re-tipping cues

M

mashokist

Member
Hi,

I seem to go through tips very quickly, about one a month, and I want to start re-tipping my cues. are there any products that are good for home retipping?

I don't have room for a lathe or any big machinery, but I want to be able to change my tips whenever I want. Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
tipping

i found a wil;lard tipping machine on ebay cheap one time .. thats what i use to retip my sticks ... there about 500 or more through muller but there handy.. to sand shafts and stuff i found harbors on ebay also that fit the three must common cue pins. put it in drill spin shaft and sand it . then put then coat of wax to seal it again and r done...
 
Klopek said:
You reshape your tips a lot don't you?. Let me save you some money, whatever shape it ends up, leave it that way, your game will improve because of it. Ask me how I know.:)
Click to expand...
And try a Moori--you'll shape it once or twice tops.
 
Klopek said:
You reshape your tips a lot don't you?. Let me save you some money, whatever shape it ends up, leave it that way, your game will improve because of it. Ask me how I know.:)
Click to expand...

How do you know ?

Obedient Dave

PS I do my own tips, staring just like Chuck but I put 13mm tips on a 13mm cue and don't have to trim :)

I use Elk Masters, shape once to a nickle radius, and have no problems with shape until it gets too thin, in perhaps 8 - 10 months (and I play a fair bit ~ 8-10 hrs / week)
 
mashokist said:
Hi,

I seem to go through tips very quickly, about one a month, and I want to start re-tipping my cues. are there any products that are good for home retipping?

I don't have room for a lathe or any big machinery, but I want to be able to change my tips whenever I want. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Click to expand...
How much do you shape your tip? I have heard that a touring pro runs through their tip once every 6 months or more. I have a table at home, and play on the weekends, and my tip is still in good shape - and it's almost a year old. What are you doing to run out of a tip in a month?

You should only have to reshape your tip 2-3 times, before it "shapes itself" to your style of play. When you scuff it, you shouldn't be taking off any tip material to get it to take chalk.

-td
 
re tipping

That's wearing through tips pretty fast unless you're putting in some serious hours. Elkmasters will wear down fast though. You might want to try a longer lasting tip.

One tip for 'home-tipping' I would recommend is to use a 36" bar clamp when holding the tip till it dries. I found that pressing the tip on firmly you will get much more consistant results. I got this clamp from Harbor Freight for $7.

38184.gif
 
td873 said:
How much do you shape your tip? I have heard that a touring pro runs through their tip once every 6 months or more. I have a table at home, and play on the weekends, and my tip is still in good shape - and it's almost a year old. What are you doing to run out of a tip in a month?

You should only have to reshape your tip 2-3 times, before it "shapes itself" to your style of play. When you scuff it, you shouldn't be taking off any tip material to get it to take chalk.

-td
Click to expand...
Any touring pro that understands their equipment, knows that a tip does not last in it's present state, for more than six months. Most tips don't last that long.

Before you ask, what I mean by this is that if you play with a soft or even a medium tip, it loses it's original hardness in a shorter time than most think. The reason for this is the amount of pounding the leather takes against the hard phenolic balls. Think about it.

Gene
 
TD873 ... I was trying to shew that bug off my screen cause I live in the woods and you got me ...:eek: :cool: Willards is the way to go and set up a reversable & varialble motor in a tool box with a chuck on the shaft ... Then buy you a maintainence pin for cues and your in business ... Put on your tip & cut it down with the Willards and sand , burnish , and shape with the motor spinning the shaft ... use one hand to steady shaft as it spins and the other to hold sand paper or burnish material ... a good trick is to use a cloth glove on your steady hand , also get a tip trimmer to shape your tip ... Dennis Riley did it for years , used to watch him every Saturday... He was a cool papa ...;)
 
Why would anyone touch a tip that is playing good?

Once a month? Someone is doing something wrong. Guess who.
 
Cuedog said:
Any touring pro that understands their equipment, knows that a tip does not last in it's present state, for more than six months. Most tips don't last that long.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. A tip is reduced by the chalk eating it away, or the player shaping it (i.e., removing leather). You would be hard pressed to "play" a tip down in 6 months.

Cuedog said:
Before you ask, what I mean by this is that if you play with a soft or even a medium tip, it loses it's original hardness in a shorter time than most think. The reason for this is the amount of pounding the leather takes against the hard phenolic balls. Think about it.
Click to expand...

