spot with a pencil.

Bend the shaft at the marked location, by placing it flat on the pool table with the mark up and lifting up on either end. This will remove part of the warp, then hang the shaft for 24 hr's attached to the cues butt for weight by the cues tip.

If the warp is not gone after 24 hr's use the next step.

Get yourself a small electric stove and heat the high spot marked, by rotating the shaft over the stove element until hot to the touch.

Then place the shaft on a flat surface with the mark up and lift up on either end and bend the shaft at the marked location.

The applied heat will allow the tension in the wood to relax and return to its normal straightness, before the incident.

Then hang the shaft with butt attached from the tip. Allow it to hang for 24 hr's then check it.

Sometimes, a shaft will warp in more than one location. It is possible that you may have to heat the shaft at more than one location after marking it.

You may also have to do the above procedure more than once in some cases, how well it will work is based on the Quality of the Shaft wood, how it was turned, and many other factors.

I have been using this procedure for many years and it will work!!! I have never had a case were I could not improve a warped shaft, and at times the results are great, especially in cases like yours.

Craig
 
If none of these suggestions work. Bring it to Chattanooga. I know a gal named Cyndi that'll straighten any shaft.
 
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