shaft nicks

snipershot

snipershot

Go ahead.....run for it.
Silver Member
what is the best way to get nicks and dings out of your shaft? I have done thus a few time using a damp (NOT DRIPPING WET) towel, wrapping the shaft in it, and letting it sit for about 12-24 hours. Then I remove the damp towel and let it air dry for a few days. It works well, the nicks swell up and are easily sanded down flush or near flush. if the ding is really deep, it will not completely fix it, but it is still an improvement. I know this is probably not very good for the shaft, but if it is all dinged up, its probably gonna get replaced anyhow. I was told how to do this by an old guy that ran the pool hall I cut my teeth in when I was 15 or 16 years old. Anybody got a different, or maybe better method?
 
I had a nick in one of my shafts and took it to a cue repairman. He put the shaft on his lathe, dropped a very small amount of super-glue into the ding, and let it dry.

After it dried, he spun it on the lathe and smoothed it out with very fine sandpaper. He then cleaned and coated the shaft with cue wax.

You can't tell it ever had a ding. It worked like a charm.
 
I have read many methods on the board, but only tried one myself. Some say put a drip of water on the ding or spot and it will expand the wood and the ding will be gone, after that, just smooth and burnish the spot. I have also read somewhere that using steam works as well. Boil a pot of water, cover the top with tin foil, poke a small hole in the tin foil ton concentrate the steam in a small stream and place the steam the place of the ding (Many has recommended that this shall only be done by professionals if I remember right.)

This is the one I have used, and many doesn't recommend it, but I have a schmelke and nothing very expensive, so I just test it anyway and it worked great, doesn't even feel like it had a ding/nick in it. Take a shot glass or a cylinder shaped piece of glass (Like the cue doctor buffer) and rub it over the nick and dent repeatedly until it is gone. Some say it just flattens a spot on the cue and turn the dent into a long strip, but I don't feel that at all.

It was a pretty fat nick, I was shooting at my friends garage, and the cue got knocked over by his puppy and fell directly onto bare concrete (Luckily it was the smoother kind) and all I did when I got home was, rub the dent out with the shot glass, use a q-wiz, sand and burnish, viola. Don't know if this is the best way, but it feels like it was before it got the nick.

Hope this helps.

Happy shooting!:)

Chino
 
I've done this a few times. Take a paper towel, fold it over once, and again (so it's a long skinny strip). Dampen the middle part of it. Take your shaft, lay it across something (I use the sink) with the ding facing up - lay the damp part of the towel on it. Let it sit til the paper towel dries out (I usually do it overnight). The moisture will pull the dinged area back out into its normal shape.
 
Steam has always worked perfectly well for me. It even gets out pretty deep dings.

Just get a washcloth or dishrag wet, ring it out well - you want it damp, not dripping - place it over the ding in your shaft, and place a hot iron on it for a couple of seconds.
you will probably have to do it a few times using different parts of the damp cloth, checking each time that the wood has expanded enough.

This will definitely raise the grain in the wood, so you'll have to smooth it back out and burnish it. But this is much faster and works on the same principle as letting it sit overnight - using moisture to expand the compressed wood.
 
water and shafts dont go well together, having said that, you should use a small as possible piece of paper and wet it and then put it on the ding. let it sit there for 30 minutes. do this for every little ding, then maybe burnish with leather. this will do it if you have the patience.
 
I like the iron idea, but I would be a little worried that applying heat would increase the chance of warping the shaft, how many times have you done that to a shaft without it warping?
 
enzo said:
water and shafts dont go well together, having said that, you should use a small as possible piece of paper and wet it and then put it on the ding. let it sit there for 30 minutes. do this for every little ding, then maybe burnish with leather. this will do it if you have the patience.
Click to expand...
im not sure this is true.
i clean my shaft with water a few times a week.
 
snipershot said:
what is the best way to get nicks and dings out of your shaft? I have done thus a few time using a damp (NOT DRIPPING WET) towel, wrapping the shaft in it, and letting it sit for about 12-24 hours. Then I remove the damp towel and let it air dry for a few days. It works well, the nicks swell up and are easily sanded down flush or near flush. if the ding is really deep, it will not completely fix it, but it is still an improvement. I know this is probably not very good for the shaft, but if it is all dinged up, its probably gonna get replaced anyhow. I was told how to do this by an old guy that ran the pool hall I cut my teeth in when I was 15 or 16 years old. Anybody got a different, or maybe better method?
Click to expand...

