Shaft spinner - good or bad?

Make sure you use lots of sandpaper. It's going to clean your shaft really well. 80 grit and lots of pressure. Do it 2 or 3 times a week for maximum cleaning.
 
I take the point of your sarcasm. I have been taking a minimalist approach to shaft maintenance, just wiping down with a clean, dry cloth and burnishing with brown paper. It worked great for a while, but as the weather gets hotter and more humid, i'm finding that my shaft starts feeling sticky much more often, and I have to wash my hands every hour or so. I'd like to try wax to see if it helps, and posters here have suggested that spinning the shaft makes it easier to get a good application. Also, it seems like burnishing with paper might work a bit better with a spinner.

TX Poolnut said:
Make sure you use lots of sandpaper. It's going to clean your shaft really well. 80 grit and lots of pressure. Do it 2 or 3 times a week for maximum cleaning.
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Forbin said:
I take the point of your sarcasm. I have been taking a minimalist approach to shaft maintenance, just wiping down with a clean, dry cloth and burnishing with brown paper. It worked great for a while, but as the weather gets hotter and more humid, i'm finding that my shaft starts feeling sticky much more often, and I have to wash my hands every hour or so. I'd like to try wax to see if it helps, and posters here have suggested that spinning the shaft makes it easier to get a good application. Also, it seems like burnishing with paper might work a bit better with a spinner.
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Don't argue with Tex.

If he says do it, you DO IT,

Gawdammit.
 
Forbin-
You could rub the shaft with a Magic Eraser pad.
Afterward wipe your shaft down with a soft cloth.

That might be all that you'll need to do. Regards.

.
 
Spinning it on a drill is the same thing as spinning it on a lathe. You just don't have the complete control of it, so you have to be a little more careful with it.
 
You can buy a nice shaft driver that will fit in your thread pitch and a drill for about 20 bucks. Well worth it.

I have three lathes and prefer to put shafts I'm building in a drill for final sanding. I feel I have more control over the taper than on a lathe and for burnishing and waxing there's no contest. More art than science.

But of course I don't know much so take it with a grain of salt.

JC
 
I used a drill mounted horizontally in a vise for many years.... Also had the drill plugged into a receptacle that was controlled by a dimmer switch. ( I made it this way and the switch was mounted right beside the drill and the trigger on drill was zip tied wide open). I bought the different maintenance pins for different thread shafts. You can use one hand to support the tip end of shaft while cleaning and waxing or make a "tail stock type" support with a live center end. Just because you don't have a $3000 lathe doesn't mean you can't come up with a good method of cleaning and waxing a pool cue shaft....
 
I have a customer who used one of those. Warped everyone of his shafts. If you have no way to face the washer/nut. Stop now. And on piloted joints? How many brass inserts are faced properly??
 
You can take a phillips bit and find a plastic cap (off a pen, for example) that fits over the bit and that will schmoosh into your shaft. This allows some room for error when it spins. If something goes horribly wrong, the drill will simply disconnect itself from the shaft because of how it is not firmly, but loosely, connected to the drill.

I wouldn't trust the bolt setup described in the instructions. I'm not that good.

Also, Sears/KMart sell a cheap little drill that is very slow. I'd recommend using that as it, too, is limited in how much damage it could cause.



Jeff Livingston
 
Michael Webb said:
If you have no way to face the washer/nut. Stop now. And on piloted joints? How many brass inserts are faced properly??
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How about if I buy a shaft driver as JC suggested -would that in a drill be good enough just for waxing and burnishing? I don't have any piloted joints. I don't have space to mount it horizontally with a tail stock or anything like that.

Thanks all for the feedback!
 
Forbin said:
How about if I buy a shaft driver as JC suggested -would that in a drill be good enough just for waxing and burnishing? I don't have any piloted joints. I don't have space to mount it horizontally with a tail stock or anything like that.

Thanks all for the feedback!
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You can do more than that. I reduce shafts and retaper them holding a cordless drill in my right hand and sandpaper in the left. You do not need a lathe for this type of work.

JC
 
Forbin said:
I was thinking about making one of these, just for cleaning, waxing, and burnishing shafts:

www.easypooltutor.com/articles/60-mick-turner-articles/175-low-cost-cue-shaft-spinner.html

Is there a risk that it will somehow warp or damage my shaft, or any other reason that a shaft spinner like this is not a good idea?
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Ok so here's your answer... You wont know till you try it. So GO AHEAD knock your socks off. Just one favor, if any of the shafts you are going to be working on belong to a Szamboti, Balabushka, Searing, Kersenbrock, South West, Tascarella, or Showman please contact me first so I can offer you cash to purchace them and the cues BEFORE you knock your socks off...:smile:
 
Forbin said:
How about if I buy a shaft driver as JC suggested -would that in a drill be good enough just for waxing and burnishing? I don't have any piloted joints. I don't have space to mount it horizontally with a tail stock or anything like that.

Thanks all for the feedback!
Click to expand...


For waxing and burnishing. Yes. Just, don't leave the tip end to run freely unattended. It will whip and break. OUCH.
 
Michael Webb said:
For waxing and burnishing. Yes. Just, don't leave the tip end to run freely unattended. It will whip and break. OUCH.
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Exactly, never start your drill until your other hand is on the shaft and never let go until the drill stops. I wouldn't mount the drill on anything for this reason. Hold it in your other hand. That way you have control over the trigger.

The older style 18 volt drills that you can still find are best for this work because the battery pack is big and heavy enough that you can set the drill down with a shaft in it without it tipping over. This matters if you are using sealer that needs a bit to dry before you carry on.

JC
 
Imho anything that can rotate a shaft for you can help with maintenance.

The thing is safety. Be careful. But I don't mean just you, I mean the shaft too.

Practice on some junk shafts first.

If it's an expensive shaft or one from a great maker then you really need to respect it and be careful. As Skins said...sell it to him before you screw it up.

Personally I am very conservative with what I will do with my shafts beyond wiping them off. I am probably overly careful. But I can also feel comfy that I am not screwing up a shaft.

I bought a good cue once from a guy that owned a lathe. Purely an amateur repair guy. It had two shafts, one barely used. The shaft he had used had been over-maintained. The surface was beautiful. But it had lost a full mm due to "cleaning". My offer on that cue deducted the cost of a $225 shaft...and a little more for a couple finish scratches.


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