Say you have a shaft with a tiny bend in it, or you're near final size when making a shaft and it has a tiny wobble. Has anyone ever tried coating the shaft with an ultra thin, penetrating epoxy while it is between centers and supported midway in a steady rest. Seems like that might remedy the imperfection. Pros/Cons?
Straightening a shaft?
- Thread starter shankster8
- Start date
ElCorazonFrio
Banned
what a waste of space, Dull.
There is an engineering term, creep. Creep is when something deforms over time due to external forces. Wood is highly prone to creep. That is one reason why straight shafts can warp...otherwise straight would be straight forever.
Thanks for the replies, men! I'm not talking about majorly warped shafts. I'm talking about shafts that wobble between centers perhaps 1 mm. That isn't much, and I'm guessing most accept that as within specs. But, I've seen DZ cues video where he screws in a pin and spins the shaft unsupported at high rpm. and it's like perfect. I have a hundred shafts that are near perfect, but a mic tells me they are not perfect. I've not tried DZ's spin test, they are not threaded for a pin - just hanging. But, I'm wondering if any of you have tried to "case harden" and straighten a minor defect in a shaft using penetrating resin.
There is no need to fix a MM wobble in used shafts.
Epoxy will ruin that hit anyway.
You can try to bend them the other way to see if it holds.
Some do, most won't.
So, what percentage of shafts do you think are non-straight due to creep vs warp?
And why is there a single break cue on the planet with a straight shaft?
At this point I feel you could profit from counseling. I'm just sayin'
Dale(who knows a thing or two about warp, and I ain't talking about speed)
Thanks Joey! Why would epoxy ruin a shaft's hit? I ask this because I don't recall any such allegations regarding any other sealers, whether they were water based, alcohol based, lacquer based, super glue, polyurethane etc. It seems they'd all infuse solids into the outer shaft, and should affect the shaft similarly. Is epoxy somehow more detrimental than, say, Deft Sanding Sealer (lacquer based) or the super glue Joe uses, or any of the others? I hope other cue makers can comment on this because I'd like to use an ultra thin epoxy as a sealer, at least, and I was hoping it might provide enough of an outer rind to straighten a tiny wobble if the shaft was held straight during the cure.
I've been able to straighten vintage shafts with steam. Only had one that tried to warp again. Wood has been bent with steam for hundreds of years.
Not sure you'd bother with a shaft that hasn't been turned down or assembled. I just saved this 100 year old vintage shaft by truing it up after using steam. The tip was a good 1/4 inch over to the side. That's been reduced to barely a flinch of a taper roll when rolled.
Not sure you'd bother with a shaft that hasn't been turned down or assembled. I just saved this 100 year old vintage shaft by truing it up after using steam. The tip was a good 1/4 inch over to the side. That's been reduced to barely a flinch of a taper roll when rolled.
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None of those chemicals affect the shafts's weight or flex.
You can try it b/c you sand it away anyway.
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ElCorazonFrio
Banned
I'll answer this civilly.
First, I don't know how many shafts are crooked because of creep vs. warp. What I can say is that when a cue has been left leaning against something for a long time and it is then found to be bent, I'd suggest it is a case of creep.
As for break shafts, sure, they are subject to a lot of hard forces, but creep takes place due to applied force over a long period of time, not because of repeated short-duration forces.
As for me benefiting from counseling, it was you who started attacking me. It was you who started denigrating my by calling me 'frito'. This was you copying a guy who has been banned from AZB multiple times...one who I exposed.
We can quit this or we can go on...I don't care either way.
I've seen shafts bend in summer and straighten months later.
I've seen shafts wobble like a flat tire and straighten up months or a year later.
I once dipped a shaft on orange pre-stain formula and flopped like a dead fish.
Months later, it straightened out. That was the last time I experimented with that dip.
Wood is wood. But, often, you can tell by looking at the grain direction, you can understand what happened.
The two center holes' location is often an under-evaluated factor.
I have Sherm Adamson to thank for that lesson.
Well, the OP asked about WARPED shafts, if they could be un-warped. A careful
re-reading will yield no such inquiry concerning why shafts warp, yet you criticized
my response for not considering the phenomenon of creep. What next?
Offence for failing to recognize the possibility of divine intervention?
Dale
ElCorazonFrio
Banned
I criticized you for saying that wood can't be straightened. It can. It isn't easy and it takes time and/or heat and a proper amount of applied stress...which is why I mentioned creep.
It likely isn't worth it on a new shaft, but as was said in an early post, if you have a special shaft, it can be done and may be worth it.
But you can read whatever you want.
I have bent shafts straight and taken them over to the lathe immediately and sanded and burnished them and had a few stay straight that way. But it has been very rare for them to stay straight once they warp. I bend them by sliding my hand along the shaft like I am ironing the warp out. That plus the heat of burnishing the shaft right afterwards seems to help a good bit. I have thought about making a rounded plate for a hot iron and actually iron the warp out, but have not tried that. I have hit them with steam and that seems to make them move easier when trying to straighten them.
But to sum it up I have not found a reliable way to straighten shafts. I wish I could!
But to sum it up I have not found a reliable way to straighten shafts. I wish I could!
Warped is what the shaft wants to be It's in a happy place. It tried going straight, didn't like it and isn't going back.
I have seen some older shafts that were dead straight but most shafts that are a month old or more have some light under them when you roll them............. and it does change over time and with weather... it is just wood.............. there are materials that will never warp but they just don't play and feel like wood.............
Kim
Kim
Not 100 % sure, but there should exist a special coating to keep a shaft straight. But I can't remember the brand name of that stuff.
Regards.
Olaf
Regards.
Olaf