Tips gain hardness over their lifespan. But this is a good thing.

Layered tips notwithstanding, tips need to be compressed to mushroom out, and be trimmed (once or twice) to get to their optimum playing hardness. The tip should then have a consistent hit until it is too small to play with. And consitency is the key to playing well. Many (if not most) pros will run their tip until it is almost completely gone - down to the last millimeter of leather. This is because the tip has become uniform, and they know it. I have seen pros that refuse to change a tip before a tournament because it was exactly like they want it. It has nothing to do with a tip no longer being "soft" enough, or pounding phenolic.

-td
 
Klopek said:
Most touring pros know enough to leave a tip that's playing well alone. Unless you hit the balls ridiculously hard, it's not expecting too much that a tip last closer to a year. I have a cue with a 10 year old elkmaster that still plays fine. I like the way it hits, so I leave it alone. Every time you reshape a tip you have to learn it all over again.

If you find a tip hits too hard after a month, maybe you're starting with a tip that was too hard.
Click to expand...
I agree that running through a tip once a month is excessive, and is most likely caused by an obsessive desire to shape and scuff constantly. However, when you replace a tip today, (eg. med-soft Kamui) it is inconceivable that a year from now, that tip will still be med-soft. It will still be a Kamui, just not med-soft any longer. (This assumes the player is active multiple times per week, not just a once a week player.)

As far as your 10 year old Elkmaster is concerned, there is little doubt that it "still plays fine" to you. But, I highly doubt that it is the same structurally, as the day you put it on. It has compacted over the years and you have simply adjusted gradually to conform.

Gene
 
Last edited:
td873 said:
I respectfully disagree. A tip is reduced by the chalk eating it away, or the player shaping it (i.e., removing leather). You would be hard pressed to "play" a tip down in 6 months.

Ans: I agree but how quickly a tip wears down should not be and is not the primary reason for replacing it.


Tips gain hardness over their lifespan. But this is a good thing.

Ans: It is? Ask players that want that soft or even medium tip experience, if they agree with this statement.

Layered tips notwithstanding, tips need to be compressed to mushroom out, and be trimmed (once or twice) to get to their optimum playing hardness. The tip should then have a consistent hit until it is too small to play with. And consitency is the key to playing well. Many (if not most) pros will run their tip until it is almost completely gone - down to the last millimeter of leather. This is because the tip has become uniform, and they know it. I have seen pros that refuse to change a tip before a tournament because it was exactly like they want it. It has nothing to do with a tip no longer being "soft" enough, or pounding phenolic.

-td
Click to expand...
If i continue to answer the rest of your post, it might appear that I am disagreeing just to disagree. Although I agree with some of what you have said, I respectfully disagree with most of it based on 15 plus years of experience working with a few name cuemakers as well as having worked on the cues of many pros.

You would be surprised how many pros look to the cuemaker/repairman to make suggestions regarding their tip as well as other aspects of their equipment. Two of the top reasons some play their tip down so far is... (1) ...not wanting to break in a new tip before a tournament. Well, if they are trying to stay in dead stroke, they are in action and/or playing tournaments daily/weekly. (2) Many have one, maybe two guys that they even allow to touch their cue to do work on. If they don't plan ahead, these two reasons alone lead to not getting a tip changed before it gets to the ferrule.

These aren't assumptions or guess work. It's just experience talking.

Gene
 
Soon after I first got "the bug" I was playing well over 30 hours a week. I'd wear through a Le Pro about every 3 months. I decided to figure out how to install them myself by trial and error, only f#(&ed up my ferrule once.

After buying a break stick and switching to a layered tip, I could easily go 8-10 months before needing a new tip. These I will not do myself.

Now I rarely play 15 hours a week and the layered tip will last me about a year and a half.

I also don't scuff/shape as much as I did when I didn't know what I was doing, which surely helps as well.
 
don't know

Don't know what kind of tip you are using but I really like the sniper tips.I
had a team captian in leauges that was so arrogant it almost made me sick.
He used to swear that was the best tip blah blah blah.SO after a year of
not seeing that guy anymore I decided "what the heck" I have had a sniper
tip on a ob-1 shaft for 6 months or more .I have re-shaped it once in that
time frame.I have broke with it and really tried to abuse the dang thing and
it will not mushroom , it keeps its shape and keeps comming back for more.I
don't know if I am writting this to let you know about the tips or to say yes
you can learn something from an arrogant ass :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top