Snugger Shaft!

[Quesports]

It Worx!

Swelling the wood threads with water is a lesson in futility. It will swell for a short period but will not last as the threads will dry back out and return to their original, loose state. A much more permanent cure is to fill the bored hole with liquid car wax. Only leave the wax in the hole for no more than a minute and then shake all of the excess out and let dry. If you leave it in to long the threads will swell to much and crack the shaft. As the liquid soaks into the wood it carries the wax in with it and when dries the wax is left behind making a permanent repair. After the first treatment, if you want the threads tighter, do the same sequence a second time. Just don't try leaving the wax in to long at one time as the shaft will surely crack.

Dick

Well after having tried the water treatment I decided to take a chance on a loose shaft with the advice from Dick. I am very happy to have done so as it worked. I used Turtle Wax Zip Wax and left it in for about 20 seconds, (got a little sacred) and even in that short amount of time it did the trick! My hat's off to you sir, I love to learn new tricks and remember that your never too old to learn something new.
Thank You!

 

[pdcue]

Hi Gary,

Omega DPK used black phenolic inserts on their cues and they hit pretty dam good. That being said, I don't think the insert has as much effect on the hit as it does the machinability due to the higher tensile strength and the the modulus of elasticity delta between the wood thread fibrous structure and the man made material. Like you, I also use a big pin (3/8" x 14 modified) and use Garolite LE for my inserts.

Some players tend to over tighten their cue and when you have stronger threads, they won't tend to breakdown like wood fibers do. Then again you need a tight minor that is correct. We have developed a stepped minor machining procedure where the bottom of the hole has a tighter minor. The cue gets very tight just as facing occurs which benefits the threaded joint in the long run also. Another added feature is that the decor rings will stay lined up over time because once facing occurs, 2 men and a boy can't deform those threads.

We have always used inserts from day one and think it is a great feature element on any cue. It is also a great selling point and we have noticed that customers like this on their cue because of the reason this thread was started. The Garolite LE is a great material to use for this component and it also looks much nicer finished than the black phenolic. McMaster Carr sells 4' x 1/2" nominal size rod for about $ 20.00. You can also buy it from John at Atlas as a special order item not on the website. Atlas actually supplies McMaster Carr with it.

The costs is low and at the end of the day, the man hours only increase about 15 minutes per shaft. Time well spent from my perspective.

This is as much of the "whole truth" as I can offer on this subject as I have spent a lot of effort beta testing and refining this critical issue over time to measure results. To each their own I guess.

If you want to test inserts on your cues here is the spec. we use, I hope it helps. You can try it and if you do, I am sure you will like it.

Rick

The 1/8" hole is just a glue relief to equalize the epoxy out of the blind hole. Make sure you run the speed slow while drilling this hole as the material will burn at a fast speed.

Step drill to a 1/2" blind hole in the shaft and sand a few thou off the insert after machining. This is an old drawing, my new rev. 4 is not on photobucket but I am sure this will help anyway.

Love the workflow diagram. Have you ever tried threading the OD, like
a brass insert? Good? Bad? Comments?

Dale

 

[whammo57]

In reading this thread I notice a couple of statements that could use some correction.

Gary,
McD doesn't use phenolic, not for an insert anyway.
The 'i' shafts use a soft plastic insert, a poly of some sort.
The G-core shaft does not use a plastic insert. They either use
a metal insert or none at all, ie, wood threads.
I don't consider either shaft to be hi-end.
The 'i' shaft is expensive but I see nothing hi-end about it.

The use of a phenolic insert will enhance the hit of a cue, stiffen it up,
not dampen it.
The stronger the connecting thread, the greater the cue can be tightened.
This puts the joint faces in even greater compression.
The pin & insert in themselves have nothing to do with the hit.
The greater the compression of the joint faces is what defines hit in this area.

Joey,
The Radial thread in phenolic works just fine, some would say better.
Wood is subject to expansion/contraction depending on humidity.
Phenolic is not.
Threads tapped into phenolic will stay at that size regardless of humidity.
Wood will move.
I can tell you with a fair degree of certainty that the gentleman who owns
Uni-Loc (Radial) approves of the use of phenolic for the Radial thread.

Why don't more people realize the truth. I have a guy that swears that a G10 pin has the best hit.

Once the shaft and butt are clamped, there is no hit advantage from the pin....

Kim

 

[opiesbro]

Why don't more people realize the truth. I have a guy that swears that a G10 pin has the best hit.

Once the shaft and butt are clamped, there is no hit advantage from the pin....

Kim

If this is true then why not use the finest thread possible so more force can be applied to the joint faces?

I also have heard that Mark Wilson can pick up cues with different style pins and by the feel of the hit can tell which one is which.