Probably a stupid idea...but worth a shot

[JCIN]

I will tell you to go out and get some big industrial size rubberband.

Take it and stretch it over the tip so that the tip is completely covered (hence the industrial size) and stretch it down and tie it off on the shaft somehow (it's not that hard)

Then try and shoot with it.

You will soon find out that unless your stroke is absolutely perfect, that you are going to have a hard time making the cue ball go forward, let alone, trying to pocket something or put spin on something.

It's actually a great training tool if you want to straighten your stroke out.

Just see how many balls you can run like this.

Then rethink the question about rubber a rubber tip.

When I visited Tony Scianella's shop last year he asked me if I knew why tips were made of leather. I said "Duh.....tradition?" LOL I had never thought about it.

He told me it was because of the compression that leather allowed. It allows the tip to stay in contact with the ball longer than rubber or similar materials. To prove his point he did the very thing Superstar mentions above with a big rubber band over the tip of a $20,000 Black Boar. The results were both entertaining and enlightening.

<----wonders how a super duper high tech foam would work?

 

[TheBook]

Rubber may not have been available to the the guy that got credit for using leather on the end of a cue stick. Since it worked it has been the standard and I think that it is in the rules that a tip has to be leather. :shrug:

 

[AuntyDan]

No we should use flubber. The first flubber tips should be for the jump/break cue, just imagine the effect it would have...

No no no, you would have to make the BALLS out of Flubber to get these kind of effects. That's just basic science, I mean c'mon.

Seriously though, after a hundred years there's no real competition to wood shafts and leather tips, both in terms of performance and cost/reproducibility.

I'm sure with enough time and money both could be replaced with artificial substitutes, but we all still wear leather shoes right? Sometimes natural materials really just do the job better.

 

[JohnnyOzone]

If you're single, rubber over the tip is ALWAYS a good idea......... :wink:

 

[SoundWaves]

My brother in law has such a product. I'm not sure if he's recieved his pattent yet, I've tried to stay out of it. They created a slip on rubber tip/ aluminum ferule to market to bars and other people that would like less maintanence on the cues. I tried it and I can't say I saw a problem with acidental english, but the feal is very different and the sound of the hit is almost gone. Not so shure the "Players" would ever bite, but it could work in some circles.

 

[softshot]

Leather tips are nothing but a PITA that need shapers, burnishers, picks, scuffers, sand paper....etc....all those businesses would suffer without the leather tip.
G.

While I agree with much of what you said...

The people who make sand paper will do just fine no matter what :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[jgpool]

You might be right.

Rubber may not have been available to the the guy that got credit for using leather on the end of a cue stick. Since it worked it has been the standard and I think that it is in the rules that a tip has to be leather. :shrug:

From what I understand the leather tip was first invented in a French jail. The story is that the gentleman who invented the leather tip asked to be allowed to stay in the jail longer than his sentence. He was on the verge of completing this and asked for an extension. Was his name Minauld?

 

[ronhudson]

I'd like to see someone shoot with a tip made out of the Wham-o superball material.

 

[ShootingArts]

hmmmmm

I'd like to see someone shoot with a tip made out of the Wham-o superball material.

Now that you mention it I have a secret cache of several hundred little superball type balls that might be just the ticket if I can figure out how to cut them.

Along the same lines, I wonder how the solid golf balls would work?

Hu

 

[jay helfert]

I will tell you to go out and get some big industrial size rubberband.

Take it and stretch it over the tip so that the tip is completely covered (hence the industrial size) and stretch it down and tie it off on the shaft somehow (it's not that hard)

Then try and shoot with it.

You will soon find out that unless your stroke is absolutely perfect, that you are going to have a hard time making the cue ball go forward, let alone, trying to pocket something or put spin on something.

It's actually a great training tool if you want to straighten your stroke out.

Just see how many balls you can run like this.

Then rethink the question about rubber a rubber tip.

Someone came out with a hard rubber tip about 20 years ago. It went over like a lead balloon. I hit a few balls. NO control of the cue ball, and no feel. I only had to hit two balls to know it wasn't for me.

 

[TheBook]

Wasn't there someone trying to market tips that were filled with nitrogen?

Get with him and combine the 2. Use rubber, insert a little valve and fill with nitrogen. You could then adjust the hardness without changing the tip.

Just think of the possibilities after it catches on. There will be different tread designs, high speed, low profile, winter, summer, high and low humidity, puncture proof. Instead of gluing them on there will be a little ridge that is cut into the end of the shaft for the bead of the tip to seal in. Someone else will start marketing high speed balancing machines and little weights. Someone else will start making weights out of different materials to dress up the cue. There will also be tip protectors to be used when storing the cue. They will look like custom wheels. Someone will get a idea make them look as if they are spinning. Instead of shaping the tip you will have to take it in for alignment. Someone will come up with a tip dressing to restore that new or wet look.

The price will drastically change with the price of oil. The oil producing countries will eventually decide to cut back on oil production again. The oil companies will be accused of gouging as they will be making millions. Some manufacturerers will be sued because cues are rolling over on a flat surface. The cue makers will deny that it is the shaft. They will claim that the stress of the tip is causing the shafts to warp. Eventually the government will step in and start to regulate the tips and make the manufacturer provide safety data, labels, MSDS, and etc. In order to pay for this regulation there will be a use tax, luxury tax, gaming tax, and also disposal fees. Because of this we start to see inferior bootleg imitations being smuggled into the country. Also some weights being used are discovered to be made in China and contain lead. President Obama decides to appoint someone to head a committee to take care of this mess but he cannot find anyone in congress that paid their taxes

Maybe we better stick with leather.

 

[3kushn]

Now that you mention it I have a secret cache of several hundred little superball type balls that might be just the ticket if I can figure out how to cut them.

Along the same lines, I wonder how the solid golf balls would work?

Hu

Cutting a super ball could possibly be done with a scalloped band saw blade. Then shape it with fine grit belt. Both at high speed.