Sneaky Pete
- Thread starter whammo57
- Start date
Hi Kim,
The quality comes from building the final product. I would purchase a quality blank from a reputable supplier and forget about the old house cues.
Buy an inexpensive purple heart or bacote for your first one. You can practice on house cues but if your are going to sell them get the blanks because of the wood quality and the full splice accuracy. When you order them make sure you tell them you want very sharp bottom crotches in the FS and you will reject ones that have funny looking with gaps. There is some crap out there so make sure they know you won't accept that kind of thing. I will PM you a supplier that I use and have been very happy with. The evenness of the points is not that critical because you will have to deal with that issue when you taper the cue by shimming and then re-centering the nose after they are in line.
Heres a money making tip:
Most house cues and blanks are old school and the points are very low from the joint. IMO, people like higher points. In the pics below is an example of blank that I cut off 4 inches off the forearm. Even so the points are not that high but they are higher that a normal sneaky.
You can cut off stock, drill out the butt and glue in a dowel that allows you to put on a 5 inch butt sleeve and the cap size you want and finish to 29". If your want higher points it will look funny as the butt sleeve will get non proportional and crotch of the full splice will be to high.
Put on fancy rings!!!!
I built this cue the other day for a pre order and because I made it to look more proportional and put on 30 stitch sterling silver it creates more value IMO. This pre sold cue went for $ 750.00 with 2 shafts. I have sold over 10 on these in the last year and when people see and play with them, they want one. I put 4 inlays on one just like this one and got $ 1,000.00. Also at a customer's request, I have put a leather wrap on one of these and did not hide the FS bottom. The wrap would be too long and would look odd if you go up that high in this situation.
If I construct a full cored 5 point, 4 veneer cue with leather, 2 shafts, fancy rings in 5 positions and 10 inlays for 2 grand I can't make close to $ 100.00 dollars per hour. When I build these I can, go figure. A sign of the time for sure.
This cue was modified and built to this present form in about 2.5 hours working time not counting the time that it will take to do the shafts, finish and the rings which I pre build build and stock.
I figure total time for me at task will be about 7 hour plus about $ 70.00 in materials. When you get the process down build 5 at a time and you save a lot of time because of machine set ups.
When you start to do a sneaky and want to turn your points in even, call me on the phone because it would be too long to write down the process.
Rick
Cell 847 641-0276
First 3 pics show overall porportionality view of a cue still .010 over size and is not sanded or sealed yet:
These pics show ring details and butt sleeve and cap porportions.
[/QUOTE]
The quality comes from building the final product. I would purchase a quality blank from a reputable supplier and forget about the old house cues.
Buy an inexpensive purple heart or bacote for your first one. You can practice on house cues but if your are going to sell them get the blanks because of the wood quality and the full splice accuracy. When you order them make sure you tell them you want very sharp bottom crotches in the FS and you will reject ones that have funny looking with gaps. There is some crap out there so make sure they know you won't accept that kind of thing. I will PM you a supplier that I use and have been very happy with. The evenness of the points is not that critical because you will have to deal with that issue when you taper the cue by shimming and then re-centering the nose after they are in line.
Heres a money making tip:
Most house cues and blanks are old school and the points are very low from the joint. IMO, people like higher points. In the pics below is an example of blank that I cut off 4 inches off the forearm. Even so the points are not that high but they are higher that a normal sneaky.
You can cut off stock, drill out the butt and glue in a dowel that allows you to put on a 5 inch butt sleeve and the cap size you want and finish to 29". If your want higher points it will look funny as the butt sleeve will get non proportional and crotch of the full splice will be to high.
Put on fancy rings!!!!
I built this cue the other day for a pre order and because I made it to look more proportional and put on 30 stitch sterling silver it creates more value IMO. This pre sold cue went for $ 750.00 with 2 shafts. I have sold over 10 on these in the last year and when people see and play with them, they want one. I put 4 inlays on one just like this one and got $ 1,000.00. Also at a customer's request, I have put a leather wrap on one of these and did not hide the FS bottom. The wrap would be too long and would look odd if you go up that high in this situation.
If I construct a full cored 5 point, 4 veneer cue with leather, 2 shafts, fancy rings in 5 positions and 10 inlays for 2 grand I can't make close to $ 100.00 dollars per hour. When I build these I can, go figure. A sign of the time for sure.
This cue was modified and built to this present form in about 2.5 hours working time not counting the time that it will take to do the shafts, finish and the rings which I pre build build and stock.
I figure total time for me at task will be about 7 hour plus about $ 70.00 in materials. When you get the process down build 5 at a time and you save a lot of time because of machine set ups.
When you start to do a sneaky and want to turn your points in even, call me on the phone because it would be too long to write down the process.
Rick
Cell 847 641-0276
First 3 pics show overall porportionality view of a cue still .010 over size and is not sanded or sealed yet:
These pics show ring details and butt sleeve and cap porportions.
Last edited:
[/QUOTE]Hi Kim,
The quality comes from building the final product. I would purchase a quality blank from a reputable supplier and forget about the old house cues.
Buy an inexpensive purple heart or bacote for your first one. You can practice on house cues but if your are going to sell them get the blanks because of the wood quality and the full splice accuracy. When you order them make sure you tell them you want very sharp bottom crotches in the FS and you will reject ones that have funny looking with gaps. There is some crap out there so make sure they know you won't accept that kind of thing. I will PM you a supplier that I use and have been very happy with. The evenness of the points is not that critical because you will have to deal with that issue when you taper the cue by shimming and then re-centering the nose after they are in line.
Heres a money making tip:
Most house cues and blanks are old school and the points are very low from the joint. IMO, people like higher points. In the pics below is an example of blank that I cut off 4 inches off the forearm. Even so the points are not that high but they are higher that a normal sneaky.
You can cut off stock, drill out the butt and glue in a dowel that allows you to put on a 5 inch butt sleeve and the cap size you want and finish to 29". If your want higher points it will look funny as the butt sleeve will get non proportional and crotch of the full splice will be to high.
Put on fancy rings!!!!
I built this cue the other day for a pre order and because I made it to look more proportional and put on 30 stitch sterling silver it creates more value IMO. This pre sold cue went for $ 750.00 with 2 shafts. I have sold over 10 on these in the last year and when people see and play with them, they want one. I put 4 inlays on one just like this one and got $ 1,000.00. Also at a customer's request, I have put a leather wrap on one of these and did not hide the FS bottom. The wrap would be too long and would look odd if you go up that high in this situation.
If I construct a full cored 5 point, 4 veneer cue with leather, 2 shafts, fancy rings in 5 positions and 10 inlays for 2 grand I can't make close to $ 100.00 dollars per hour. When I build these I can, go figure. A sign of the time for sure.
This cue was modified and built to this present form in about 2.5 hours working time not counting the time that it will take to do the shafts, finish and the rings which I pre build build and stock.
I figure total time for me at task will be about 7 hour plus about $ 70.00 in materials. When you get the process down build 5 at a time and you save a lot of time because of machine set ups.
When you start to do a sneaky and want to turn your points in even, call me on the phone because it would be too long to write down the process.
Rick
Cell 847 641-0276
First 3 pics show overall porportionality view of a cue still .010 over size and is not sanded or sealed yet:
These pics show ring details and butt sleeve and cap porportions.
That is one nice looking sneaky!!!!!!!!!!! I totally agree on adding length when needed.