That's a crazy amount of time IMO. I either do the tea kettle steam method. You quickly move the dinged up portion of your shaft over were the steam is exiting tea kettle. Or if you have a lot of dings then take that same damp towel you use and make it very hot water. Then run it down the shaft slowly. Careful if the towel is very hot. Then lightly sand, like no less the 600 grit. Again VERY LIGHTLY. Or use those plastic micro clothes like THESE. Those are what I use. Wash them and use them over and over. Then a good piece of leather to finish'er up!

Then I like to use a sealer I used to use slip stic but I can nolonger find it. I will try Butchers boiling alley wax next.

Hope this helps.
 
In My Neck Of The Woods

I went to a tournament in Waco and cue maker/repairman James Hanshew was there.

I have a Sledgehammer that's come off the ball a few times had some real bad dings in it. He moistened a paper towel and then spun up the shaft on his lathe. The friction super heated that towel and wood. This got most of the small dings out. He then got a peice of ice and repeated the paper towel thing, but he rubbed the ice on the bigger gouges.....this fixed all but one which he had to use super glue mixed with some wood dust.

I was flippen impressed, when he was done you couldnt tell it had been to war.
 
snipershot said:
what is the best way to get nicks and dings out of your shaft? I have done thus a few time using a damp (NOT DRIPPING WET) towel, wrapping the shaft in it, and letting it sit for about 12-24 hours. Then I remove the damp towel and let it air dry for a few days. It works well, the nicks swell up and are easily sanded down flush or near flush. if the ding is really deep, it will not completely fix it, but it is still an improvement. I know this is probably not very good for the shaft, but if it is all dinged up, its probably gonna get replaced anyhow. I was told how to do this by an old guy that ran the pool hall I cut my teeth in when I was 15 or 16 years old. Anybody got a different, or maybe better method?
Click to expand...

One word, steam. Steam gets dings out of your shaft better than any otehr method. Just follow the instructions one 1 or 2 of the other posts for using steam to remove dings.
 
> I modified a method I learned at a tournament from a guy named Roger Leach that used to do repairs out of Nick Varner's room in Owensboro. He used a small,white cotton gun cleaning patch moistened with water from a spray bottle,and used a soldering iron with a wide,flat tip for creating the steam effect. He just touched the cloth patch,and poof.

I tried it a few times,but found that the extreme heat not only raised the nick or dent,but sometimes the surrounding wood as well. My new method is as follows.

I bought a square yard of white cotton t shirt material,and cut it up into 1" squares. The gun cleaning patches I used for years are suddenly treated with a solvent that makes a horrible smell when heated,so my material works better.

I found a small,wide knife like you use to spread cake icing,and heat it with one of those pocket-torch windproof lighters,and touch the cloth with that. It creates just enough steam to do the job,without disturbing the surrounding wood. It only takes about 10 seconds to heat the knife,15 at the most for a bad dent,and is much less cumbersome than a plugged in soldering iron,or holding it over a pot of boiling water. I also color the dent in with a soft-lead pencil,so I can see the dent thru the moistened patch.

I follow up with my normal cleaning/sealing process. I haven't had to do this with one of my own shafts for over 10 years,just on repairs. Tommy D.
 
real bartram said:
im not sure this is true.
i clean my shaft with water a few times a week.
Click to expand...

If you're going to clean your shaft, then use denatured rubbing alcohol to clean it.

I agree with Enzo. Take a "spot removal approach" by using a small paper towel and a few drops of water and place it over the ding. Remove the paper towel after a few minutes and burnish the shaft. This method works fine for the smaller dings.

For the past few months, I've been using a "pool cue rack" for my cue. Using a pool cue rack has reduced the number of dings in my shaft by more than half.
 
The soldering iron method works great,but you have to be very carefull not to burn the shaft. After years of doing various methods, I do a method that works the best for me and that is steam. The kettle or for more precise a small soup pot with alum. foil on top,I use a shoe string as a gasket with a large zip tip on top of the shoe string to hold the foil. You can use rubber bands but they break off. Make a pin hole in the middle of the foil for the steam and then lay the shaft dent a half inch over the steam. Gone in seconds, deep dents a little longer. Best and only method I use. Clean your shaft of dirt and wax before you do the steam. Google "raven cues. Com" something like that, it explains all methods in detail. Also turn burn on med. So you don't blow the pot up...LOL ...Ron
 
sorry,its not Raven cues, go to Wolfbite.com then cue facts & fiction then cue maintenance and it's all there...Ron
 
The water and heat method works great but if the dings are deep try this. Poke a few holes in the ding with a small needle and then put a drop of water in the ding and wait a few minutes. Now heat the area with an iron or one of the methods mentioned. The pin holes put the water deeper in the wood and help pop the deep dings out.
 
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