Problem... and question about shaft dings

Learn to shoot opposite handed

Dings grove me nuts years ago and my shaft went from 12.5 mm to less than 12 as I worked them out. It was my first McDermott and I was learning. Then I started moving up cue wise. With my Blud, it really irritated me and I started trying to figure out how they happened. By the time I got to McWorter it dawned on me- each time I used a bridge it left a ding because the shaft would bounce on the bridge head. So I would avoid the bridge and started shooting left handed on reach shots- luckily it was just league, but I got better. I also found a stiff foam bridge head that slips on any cue that won't ding the shaft. My last two cues- the Black and the Southwest cover the last 10 years of daily play and I've had maybe two dings to work out as a result of carelessness.

My left hand play is about 70% of my right hand speed and it comes in handy when playing friends of lesser abilities. For some it's even one handed, left handed.

It's a lot of work, but worth it in many ways!
 
tap tap tap....

gunzby said:
Q Glide, Q Slick and Cue Silk are all liquid products. I was pretty hesitant of using this on wood, but figured what the hell.

Q Slick works great. You coat your shaft with it, wait a minute and then buff it out with a towel. It works good on wood as well as fiber glass shafts. It slicks up your shaft well and holds fairly well too. You have to make sure to buff it out well or it will make your shaft feel grimy.

Q Glide also works great and is even slicker. With this you only need to put a drop or two on your shaft and rub it in with a paper towel...no buffing needed. It is incredibly slick and does last for a good while.

Cue Silk is nice, but seems to be more of a cleaner than a slicker. It makes your shaft seem squeaky clean and does involve buffing. I do like using this because it makes your shaft feel brand new.

Q Smooth is nothing more than very fine sandpaper. They are washable so they do last a good while. If your shaft is gummed up with chalk, baby powder and dirt. You could use this alone, but it will change the dimensions of your shaft over the years.

Porpers shaft slicker is the only product I wasn't very impressed with. I mainly use it to buff my shaft after using Cue Silk or Q Slick.

I were to recommend any of them I would say Q Smooth and Q Slick. The Q Smooth will clean it up really good and the Q Slick will finish it off making it very slick.
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Much appreciated. I've been wondering about all these options for a while now. You've helped me decide which way to go.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

td
 
I read this thread top to bottom and see that all (almost all) of the probable shaft ding causes have been listed.

But i will list them all for anyone that doesn't want to read. Feel free to add any I may have missed.

1) Yes the pesky metal bridge/granny/crutch/ are known for dings. I carry my own plastic one and attach to my break cue.
2) Low hanging lights get me every time. whether is be from raising my cue up after the break too just being all together careless.
3) Being lazy and moving balls around with the shaft of cue to "grab and pull the balls towards you" (this one makes me cringe every time when I see others do it). I traded a cue that the forearm of the butt had so many dings that I immediately demanded my cue back. How, HOW!
4) Leaning cues on tables, counter tops, pool tables...etc. Does it every time. Get something similar to THIS.
5) dropping them, yep none of us do it intentionally but it does happen.

My favorite quickest method to remove is a damp cloth with steaming hot water. Run it slowly down the shaft (like 3 seconds from tip to base). I don't recommend this with lam shafts because the glue could be compromised). Then depending on how deep the ding will result in how raised the grain after steaming them out. It may help to use a very fine sandpaper like 600+ grit. Then burnish to finish.

Hope this helps! :thumbup:
 
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Maniac said:
Thanks for the reviews. I suppose you are in the group of people who absolutely refuse to use a glove. I use one when the Texas humidity calls for one. I can tell you this, combined with a product like Q-Slick, a good, quality pool glove makes the shaft feel slicker 'n owl shit. You just hafta be able to put up with all the "Michael Jackson" jokes :D !!!

Maniac
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I've never even tried a glove. I've actually always disliked gloves unless it's cold and I'm skiing. The only thing I've done where wearing gloves was a must for me is brick/block laying. One day I figured I could go without. By the end of the day I had worn all the skin off my fingertips to where I could see blood flowing. I wear em as little as possible in my current job which involves making coaxial cable.
 
gunzby said:
Q Glide, Q Slick and Cue Silk are all liquid products. I was pretty hesitant of using this on wood, but figured what the hell.

Q Slick works great. You coat your shaft with it, wait a minute and then buff it out with a towel. It works good on wood as well as fiber glass shafts. It slicks up your shaft well and holds fairly well too. You have to make sure to buff it out well or it will make your shaft feel grimy.

Q Glide also works great and is even slicker. With this you only need to put a drop or two on your shaft and rub it in with a paper towel...no buffing needed. It is incredibly slick and does last for a good while.

Cue Silk is nice, but seems to be more of a cleaner than a slicker. It makes your shaft seem squeaky clean and does involve buffing. I do like using this because it makes your shaft feel brand new.

Q Smooth is nothing more than very fine sandpaper. They are washable so they do last a good while. If your shaft is gummed up with chalk, baby powder and dirt. You could use this alone, but it will change the dimensions of your shaft over the years.

Porpers shaft slicker is the only product I wasn't very impressed with. I mainly use it to buff my shaft after using Cue Silk or Q Slick.

I were to recommend any of them I would say Q Smooth and Q Slick. The Q Smooth will clean it up really good and the Q Slick will finish it off making it very slick.
Click to expand...

Before using any of the above products, I'd like to suggest first cleaning the cue shaft using a soft cloth and denatured rubbing alcohol.

Q Smooth is an excellent accessory to pack into your cue case. It will definitely come in handy should you need to remove a ding or smooth your shaft while playing.

