Shaft straightening
- Thread starter NJ_Qball
- Start date
I'm no expert.....but logic tells me the way to go is to simply buy a new shaft and learn how to prevent future warpage.
dave sutton
Banned
ive never done it successfully. ive hung them. found the high spot and put a book on it. never and luck. also i suspect if you did manage to get is straight it wouldnt stay that way
I would think that the only way would be to add moisture to the wood then do something to straighten it....then I'm willing to be when it dried it would warp again.
I actually straightened one once on a cheap cue I bought a long time ago. I put the shaft on books with the high spot up, then put a towel over the high spot and an even amount of weight on the tails of the towel pulling down on the shaft. It took a few weeks of sitting there until it straightened, but never had a problem with that shaft warping again.
Unique has a shaft jig and I fashioned a similar one from 1" and 2x4's and a poplar dowel. I have a couple of nasty shafts and was practicing on one of them. I found that not only was I taking the warp out, I was warping it the other way. So with alot of practice, careful measuring and the right amount of tension on the surgical tubing and a ton of luck, you could make it work.
Will it stay straight?
For 50 cents worth of scrap wood, a 3 dollar dowel and a 3 dollar length of tubing, make a jig and have fun playing with it. Got nothing to lose and only experience to gain from it.
Will it stay straight?
For 50 cents worth of scrap wood, a 3 dollar dowel and a 3 dollar length of tubing, make a jig and have fun playing with it. Got nothing to lose and only experience to gain from it.
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Take it to a gunsmith. We gunsmiths routinely bend stocks (which are thick and made of wood) as much as several centimeters right or left, to conform to the shooter. For that, we use a jig that puts tension on the stock and drips hot linseed oil onto the wood for several hours. For something as thin as a cue shaft, I would think it would be much faster.
At any rate, I'm sure a reputable gunsmith with the right equipment would be happy to try straightening your shaft for you. The worst that can happen is that it'll ruins your shaft and you have to buy a new one, but you've already been advised to do that anyway in this here thread, so you have nothing to lose
At any rate, I'm sure a reputable gunsmith with the right equipment would be happy to try straightening your shaft for you. The worst that can happen is that it'll ruins your shaft and you have to buy a new one, but you've already been advised to do that anyway in this here thread, so you have nothing to lose
Same here. All I ever managed to do was get it to warp in another direction, But with a lot of patience just maybe it's possible. I made a shaft jig as well. It worked, and was easy, but another shaft is the way to go. :wink:
Here is a trick I have used. Find the high spot, place the cue tip on the table with the high side up. hold the butt in your right hand push down on the high spot with your left hand and rub up and down the high side to create heat while also pushing a bow the other way. should look similar to a lot off players break shot.
continue to creat heat and pressure for 45 seconds, check for straight, redo as needed.
Caution: if you switch hands or try this while in the south of the equater it may not work : )
Mark
continue to creat heat and pressure for 45 seconds, check for straight, redo as needed.
Caution: if you switch hands or try this while in the south of the equater it may not work : )
Mark
straighten up!
Every time you hit a ball off center the shaft must flex
Otherwise the cue ball will be thrown off course too much
A good shaft will snap back to straight
If it doesn't want to stay straight ,get rid of it!
Is this politically correct?
Every time you hit a ball off center the shaft must flex
Otherwise the cue ball will be thrown off course too much
A good shaft will snap back to straight
If it doesn't want to stay straight ,get rid of it!
Is this politically correct?
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Take a clothes iron and a wet rag, place the wet rag on the high spot and use the iron on it. The steam will go in and loosen the stick. Then hang it up from something ( I use a clothes iron and a type of clamp ) and pull the adapter ( w/e it's called that keeps the weight inside ) out just a little bit. attach vice grips or something else heavy to end of it and let it hang.
Might take days, might take weeks. Eventually, it will get a lot of the bend out.
Only problem is, you have to keep repeating it as the wood, as already mentioned, will keep going back to it's comfort spot.
Modified hanging technique to straighten shafts
NJ_Qball:
Shafts warp for any of a number of reasons, including improper storage, changes in temperature / humidity / altitude, etc.
As mentioned in a lot of the responses you've received thus far, you can attempt (and it doesn't hurt to make an attempt) to straighten, with varying results. If the shaft warped because of improper storage, you might have the best luck in effecting a permanent straightening job, as long as the shaft is stored correctly thence onward. If, however, the shaft warped because the location where the shaft was made had different environmentals from the location you're using the shaft now, your straightening efforts may have to be repeated in the near future because as others have mentioned, the wood is "still finding its comfort zone."
I've had good luck in straightening shafts by using the hanging-with-weight technique. I would suggest the following items:
[1] Cue and Shaft Hanger:
http://seyberts.com/products/Cue_and_Shaft_Hanger-2674-15.html
[1] Eye bolt with the same thread as the shaft (e.g. 5/16-18, 5/16-14, 3/8-10, et al.):
http://boltdepot.com/eye-bolts-and-eye-lags.aspx
[A handful] of wire twist ties:
http://gemplers.com/product/34268/4-Vinyl-coated-Twist-Ties
[1] 5 lb weight (e.g. a 5 lb disk from a dumbbell)
What you'd do is:
1. Screw the nut on the eyebolt all the way to the end of the threads on the eyebolt itself (the end of the threads toward the eye, not the tip).
