Reducing shaft diameter

[whammo57]

You'll just make it worse.
Might as well heat it and bend it.

The shaft I refused to sand down was on an old Meucci. When you roll it, you can see light under the center of the shaft on every roll.

If you look at the grain where the warp is, the grain from the front of the shaft runs off the shaft to the left and the grain from the joint end runs off the shaft to the right.... right at the same point.

There is no cue builder on this forum that would have ever made a shaft from this piece of wood...........

I can do pics if you want to see it..

Kim

 

[Dirtbmw20]

The shaft I refused to sand down was on an old Meucci. When you roll it, you can see light under the center of the shaft on every roll.

If you look at the grain where the warp is, the grain from the front of the shaft runs off the shaft to the left and the grain from the joint end runs off the shaft to the right.... right at the same point.

There is no cue builder on this forum that would have ever made a shaft from this piece of wood...........

I can do pics if you want to see it..

Kim

Since you offered.......

Actually, just for educational purposes for myself, I wouldn't mind seeing a pic. :smile:

 

[JoeyInCali]

The shaft I refused to sand down was on an old Meucci. When you roll it, you can see light under the center of the shaft on every roll.

If you look at the grain where the warp is, the grain from the front of the shaft runs off the shaft to the left and the grain from the joint end runs off the shaft to the right.... right at the same point.

There is no cue builder on this forum that would have ever made a shaft from this piece of wood...........

I can do pics if you want to see it..

Kim

Banana grain.
Two bananas meet in the middle, opposite sided.

 

[Tommy-D]

I've seen some like that. I'm gonna hazard a guess that it has a big knot or some other kind of surface defect at that same spot. It might have even made you wonder if the shaft was gonna break in that exact spot at some point.

Unless you really exaggerate the bend on the shaft if the tip goes into the cloth,the ones I've seen usually hold up for whatever reason.

Sometimes,it creates a natural flex point that makes the flex repeatable. Tommy D.

 

[whammo57]

Banana grain.
Two bananas meet in the middle, opposite sided.

exactly.... I will get some pics

Kim

 

[whammo57]

pics of warped shaft

A meucci shaft

side view......... see the grains cross

roll it 1/4 turn one way... see the grain run off one way

roll it 1/4 turn the other way ... see the grain run off the other way

Kim

 

[Dirtbmw20]

Kim...... Thanks very much for taking the time to post the pics. Very much appreciated. I'm trying to learn everything I can anyway I can learn it. I can honestly say that I don't think I would've noticed that..

 

[JoeyInCali]

Kim...... Thanks very much for taking the time to post the pics. Very much appreciated. I'm trying to learn everything I can anyway I can learn it. I can honestly say that I don't think I would've noticed that..

Examining the grains of woods before center holing them is probably the most important initial step you can do to keep them straight.
X them and hitting the center of that X and using that as the center is pipe dream hoping the woods' true centers are on that X end to end .
In factories, they don't have the time, manpower and diligence to hand center their shaft dowels imo.

That Moochi shaft is a good example of a 30" dowel that needed to be cut in half, and maybe salvage as coring dowel if the grains could be straightened end to end ( by offset centers ) at 12-15" long. IF not, toss it.

 

[Dirtbmw20]

Examining the grains of woods before center holing them is probably the most important initial step you can do to keep them straight.
X them and hitting the center of that X and using that as the center is pipe dream hoping the woods' true centers are on that X end to end .
In factories, they don't have the time, manpower and diligence to hand center their shaft dowels imo.

That Moochi shaft is a good example of a 30" dowel that needed to be cut in half, and maybe salvage as coring dowel if the grains could be straightened end to end ( by offset centers ) at 12-15" long. IF not, toss it.

Thanks for the added knowledge Joey, I can use it all and I'll take any extra knowledge I can get. I haven't made it to the point of turning any raw wood yet, so alot of it is still over my head or over my expertise level. Alot of times I need "visuals" to better understand something I have never encountered before. Been at this right at a year and have made it a point to stick to tips, ferrules, and shaft cleanings. I've made a few sets of j/p's and done one pin replacement. That's the extent of my repair knowledge/ability as of right now. I TRY not to even refer to myself as a "repair guy" because I'm not good enough to be referred to as a "repair man" in my eyes. Hell, I'm just a Mopar parts guy playing with cues as a hobby trying to soak in as much knowledge as I possibly can. Thanks for sharing what you do. I love reading your posts.

 

[LightsOut]

I have an old Schon shaft with a Micarta ferrule. 13mm now, I'd love to reduce it to 10.5 or just under to use as a snooker shaft on my schon butt. My pool shaft is 12.4, same as above. I'm ignorant of the process but is this possible?

 

[RBC]

I like both KJ's and Alex's methods the best.

For me, the most important step here is to first cut down the ferrule to just over your finish size, not cutting into the shaft wood at all, and then sand the wood down to the ferrule. Wood will cut different with your cutter than the ferrule does, and if you cut both together with the lathe tool, you can end up with an issue where the ferrule meets the wood.

For us, we cut the ferrule down to just over our finish size using an end mill in a router on a small lathe, then a few passes through the dowel sander to get the actual taper job done, and finish sand and seal. If it takes more than 10 minutes or so, we stopped to BS or get a cup of coffee.


Royce

 

[cueman]

I have an old Schon shaft with a Micarta ferrule. 13mm now, I'd love to reduce it to 10.5 or just under to use as a snooker shaft on my schon butt. My pool shaft is 12.4, same as above. I'm ignorant of the process but is this possible?

At that 10.5 mm size I am thinking this is a cutting job instead of a sanding job. It can be done with sanding, but more likely to warp when removing that much with sanding.

 

[Joe Barringer]

If you're going to sand your way down to size (say 13 to 12.5) in 10 or so minutes is a recipe for warping. You can sand it down but it should be done in steps and by taking your time allowing the shaft to cool down. Excessive heat which builds up when sanding will cause warping if not when you hand it over, certainly in time.

If you're going from 13 to 10.5 or anything like that -- cutting is best and finding a qualified technician is key. You don't want anyone to sand that much on a valuable shaft.

 

[LightsOut]

Can it be completed in one day?

 

[JoeyInCali]

Can it be completed in one day?

To convert that to a conical taper, only the first 12 inches will probably need
reducing. I wouldn't hand sand it. If it's not warped, it should be done on a
taper machine .
Take out 1/4 MM from the tip and see how much you take off the middle of the
shaft.
I wouldn't take more than 1/4 MM in the middle of the shaft per session.
Give it weeks between cutting sessions.