Repair/replace butt sleeve question

devorator

devorator

Ipoolmyheart@thetable
Silver Member
Hello everyone,
I have a nice custom cue. I love the hit and look of it. I bought it for cheap because it has the sleeve cracked.
I posted for sale but had a second thought.
Is this repairable or needs to be replaced? How much will cost me?
I posted 2 pics. There are 4 cracks (some bigger than the other).
The cue plays with no sound and shoots amazing.

Let me know what you think.
Thanks a lot
Chris

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Are those ivory inalys?? I see a grain in them.

The butt sleeve needs to be replaced.

What is the cue worth...... the repair could be expensive.

A cue builder could copy it but the cost would be very high.

Most of all it needs a butt cap .... if it had one originally, it might not have split.

Kim
 
That's snakewood and there is the first problem. Snakewood is a wood that is hard to work with. You can seal it every time you work with it and it will still check (develop small cracks). I have made a couple of snakewood cues with snakewood handles and points. Both handles developed checks after I finished the cues. The points and inlays were fine but anything round and cored just did not hold up.

The second problem is no butt cap to help reinforce the snakewood sleeve, if the cue is dropped hard the expanding rubber cracks the butt sleeve unless there is a phenolic core inside the butt sleeve to reinforce. The cue might have been made this way but it is hard to see in the pictures.
 
Repairable? I would say no

You would have to replace the butt sleeve. It would be a lot of work as you would have to lose the wrap as well. This would be a costly repair. I would suspect the reason for this happening is that there is no butt cap and it is snake wood. All it would need is a little tap and the wood would crack as it is prone to do so.






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I made a front from snakewood and yea it cracked. The two other pieces I have, they cracked before I could even turn them. Insert money....flush.
 
i love snakewood

i bought a half log from a dealer that told me it was 20 years old, i turned it over a 5 year peroid, it cracked 2 years later.
 
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Upss...

Thanks everyone for your kind replies.
The inlays are maple not ivory.
I forgot to add that I love pj cues so I'll change the sleeve with something very similar in color and texture with snakewood, no inlays. Let's say a burl or nice figured coco... would that be expensive as well?

Thanks
 
Is it repairable? Yes, I believe it is. At least it's certainly worth a try. I know that I have repaired many sneaky petes that have checked similar to this over the years.

As has already been said, snakewood is notoriously known for checking as it may take 30 to 50 years to dry being as dense that it is. Also, butt caps and joints are put on cues for reasons other than looks. Wood exchanges moisture mostly (85%) through the end grain so butt caps and joints are there to seal these areas.

The way that I repair them is to make a sleeve out of delrin that fits snuggly around the butt collar. I then cut this in half on the band saw and with the use of two hose clamps can be used to force the cracked butt sleeve together again. Now with the butt turning in the lathe I bore a .750 hole in the butt deeper than where the cracks are. I then loosen the clamps slightly and then
liberally fill this pocket with a good epoxy and take a wooden .750 maple dowel and slowly force it into the hole with the tailstock. This will act like a piston and force the excess epoxy out of the pocket through the cracks filling them with the glue. Now I tighten the clamps as tight as possible so that the cracks close on the dowel. Once dry the the jig can be removed and collar will be one solid piece and you can redrill for weight bolts and bumper.

Good luck.

Dick
 
If you like the way it hits and you're keeping it for yourself I would repair it. Those cracks will never completely disappear but they can be made very hard to see, and the correct buttcap addition can reduce or eliminate the likelihood of them opening up again.

TW
 
There's some good advice here (very creative solution from RHN). I wouldn't have thought to do it that way.

I would try to keep this buttsleeve if i were you and add a ring at the bottom. Let us know how it turns out!

inlays are either maple or holly is my guess
 
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Dick...

I've used a similar method for this kind of repair myself, but I think you have perfected it. Next time I do one, I'll be doing it your way. Thanks for the info.
 
rhncue said:
Is it repairable? Yes, I believe it is. At least it's certainly worth a try. I know that I have repaired many sneaky petes that have checked similar to this over the years.

As has already been said, snakewood is notoriously known for checking as it may take 30 to 50 years to dry being as dense that it is. Also, butt caps and joints are put on cues for reasons other than looks. Wood exchanges moisture mostly (85%) through the end grain so butt caps and joints are there to seal these areas.

The way that I repair them is to make a sleeve out of delrin that fits snuggly around the butt collar. I then cut this in half on the band saw and with the use of two hose clamps can be used to force the cracked butt sleeve together again. Now with the butt turning in the lathe I bore a .750 hole in the butt deeper than where the cracks are. I then loosen the clamps slightly and then
liberally fill this pocket with a good epoxy and take a wooden .750 maple dowel and slowly force it into the hole with the tailstock. This will act like a piston and force the excess epoxy out of the pocket through the cracks filling them with the glue. Now I tighten the clamps as tight as possible so that the cracks close on the dowel. Once dry the the jig can be removed and collar will be one solid piece and you can redrill for weight bolts and bumper.

Good luck.

Dick
Click to expand...
This sounds like a viable option and repair to me and since your cue has a snakewood/inlayed butt sleeve i'd give someone like Dick a chance to repair your cue before I cut it off and put a plain wood sleeve back on the cue.
 
What I would do is work some thin epoxy like west system down into all the cracks. Wrap with several rounds of wax paper and use several hose clamps to close it all up. Take some thin leather like you wrap a cue with and wrap one layer around the wax paper to keep the hose clamps from denting the sleeve. After drying overnight remove the wax paper and sand the excess epoxy off. Then put a butt plate on it and refinish the sleeve and you are good to go. Best lesson learned is never make a Snakewood sleeve without a butt plate.
 
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