Q Clean is another product that will clean your shaft. However, the warning label on the can states that it does contain chlorine bleach and should not be mixed with ammonia or other chemicals. I tried using Q Clean this past week and it did do a good job removing most of the grit accumulation on the shaft. Does anyone have an opinion on whether Q Clean (chlorine bleach) is safe to use on a shaft?
 
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> You can indeed make the outside surface of a shaft harder,but only IF the shaft itself lets you,some shaft blanks are just that soft now.

I don't know the exact process,but I know they do it to professional-grade baseball bats,probably with some kind of hardening agent like the Minwax product shown earlier,and then burnished with a LOT more pressure than you can put on a cue shaft.

If you had really fine hand control,and a lathe that will spin a shaft at 1500RPM or so without bogging down,you could do it with a stone,or one of those glass burnishing rods.

The real problem with those is,you can leave flat spots that only radical sanding will take out.

What I do is use a polishing compound and leather while the shaft is spinning,and really take my time with it. I've also found that if done right and maintained properly,or if the shaft is old enough,it gets better over time. Ask any of the guys around here that regularly play with a Gus.

Fortunately,I have never had to do this with one of my own shafts. I see soft shaftwood like you describe most often on Meucci's,and occasionally on a Players or something like that. I maintain mine from the day I get them,and very rarely do I ever have to do more than wipe mine off with a towel. Mine stay so slick I can feel oily fingerprints,and I haven't had to remove a dent in over a year. Tommy D.
 
Dings, dings, dings...

I must say, that dings are a part of life for a pool player. If you're use something, it's gonna get wear and tear. I got a nice new stick not too long ago, and I treat it like deserves to be treated... a piece of wood. I say just play and forget about being overly cautious about your stick, I tried being really careful like people are describing and it just drove me nutz. After being so careful and watching closely not to hurt my poor little shaft, the dings happened anyways, and I had no idea how. I got extremely upset and almost flipped my lid one time. I eventually learned to let that stuff go, with the knowledge that if you use your stick, it's gonna get dinged. It's not like I'm playing with some $10k Szam or anything ya know?

You can always put a dab of hot water on the ding and then sand it out lightly, repeating as necessary to get it out.

IMO, those liquid products do nothing but get in the way. My cue maker puts on a type of coating on some of his old shafts that he produces from some old brunswicks. I have no idea what he uses, I know sometimes he uses a plain wax like a carnauba wax or something. It does come off, but it seems to help slightly. I have been told not to sand my shafts with anything more less than 12-15 hun., and they will last forever.

Just my 2c. Good Luck.
 
The glove bit its a great idea. Not that it resolves the issue in any way, but here's another viewpoint (not necessarily mine). I'm as finicky as the rest of you. And certainly, the cleaner the shaft, the quicker it will get through your fingers and get draw, follow, etc.

If it was that important, why do I never see the old greats frowning when they have to pull out the rake ? I'd be willing to bet that some of those old shafts were pretty dinged up in their time.

So, are we being AR ?

tim
 
I got a wood shaft that dings easily. I got feedup withis, so I lightly sanded it with some alcohol, let it dry for a couple of days.
Then I just lightly coated with a flexable laminating epoxy.
I used a sponge and wiped it on and wiped it off.
The result is a shiny shaft that does not ding as easy.
I did not notice any change in shaft stiffness, and the total weight increased by 2 grams. I am guessing that I left about .001 of epoxy on the shaft.
I am happy with it. It was a little sticky to slide on my hand so I lightly rubbed some 600 grit verically on the shaft and scuffed the bright finish.
Now it plays real nice.

Neil
 
From my experience.....

No matter what kinda wood shaft you have, you are gonna acquire some dents and dings and there are many ways to remove them. The best way IMHO that I do it is to take a piece of paper towel at least an inch in dimention ( Or however big you need ) and dampen it with water. Then take that piece and place it over the dent and use a regular iron and use the tip of the iron to gently go over the area with the dampened paper towel until the paper towel is either somewaht dried or till the area with the dent is raised enough that the dent is no longer there. Repeat for all other dented areas of the shaft ( except ferrule collar and areas covered with finish ). Let the shaft sit for a minute or two to give the areas fixed time to cool down. After that take 3000 grit sanding paper and start to gently smooth the areas that are raised. After this is done, wipe the shaft clean with a paper towel. Then use a leather shaft burnisher to burnish the whole shaft. This for me is the best including safest way to remove dents from the shaft without damaging the shaft.
 
I bought an Rx Cue Dr. A piece of borosilicate glass that is used to rub out shaft dings. I'm kind of a gadget guy. You know what, it actually works.
It works even better if you do the wet towel method to raise the grain and use the Rx Dr to smooth them out. I've had a few finish dings and the Dr. can take them out as well. Small dings come completely out, larger ones can be made to almost disappear.
A friend gave me a bottle of Baringers SST Speed seal.
I have a KC cue that I use as an experimental cue. I used Magic eraser to
clean the shaft and applied 2 coats of Speed Seal as per directions with a small artists brush. Sanded in between coats. Mind you, I didn't sand the shaft down to bare wood so the sealer didn't soak in. Don't really know if its supposed to or not anyway. I sanded the sealer after the second coat and applied Atlas shaft wax and burnished with leather. End result, a very nice glass like finish. I'm not going to whack the shaft against a table to prove my little test worked or not but it seems to me that it now has a bit more durable surface.
 
I had an early eighties meucci with a shaft like you describe. It picked up dents from flies landing on nearby shafts!

Hu[/QUOTE]
Thats funny. Hu your wise to beware of MEK my father died of cancer at a early age. When he was a teenager his job was to clean out asbestos from furnaces using MEK. He was a chemical engineer later after that and found out just what he had been working with.:eek:
 
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