2. Next, gently screw the eyebolt into the shaft's joint, as far as it will go, but without forcing it.
3. Using your fingers, unscrew the nut down onto the shaft to lock it in place. Again, finger tight -- do not force it with a wrench or any other tools! (Doing so could possibly yank out the shaft's threaded joint insert.)
4. Insert the shaft, tip-first, into the "cue and shaft hanger" shown above, and using some wire twist ties (pictured above, the same type you get on a loaf of bread to seal the bag), wrap the ties around the cue and shaft hanger, and twist them down tightly to increase pressure against the cue to prevent slippage. (You're going to be hanging some weight on the cue, via the eye bolt, so make sure the cue doesn't slip out of the cue and shaft hanger. You may even want to wrap a couple layers of strong paper around the cue and shaft hanger, and then apply the twist ties, and the paper will prevent the twist ties from cutting into the rubber of the cue and shaft hanger.)
5. Find a place to hang the shaft for a week or so, like a closet.
6. Hang the shaft, cue and shaft hanger side up (eye bolt side down), from the closet's hanger bar.
7. From the shaft's downward-facing eye bolt, attach and hang the 5lb weight.
8. Let it hang, undisturbed for about a week. Check it after a week to see the progress. Depending on the progress, you might have to let it continue to hang for another week or so. But I've found a week does the trick quite nicely.
A 5 lb weight is just a recommendation; you can probably go with more weight (e.g. 10 lbs), but I wouldn't go higher than that, because you take a chance of putting the wrong kind of stress on the joint insert. (The eye bolt is pulling down on the joint insert, and I'm sure with extreme-enough weight, you can pull that joint insert completely out of the shaft. The joint was intended to bear push, not pull, type of pressure.)
EDIT: P.S., obviously, the weighted-hang-with-eye-bolt technique only works if you can get eye bolts with the exact thread style as the pin itself. Because of unavailability of eye bolts with Uni-Loc and Radial type threads, this technique won't work with shafts using those types of joints.
Hope this is helpful!
-Sean
NJ_Qball:
Shafts warp for any of a number of reasons, including improper storage, changes in temperature / humidity / altitude, etc.
As mentioned in a lot of the responses you've received thus far, you can attempt (and it doesn't hurt to make an attempt) to straighten, with varying results. If the shaft warped because of improper storage, you might have the best luck in effecting a permanent straightening job, as long as the shaft is stored correctly thence onward. If, however, the shaft warped because the location where the shaft was made had different environmentals from the location you're using the shaft now, your straightening efforts may have to be repeated in the near future because as others have mentioned, the wood is "still finding its comfort zone."
I've had good luck in straightening shafts by using the hanging-with-weight technique. I would suggest the following items:
[1] Cue and Shaft Hanger:
http://seyberts.com/products/Cue_and_Shaft_Hanger-2674-15.html
[1] Eye bolt with the same thread as the shaft (e.g. 5/16-18, 5/16-14, 3/8-10, et al.):
http://boltdepot.com/eye-bolts-and-eye-lags.aspx
[A handful] of wire twist ties:
http://gemplers.com/product/34268/4-Vinyl-coated-Twist-Ties
[1] 5 lb weight (e.g. a 5 lb disk from a dumbbell)
What you'd do is:
1. Screw the nut on the eyebolt all the way to the end of the threads on the eyebolt itself (the end of the threads toward the eye, not the tip).
2. Next, gently screw the eyebolt into the shaft's joint, as far as it will go, but without forcing it.
3. Using your fingers, unscrew the nut down onto the shaft to lock it in place. Again, finger tight -- do not force it with a wrench or any other tools! (Doing so could possibly yank out the shaft's threaded joint insert.)
4. Insert the shaft, tip-first, into the "cue and shaft hanger" shown above, and using some wire twist ties (pictured above, the same type you get on a loaf of bread to seal the bag), wrap the ties around the cue and shaft hanger, and twist them down tightly to increase pressure against the cue to prevent slippage. (You're going to be hanging some weight on the cue, via the eye bolt, so make sure the cue doesn't slip out of the cue and shaft hanger. You may even want to wrap a couple layers of strong paper around the cue and shaft hanger, and then apply the twist ties, and the paper will prevent the twist ties from cutting into the rubber of the cue and shaft hanger.)
5. Find a place to hang the shaft for a week or so, like a closet.
6. Hang the shaft, cue and shaft hanger side up (eye bolt side down), from the closet's hanger bar.
7. From the shaft's downward-facing eye bolt, attach and hang the 5lb weight.
8. Let it hang, undisturbed for about a week. Check it after a week to see the progress. Depending on the progress, you might have to let it continue to hang for another week or so. But I've found a week does the trick quite nicely.
A 5 lb weight is just a recommendation; you can probably go with more weight (e.g. 10 lbs), but I wouldn't go higher than that, because you take a chance of putting the wrong kind of stress on the joint insert. (The eye bolt is pulling down on the joint insert, and I'm sure with extreme-enough weight, you can pull that joint insert completely out of the shaft. The joint was intended to bear push, not pull, type of pressure.)
EDIT: P.S., obviously, the weighted-hang-with-eye-bolt technique only works if you can get eye bolts with the exact thread style as the pin itself. Because of unavailability of eye bolts with Uni-Loc and Radial type threads, this technique won't work with shafts using those types of joints.
Hope this is helpful!
-Sean
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