Strange Dings Appearing

cuetechasaurus

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
On both my playing cue and break cues, for the past few weeks these tiny little dings keep appearing on the shafts of both cues. Even moreso on my break cue. My break cue has dings all over the place. I pride myself in taking great care of my cues. I never hurt my cues if I make a bad shot, or anything like that. I play in the BCA once a week, we play on valley barboxes with those big metal platings around the corner pockets. The rest of the time I play on 9footers. Seems those dings come up the most around league night. I've been aware of this and havent found a reason for my cues to get these dings on league night either, so I really don't know what the hell is going on. Anyone else have "mysterious" dings pop up out of nowhere?
 
Are you wearing a new ring or wedding band? I've seen that do it a lot. Tony Watson's shaft has 100's of dings in the shaft, above the joint where he has the bad habit of tightening his cue between shots...caused by a ring.
 
Varney Cues said:
Are you wearing a new ring or wedding band? I've seen that do it a lot. Tony Watson's shaft has 100's of dings in the shaft, above the joint where he has the bad habit of tightening his cue between shots...caused by a ring.

I actually do have the habit of tightening my cue between shots sometimes, but I don't wear rings or anything on my hands/fingers. The dings are all in the middle of the shaft pretty much.
 
Just curious, does your shaft come loose while playing? Why do you tighten it between shots?
 
Chris Byrne said:
Just curious, does your shaft come loose while playing? Why do you tighten it between shots?

The original shaft on my McDermott has a brass insert that causes it to come loose after several games. I developed the same habit of tightening the shaft after every shot for awhile. Since I've gotten my i-shaft though it doesn't come loose anymore so I don't tighten anymore. :)
 
It could be from bridge use. I noticed after using a house bridge for a shot that required low english the downward force caused by the deflection of the shaft caused a dent where the shaft was resting on the bridge at the moment of impact. Just an idea, could be many causes though.
 
The feather strip on the rail rubber is set too deep. What happens is the wood of the rail sticks up farther than the cushion, and if there is any vibration on the follow through (following into the cloth on rail shot etc etc etc).... it bounces off the rail wood (you can feel an almost sharp edge) and causes those dents. They tend to appear in groups of 2 or 3, going perpendicular to the grain of the shaft. Check the dents, and check the tables you are playing on for the rails rubber set too deep. Im betting this is the cause.
Chuck
 
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do you bridge off the rail on break shots on on long draws? I notice that sometimes when I break off the rail it sometimes hits the edge of the table and causes some dings.
 
vicdotcom said:
do you bridge off the rail on break shots on on long draws? I notice that sometimes when I break off the rail it sometimes hits the edge of the table and causes some dings.

I notice this as well on my break cue, but I've started breaking from the box now so I don't worry about it anymore.
 
vicdotcom said:
do you bridge off the rail on break shots on on long draws? I notice that sometimes when I break off the rail it sometimes hits the edge of the table and causes some dings.

Maybe I'm the only one who does this but I tend to hit the table a lot more when I break from the box. A few times I've banged my hand on the edge of the table pretty hard (not a good feeling at all). This is the main reason I break off the side rail.
 
RiverCity said:
The feather strip on the rail rubber is set too deep. What happens is the wood of the rail sticks up farther than the cushion, and if there is any vibration on the follow through (following into the cloth on rail shot etc etc etc).... it bounces off the rail wood (you can feel an almost sharp edge) and causes those dents. They tend to appear in groups of 2 or 3, going perpendicular to the grain of the shaft. Check the dents, and check the tables you are playing on for the rails rubber set too deep. Im betting this is the cause.
Chuck
This is it for sure ..i went thru the same thing>mysterious dents when playing only in this one pool hall 2 years ago....myself and others went nuts trying to figure it out..no rings on,Instroke case perfect,didn't use a mechanical bridge..we all were extremly careful with our cues.after a few weeks everyone couldn't figure it out and we came to the same conclusion as RiverCity...it doesn't take much of a difference in height..i quit playing at that hall for other reasons and never had a problem since...
 
CT,

Are you making shots over the metal platings on the bar tables? Shooting over the pockets too many times on the 9-footers? Do you wear a watch on your bridge hand?

Barbara
 
RiverCity said:
The feather strip on the rail rubber is set too deep. What happens is the wood of the rail sticks up farther than the cushion, and if there is any vibration on the follow through (following into the cloth on rail shot etc etc etc).... it bounces off the rail wood (you can feel an almost sharp edge) and causes those dents. They tend to appear in groups of 2 or 3, going perpendicular to the grain of the shaft. Check the dents, and check the tables you are playing on for the rails rubber set too deep. Im betting this is the cause.
Chuck
You hit the nail on the head. I am glad I read the entire thread because I was about to waste more words.
 
(off topic i know, sorry) but yeah i've smashed my hand a couple times breaking from the box. All these times can be attributed to a sloppy stroke, rushing it, just not being focused in general. Busting open my hand makes me now take my time and focus on every break. Breaks are a lot more consistant now and my hand sure looks a lot better :)
 
mayamon said:
(off topic i know, sorry) but yeah i've smashed my hand a couple times breaking from the box. All these times can be attributed to a sloppy stroke, rushing it, just not being focused in general. Busting open my hand makes me now take my time and focus on every break. Breaks are a lot more consistant now and my hand sure looks a lot better :)


Lol. Wanna trade hands? The table I play on is vicious. Stray staples EVERYWHERE. I come home every night with several new cuts and scratches. I know what you're gonna say, but I have some strange sentimental attachment to my table. Buddy Hall played on it once. Hard to imagine Sticks once being a pool hall worthy of The Rifleman.
 
If you are leaning your sticks against a drink table between games with the rest of your team mates, this could be causing the dings.
 
Fast Lenny said:
Could it have something to do with your case?

That was my thought too.....I've taken road trips in the past with cue in trunk and the bouncing caused damage to my cue because of the case lining, it actually cut my wrap.
 
Are you using a porper cue holder, I was and it caused a few dings in my shaft when I clamped the holder on a low table and snapped my cue in.
 
RiverCity said:
The feather strip on the rail rubber is set too deep. What happens is the wood of the rail sticks up farther than the cushion, and if there is any vibration on the follow through (following into the cloth on rail shot etc etc etc).... it bounces off the rail wood (you can feel an almost sharp edge) and causes those dents. They tend to appear in groups of 2 or 3, going perpendicular to the grain of the shaft. Check the dents, and check the tables you are playing on for the rails rubber set too deep. Im betting this is the cause.
Chuck

I'm willing to bet that this is exactly the case. I am obsessive about keeping my cues ding free. I was told this could be the problem so what I did a few months ago was to get a scrap of simonis cloth just big enough to lay your cue on when you do rail shots. Actually my scrap of cloth is rectangular and I double it over, place it on the feather strip, and shoot a rail shot on top of the cloth. I haven't dented the shaft of my cue in 4 months. For me this solved the issue of the mysterious bumps. And yes mine appeared in groups of 2 or 3
 
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