Well, I'll tell you.Besides firing my mortgage broker and fighting with him to have him release some documents to my new lender, not a whole lot.
I have been thinking about a new tool I needed, and tonight finally got around to making it.
How do you accurately replicate a (straight) taper without making a test cut on a finished cue with a pin installed? Well, realistically you can't; however I have a way now to get pretty damn close on that first cut.
I have a solid, collared center (the collar registers on the collet, so it is always in exactly the same place every time I set up) that I use for my turning. But what to do when a finished cue already has a pin in it? You cannot push the tail stock out (or use a boring head) as you will side-load the pin a ton. This took a bit of thought.
BUT, I have an answer. No, it will not work for every cue, mainly because of joint differences; however a similar idea could be used for pins with a straight (un-threaded) root area of the pin. Even a flat-face cue with a pin that has an un-threaded root area can be done. It would be a totally different design, but it is burning a hole in my brain right now. If anyone wants to talk about that idea, feel free to PM me and we can chat on the phone for a while.
Anyway, this new center replicates the solid center dimensionally however I have bored a tapered hole in the center to allow the pin to run eccentrically without touching the inside of the center. A 5 degree included angle is what I have cut now- we'll see if this works as well as I hope- I may need more included angle...
The OD taper will register on the joint collar ID of the cue. Since my collars are always steel, and always have a .500 ID bore, they will all register more-or-less the same for me. The danger is if a collar has more or less chamfer on it.
Now, I can replicate the taper of my playing cue on my second cue (the Davis blank cue). You set the cue between this center and the boring head (or whatever you use) center and indicate it at each end while rotating slowly until both ends 'zero' out. (of course there is some tolerance here, but you get the idea)
Note this center is made for a 5/16-14 threaded pin (will work fine for 5/16-18 too).
Picture of center below:
