pitbull1229
Registered
Hey guys I am new to cue building I am trying to find a good tapering machine that does not cost an arm and a leg. Any suggestion?
Taper machine
- Thread starter pitbull1229
- Start date
Used Taper Shaper..... Occasionally they come up here and Unique is a good company with good support.
I don't what what an arm and a leg costs, but my first cue cost me over 10 grand to build....
Rabbit
Banned
Well if it where me I would get ahold of some linear actuators and a good spindle. Use a gecko 540 stepper controller to drive it and go cnc. Wait that is what I did. If you go this route be prepared to spend a few grand. That is if you do the work yourself.
Good luck
Jim
Good luck
Jim
pitbull1229
Registered
I have seen the cnc taper machine that mid America pool has. Has anyone seen good or bad about it
never surrender
never surrender
For around $2200 you can buy a CNC system from www.midamericapool.com. Once I get converting one piece to two piece cues, i'm buying one.
That is what I did too! But somehow, I doubt mine is what Jim's is
But it DOES do the job and I have the full use of my lathe manually when I don't want to use the CNC functionality.My 2 cents,
Gary
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pitbull1229
Registered
Hijack thread
Sorry, not to hijack, BUT,
what is the main reason for cnc vs. taper bar for average small cuemaker?
I don't see much reason for cnc if you've got taper bar setup running smoothly.
thanks, Bill
if you give me a good reason I'll buy one....lol
Sorry, not to hijack, BUT,
what is the main reason for cnc vs. taper bar for average small cuemaker?
I don't see much reason for cnc if you've got taper bar setup running smoothly.
thanks, Bill
if you give me a good reason I'll buy one....lol
Rabbit
Banned
For me its about a more accurate cut, and being able to have multiple tapers available at the click of a mouse.
Also my main CNC machine cuts points, Trim rings, inlays and tapers where as a set of tapers your limited to a couple tapers and thats it.
I'm not trying to sell anyone on CNC - it is for you or it's not.
For me, I wanted to be able to try different tapers, yet revert back to a previous one, exactly, not just close. It's very difficult to adjust a few thousandths or even 1 millimeter by hand using the lock screws on an adjustable taper bar.
There are also the taper bars/systems that have a fixed aluminum track that the carriage guide rides in and you can repeat different tapers that way. But guess how those grooves are cut? With a CNC mill. And those taper guides are kinda pricey.
IMHO, you need different tapers for a break shaft than for a playing shaft. You need a butt taper. You need different collar diameters (not difficult by hand) and you need different tip diameters 12, 12.5, 13, 13.5, 14mm for different shafts and customer requests. These need to be smoothed into your base taper. Doing that by hand with sandpaper risks creating an oval in that part of the shaft.
Now if you got one of Deco's revolving turret taper rigs, you could have up to 4 different tapers ready to go. But how did you come up with those 4 in the first place?
Perhaps more importantly, I have a technical background and I like to tinker with computers, electronics and machinery. :smile:
Anyway, those were the reasons I went with CNC
My 2 cents,
Gary
For me, I wanted to be able to try different tapers, yet revert back to a previous one, exactly, not just close. It's very difficult to adjust a few thousandths or even 1 millimeter by hand using the lock screws on an adjustable taper bar.
There are also the taper bars/systems that have a fixed aluminum track that the carriage guide rides in and you can repeat different tapers that way. But guess how those grooves are cut? With a CNC mill. And those taper guides are kinda pricey.
IMHO, you need different tapers for a break shaft than for a playing shaft. You need a butt taper. You need different collar diameters (not difficult by hand) and you need different tip diameters 12, 12.5, 13, 13.5, 14mm for different shafts and customer requests. These need to be smoothed into your base taper. Doing that by hand with sandpaper risks creating an oval in that part of the shaft.
Now if you got one of Deco's revolving turret taper rigs, you could have up to 4 different tapers ready to go. But how did you come up with those 4 in the first place?
Perhaps more importantly, I have a technical background and I like to tinker with computers, electronics and machinery. :smile:
Anyway, those were the reasons I went with CNC
My 2 cents,
Gary
I have the CNC Taper Machine from Mid America Pool and love it!
I'm completely new to cnc and have been using it for various tapered and straight cuts for about 4-6 weeks. Once I made some test cuts on scrap wood and trusted the program, its been a work horse and time saver for me.
it can be used as an attachment to Taig based lathe or build a stand alone unit like I did- www.zimsrack.com/zimmerman_custom_cues/shop_tour
I'm completely new to cnc and have been using it for various tapered and straight cuts for about 4-6 weeks. Once I made some test cuts on scrap wood and trusted the program, its been a work horse and time saver for me.
it can be used as an attachment to Taig based lathe or build a stand alone unit like I did- www.zimsrack.com/zimmerman_custom_cues/shop_tour
Tom, I'll take it...........Need it yesterday
Gotta be the nicest taper bar setup on the market. Nice pick up Jon. I wish unique could fit a taper shaper with something like this. Would make a great machine an even greater machine. Deco and unique need to get together on this. Lol
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2
Drew,
He has made a turret mount multi taper unit for a table saw set.
You should see that set up!!!!
Rick
