Snooker shaft for Predator cue?

[onemorebrando]

I'd like to get a unilock jointed shaft turned down to 9.5 or 10 mm so I can play snooker with my predator. Does anyone already make these, or have any experience doing this? Would any shaft be usable? What's the best idea for size, ferrules, tips, etc.?? Can you do it all at once or better to do it .3 at a time with recovery time in between? Any thoughts or ideas would really help out. Thanks for your time in advance.

 

[Wity]

I remember reading a post a couple of years back of a guy wgo had one turned down to 11mm and that he said Predator had advised him to go no smaller and that they wouldn't do it below 12mm themselves as it'd be too liable to break.

Best to get a real cue though, a half decent snooker cue will produce less throw than any laminated stuff and cost less.

 

[onemorebrando]

thank you sir.

 

[McChen]

i think the limit for a 314-2 shaft is 12.25mm and for a z2 it is 11.25mm.

predator was working on a snooker shaft awhile ago, but apparently it never made its way to market.

 

[Wity]

There are two snooker cue makers who claim to make low deflection cues both do so in different ways. Kevin De-Roo in Canada uses a laminated shaft and a plastic ferrule.
http://www.deroocues.com/mainframeset.htm

Acuerate in Belguim claim their cues do so mainly by the taper used.
http://www.acuerate.com

Both talk a load of bollocks.

 

[McChen]

i think the kevin deroo site has pretty accurate information. he seems to actually know what causes deflection (tip end mass) and has solutions to reduce this. acuerate seems to have pretty sketchy info on what they do. seems like all they do to reduce end mass, is make a skinnier shaft with a thinner taper, which to me isn't really a great solution.

 

[Wity]

First of all one has to see deflection as a bad thing before you seek a solution. I don't, it's what happens when playing side. You learn just how much throw your cue produces and compensate if need be with ones aim.
If that means having to aim more to the left or right to get the desired result from a normal cue and half that amount from say a predator or I have to vary the amount of side i apply so be it. The time spent learning each cue is the same.

I know the arguement to that is: it's more about still making the pot having played with unintentional side but if i cant hit a cueball dead centre when i want to i'll go get glasses or give up the game. I swear i've never played a shot with unintentional side ever. I miss them 100% of the time because i dont cue straight consistently and i believe thats the problem most players have.

Low throw cues be they made by chinese kids in a sweatshop for £50 i.e. the aconmate and sold for £400 or be they hand made works of art by craftsmen like Deroo that cost even more money aint going to improve ones game one bit. Claiming they will is bull.

 

[McChen]

well in the pool world, low deflection has become pretty popular among a lot of players, amateur and pro alike. hard to argue with those numbers, a lot of people have bought them. whether it is better to have lower deflection and how much it affects your game seems to be an endless debate on here, that i don't think will be settled anytime soon.

making the pot with unintentional side isn't the main thing for LD shafts i think. it's usually more about making the pot easier when playing with intentional side, esp lots of it.

the point i was making about deroo and acuerate, is that i think deroo knows what he is doing and acuerate seems to be a scam/gimmick. whether you desire LD or not, is a personal thing.

 

[Wity]

Yeah they are here to stay alright, as you say the number about today will see to that and no doubt they'll be a future player in the snooker world too.

I know i'd rather spend £400 on table time than on coaching or on a cue.

 

[McChen]

yeah, seems to be mainly an american pool thing right now. i've not seen LD products much in the snooker or carom world. i think there one or two products out there for those markets, but they don't seem to be that popular.

 

[Wity]

Thinking about this thread I took an old cue i bought about a year ago off ebay for £45 to my local club last night. only ever played with it for a couple of frames before now as I felt it would take quite some getting used to as its very whippy compared to any of my other cues, but i thought because of it's thinish shaft and what i call a pigeon ring ferrule (very short) it'd be low throw.

Before going i watched this video a couple of times just so i had it fresh in my mind of the strength and distance the guy used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRBRy9IBesM

Didnt have much time to really do a thourogh comparison as the four of us had to share the one table the club was busy but my sons cue a Thailand made 3/4 9.5mm ash shaft threw a tad more than the predator in the video. The cheap riley cues my mate and his son play with have simlar spec and threw considerably more, akin to the sneaky pete. My new cue a one piece pearwood shaft thats sorta medium stiffness very much like the predator and the old mr whippy blew them all away with hardly any devieation at all.

One of these days i'll put all my cues in a couple of fishing rod holders and take em all to the club and do a better comparison IF i could stand the pisstaking i'd hear..


"No carp in here Wity"

"You dont need your rods Here mate, each tables got a 11ft pole along the side."

Erm Wit, methinks you've picked up the wtong case our kid.

 

[McChen]

are you testing with snooker balls? that might be hard to compare to the video as the weight of the ball changes things. deflection is determined by the ratio of the end mass of the cue to the mass of the ball. so my snooker cue (10mm) is pretty low deflection when used with american pool balls, but deflects "normally" when used with the smaller and lighter English snooker balls.

i think it would be pretty challenging to build a LD snooker shaft, since it is so thin already. If you bored a hole, like Predator does, you don't have a lot of wood for the side walls. And the very light weight ferrules Predator uses for pool shafts, might not hold up well with such a small ferrule. I think it could be done, but you'd have to experiment to see what you could do while still making the shaft sturdy.

 

[Wity]

Yes I used snooker balls on a snooker table. The cloth would make a difference to I imagine as whats used on US pool tables from the few I've seen is totally different.

LOL imagine trying to hollow out the end of a UK Pool cue which typically is 8mm.