Shotty tip work (rant and questions)

Rackemep

Rackemep

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I just payed $50 for 2 Moori mediums installed by a "Professional" and it looks like a 2 year old did it...The guy that did it is the only guy withing a 2 hour drive of me that does cue work. He told me that he could salvage the existing pads and save me the cash for new ones but it looks like all he did was pop the old tips off and glue new ones on (didn't smooth the pads out so that the new tip has a flush surface to mount to) I have never done my own tip work :embarrassed2:...but I guess its time to learn. Am I hosed? or do these look salvageable When I asked as to why the tips aren't flush with the ferrules he said "It's to risky for him to do it on the lathe because of my Ivory ferrules" and that he would just leave the "fine tuning" to me...
:angry::angry::angry::angry::angry:......I'm 99.9% sure he's not a member here so I'm not going to say a name...

What equipment do I need to do my own tip work? Should I pop these tips off and start from scratch? I'm really hoping these tips are salvageable because I'm already in the dog house with my wife for getting these ones....Thanks for any advise

Shaun

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There is no way I would have paid for that. Good luck and I feel for you. I've been in this situation before and it sucks.
 
Doesn't look like he cut the tips flush with the pads. Judging from the pics, he probably didn't prep the tips like a pro would.

Doesn't look like he shaped them for you either. Without looking at them without my magnifiers on, if someone were to put them on a lathe, they could be fixed up a bit.

Lots of good tip tools to do a hand tip. You don't have to spend a ton in order to do it with a little practice. There are lots of guys who can hand tip and you wouldn't know that it wasn't done on a lathe.

My preference is a couple of tools from Porper. a good sharp knife or cutting blade and a little sand paper.
 
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That's bush league for sure. He didn't even shape the tip. If he can't put a tip on any better than that, there is no way I would let him do any other work or buy anything that he has done. He must not take any pride in the work he does.
 
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I usually get pretty excited when I drop my shafts off for new tips, I'd also be a little pissed with those results. Sorry you got the butt end of that deal, hope fully you can repair or reuse them.
 
I agree with Blue Hog that they could be cleaned up on a lathe.
This happens all the time when guys without any equipment try to install layered tips.
If the guy does have decent equipment and tools, then the fiber pad must of confused him.
 
I have a local cue maker and repair expert in my area so I just give mine to him and it's finished in a few minutes.

But for you, just ship the shafts and have them back in a few days. I recommend:
Alex Brick
JOB Billiards
Madison,TN
615-868-4270
Just ask him how long it will take and how much plus shipping. Alex is one of the best.


You may want to check other cue repair options in Ask The Cue Maker Forum.
 
classiccues said:
That might be the second worst tip job I have ever seen....

JV
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For $50 it is the worst I've ever seen. If you lived close to me I'd help you out since I have my own lathe. I had 2 difference people screw up tip jobs on my cues close to 20 years ago and I vowed it wouldn't happen again. I bought a Hightower lathe and learned how to use it. I do my own tips, ferrules, wraps etc. for myself and my friends. I feel for you and I'd be sick if they were my shafts.
 
By FAR the WORST tip install I have ever seen. I would have "Bi-tch" slapped that guy if had the balls to ask for money for this install.
 
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I think you're actually kind of lucky he didn't take on smoothing things out or you'd probaby be looking at replacing two ivory ferrules.

I do my own tips with Tweetens, a Williards, and a little sandpaper, and get near pro results. If I were you I'd chalk this up to experience and find someone in your area you can trust heading to the DCC and have Guido, IMO the best cue mechanic out there, to fix you up.

There are just too many guys out there who have no clue what they're going. We used to have one guy here who ruined more ferrules and shafts than you can imagine. After a while everyone in town started calling his lathe "the beaver."

Lou Figueroa
 
jmurphy said:
By FAR the WORST tip install I have ever seen. I would have "Bi-tch" slapped that guy if had had the balls to ask for money for this install.
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The bad thing is that I prepaid because he had to order the tips...There's one billiards supply store here in Kingman AZ and the guy that did my cue is where they send their business for re-tips re-wraps and table work :eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
Rackemep said:
The bad thing is that I prepaid because he had to order the tips...There's one billiards supply store here in Kingman AZ and the guy that did my cue is where they send their business for re-tips re-wraps and table work :eek::eek::eek::eek:
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Prepaying for tip work is dumb. I'd take it back to the guy, cut off the tips in front of him, tell him he owes you $50 or you'll break his nose.
 
Hits 'em Hard said:
Prepaying for tip work is dumb. I'd take it back to the guy, cut off the tips in front of him, tell him he owes you $50 or you'll break his nose.
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Tempting...Trust me its really tempting...I think I'm just going to try to salvage these tips because there is no way I'll get new tips before my next league night (Tuesday)...Then I have a Tourney on Wednesday and another on Thursday...
 
SC, that is exactly what prompted me to buy a lathe also. I hand tipped for some time and then went all out.
All I knew is that these little Jizz Monkeys would ever touch any of my cues ever again.

My first Moori tip. The guy at the billiard shop cut or shaved my ferrule edge at an angle.

So, he tried to shape the tip at an angle to match his screw up hoping that I wouldn't notice.

Well, he tried it on the wrong person, Mr. Anal (OCD) Retentive that I am.

Rack, Seyberts had a tip install video on their site which showed how fairly simple a hand tip is.
I tried to find it for you but no luck. It was a decent video and can't see why they would no longer show it.
Its probably there, just moved. I will try later as I have a flat to fix in minus 38 weather.

Was going to get my Brass Monkey to do it but he said, FU.

If there is no available reliable repairman near you, thats your cue ( no pun intended). Practice by hand and then get a small lathe that will take care of yours and others needs. The lathe will pay for itself in time.

If this is the type of craftsmanship that is coming back, you may find yourself a busy man.
 
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Those are some poorly done tips. You can do a much better job by hand with just a few tools. When I was coming up, cue maintenance was part of learning to at the game. I have re tipped my own cues with layered tips and single layered tips and many other cues over the years. All without a lathe. It takes a little longer and requires patience to get it right but one can learn fairly quickly.
 
Rackemep said:
Tempting...Trust me its really tempting...I think I'm just going to try to salvage these tips because there is no way I'll get new tips before my next league night (Tuesday)...Then I have a Tourney on Wednesday and another on Thursday...
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I'd be very careful trying to get them fixed. Does it feel like the tip has any flex to it? From the pictures, it looks like there is a gap between the tip and the pad. The tips will prolly fall off during play if not during the shaping.
 
Perhaps after you play with them for a little while, the mushroom effect will bump those sidewalks out a bit?

Cosmetically, it ain't good, but shaping them and lowering the height might make them functionally perfect. Plus, you could blacken the sidewalls with pen and I think that would improve the cosmetics significantly.

Then buy some of pooldawg8's dawgduds, for when you have the next go"round.

I think for 50$ he will send you about 156783 of them.
 
Hits 'em Hard said:
I'd be very careful trying to get them fixed. Does it feel like the tip has any flex to it? From the pictures, it looks like there is a gap between the tip and the pad. The tips will prolly fall off during play if not during the shaping.
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The "gap" is an optical illusion its actually a lip where the tip sticks out past the ferrule....looks like he left a layer of my old Moori on one of them too...I just dont understand how someone can let work like that leave their shop...the other thing I dont understand is he has a pile of cue's that other customers have left with him to have tips done. Oh well lesson learned the hard way I guess...He wont be getting any more of my business.
 
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