I am a fan of the large diameter tip for a break cue. I believe both hard leather or phenolic need to have as much surface contact with the cue ball as possible during the break. Really fat shafts are rare except for those "butterfly type" short jump cues. So....I took a jump cue shaft, heated, pulled out the quick release insert and epoxied a 5/16x14 insert. Took me 1/2 hour and it worked perfect. I use a center hit on the cue ball so I choose a fairly flat tip radius. This break cue works great and has a REALLY loud "bang" when hit. Just an idea. Again: remember it is still the form and stroke, not the cue that gives results.
Shaft - Idea Worked Well
- Thread starter BarTableMan
- Start date
How big are you talking on the diameter? I've been using a Players jump/break for 6+ years that has a 14mm tip. I've bought and sold a lot of cues in that time and can certainly afford a different break cue, but none that I've used has done anything better than what I have. It's a $79 monster as far as I'm concerned.
How could that be? As a stand alone fact, I don't think it is possible.
Perhaps within specific diameter ranges? Tip shapes?
I think what randyg is referring to is the fact that balls are round so regardless of tip diameter, only the same 1/16" or ~3mm of tip is all that makes contact on a ball. For more surface area contact, the tip would have to be concaved, wrapping around the roundness of the ball.
Because all else the same (tip curvature, tip hardness, how hard the cue ball is struck, etc), the contact patch area size is the contact patch area size. Doesn't matter if it is a 5 mm tip or a 50 mm tip if you really want to go to extremes. Any extra tip diameter that you add on around the contact patch area is just that, extra, and doesn't in any way affect the contact patch size.
Ever see the small blue circle chalk mark on the cue ball after striking it with the cue? That is roughly the contact patch size and is in fact the mark left by the contact patch. It is a very small area on contact. No matter how much extra tip you add on around the contact patch area, the contact patch size remains the same.
Now what can affect contact patch size, although relatively negligible, is tip hardness, tip curvature, how hard the shot is struck, etc. But tip diameter never affects contact patch size area.
I've done some research & came up with some information. The picture gives some good estimates, however different tips, tip hardness & stroke swiftness might give up different information.
The estimates pictured here are actually the length of the Geometric Chord, of that The Radius depicted & the 0.020 compression.
Hope this helps.
The estimates pictured here are actually the length of the Geometric Chord, of that The Radius depicted & the 0.020 compression.
Hope this helps.
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I too am a fan of the 14mm tip & a flatter crown on the tip.
I think the cue ball squirts less, on off center hits, because of the smaller crown.
I once had a Huebler Jump Break, weighed in at 24 oz. It was like throwing a bomb at the rack. That was in my ebay days & money was king, so away it went.
I think the cue ball squirts less, on off center hits, because of the smaller crown.
I once had a Huebler Jump Break, weighed in at 24 oz. It was like throwing a bomb at the rack. That was in my ebay days & money was king, so away it went.
And I guess a range of +-5mm tip size is too small to make a difference?
I sold my Players JB5 (jump/break, 14mm Samarsa tip) and sometimes I'm sorry I did.
I don't think the added effective area of tip contact is significant. I think it was the added mass of the shaft that made the difference. Imagine hitting the CB with a baseball bat
Or, most likely, it's a case of everything seeming to have been better "back then."
I take it by smaller crown you mean less curvature/flatter. If this is the case, what less curvature primarily does is move the actual point of contact slightly closer to the center of the cue ball for the same amount of shaft offset from center ball, and that may cause less squirt because of a closer to center ball hit. But if you are careful to make sure you are contacting the cue ball on the exact same spot regardless of the tip curvature, then for the same shaft the squirt is going to be about the same regardless of the tip curvature.
We also know that more end mass causes more squirt and assuming the same shaft structure (whether LD or not, whether same type of wood or not, etc), a larger diameter will have more end mass and will cause more squirt. With the same type of shaft you will always have more squirt with a 14 mm cue than you will with say a 13 mm cue if you are actually contacting the cue ball in the same spot. And even if you are not taking the tip curvatures into consideration to make sure you are contacting the exact same spot of the cue ball, you are still probably netting more squirt with a 14 mm shaft than you would be with say a 13 mm shaft, and probably significantly more, because the end mass has far more effect.
To sum it up simply, your tip curvature has anywhere from fairly negligible to no affect on squirt depending on how careful you in compensating for different curvatures to ensure you are contacting the same spot on the cue ball, but end mass (shaft diameter) always has a very significant affect. You are almost certainly increasing your squirt if you significantly increase end mass (going up from 13 mm to a 14 mm shaft diameter for example) regardless of what tip curvature you are using. End mass trumps tip curvature. What little squirt reduction you may have gained by going with less tip curvature was more than offset and lost by increasing the shaft diameter (end mass) to 14 mm. You would have far less squirt with a 13 mm shaft with a really rounded tip for example.
Think about it this way. If you cut your tip off and glued on an 14 mm tip or a 15 mm tip and did not trim off the edges but left it full size overhanging the ferrule (obviously you couldn't play this way for several reasons but go along here), did it have any affect on your tip contact patch size? Of course not. The small spot of tip contact patch size remains the same regardless of how much tip is surrounding it.