The Ultimate Low-Squirt Cue

[Colin Colenso]

Ok billiard manufacturers, line up and take notes, here;s my 2c on how to produce a super-low-squirt cue.

Note: Not that I'm sure it would be a great advantage. Using BHE with a very low squirt cue on quick tables is useless on 90% of shots commonly played without adjusting aim or using very long bridge lengths.

Anyway, this idea could possibly help players moreso by allowing them to grip the CB better for draw and masse shots.

The Cue
Very stiff shaft, low diameter for low endmass...maybe 12mm. Super light, super strong ferrule.

The Tip
Hard, good shape, good gripping qualities.

...and the key ingredient

The Abrasive - Chalk
Similar base to existing materials, except with a lead or waxed based component to allow better application. The biggest idea is to incorporate magnetite needles (or similar very hard abrasive).

The key is to adapt a mangetic component either into the leather tip or into the ferrule, such that the magnetic needles stand on end, in line with the cue, so as to achieve maximum grip on the CB and with the tip.

This allows very high grip / gearing between the cue and CB.

So really, I think much of the advancement to be made in reducing squirt, or increasing grip, is to be made in the chalk.

Perhaps, for use in BHE, a high tip-end mass cue combined with a super-magnetic-abrasive could be the best combination. As tip-end-mass deflection would seem to be independent of speed, whereas surface property induced deflection is altered by speed.

Any abrasive experts out there?

Any willing manufacturers..or testers?

 

[JoeyA]

Nice ideas, Colin.
The magnetite needles could be a problem as I am sure most of them won't stay on the tip after impact and the harder the abrasive/chalk the more problems you are going to have with the balls rolling into to them and creating forced detours. I guess you could have a huge magnet to pick up the magnetic particles between innings . Besides, miscueing occurs more often because you didn't set up correctly, that you didn't follow through properly or simply that you didn't hit the cue ball where you thought you were going to hit.

Anyway, it is obvious you are a thinking kind of guy. Hope the mfgs cut you in on the profits.
Warm Regards,
JoeyA

Ok billiard manufacturers, line up and take notes, here;s my 2c on how to produce a super-low-squirt cue.

Note: Not that I'm sure it would be a great advantage. Using BHE with a very low squirt cue on quick tables is useless on 90% of shots commonly played without adjusting aim or using very long bridge lengths.

Anyway, this idea could possibly help players moreso by allowing them to grip the CB better for draw and masse shots.

The Cue
Very stiff shaft, low diameter for low endmass...maybe 12mm. Super light, super strong ferrule.

The Tip
Hard, good shape, good gripping qualities.

...and the key ingredient

The Abrasive - Chalk
Similar base to existing materials, except with a lead or waxed based component to allow better application. The biggest idea is to incorporate magnetite needles (or similar very hard abrasive).

The key is to adapt a mangetic component either into the leather tip or into the ferrule, such that the magnetic needles stand on end, in line with the cue, so as to achieve maximum grip on the CB and with the tip.

This allows very high grip / gearing between the cue and CB.

So really, I think much of the advancement to be made in reducing squirt, or increasing grip, is to be made in the chalk.

Perhaps, for use in BHE, a high tip-end mass cue combined with a super-magnetic-abrasive could be the best combination. As tip-end-mass deflection would seem to be independent of speed, whereas surface property induced deflection is altered by speed.

Any abrasive experts out there?

Any willing manufacturers..or testers?

 

[Colin Colenso]

Nice ideas, Colin.
The magnetite needles could be a problem as I am sure most of them won't stay on the tip after impact and the harder the abrasive/chalk the more problems you are going to have with the balls rolling into to them and creating forced detours. I guess you could have a huge magnet to pick up the magnetic particles between innings . Besides, miscueing occurs more often because you didn't set up correctly, that you didn't follow through properly or simply that you didn't hit the cue ball where you thought you were going to hit.

Anyway, it is obvious you are a thinking kind of guy. Hope the mfgs cut you in on the profits.
Warm Regards,
JoeyA

Hi Joey,
For all I know the magnetite needles could wedge into the balls and cause some horrible kicks. Just some wild speculations

Just seems to be like abrasives haven't changed in 80 years or so. Surely there could be better formulations. I'd set up a lab myself if I had a few spare million I doubt any manufacturers would offer me a commission for my idea...I'd settle for bragging rights

 

[bruin70]

Any abrasive experts out there?

Any willing manufacturers..or testers?

howz about duct tape?

 

[chefjeff]

I can just see the cueball on a coin-op...covered with fuzzy particles and rolling around the table in all sorts of funny ways.

Timeout!...gotta shave the cueball...Banking with the beard takes on a new twist!

Jeff LIvingston

 

[DaveK]

howz about duct tape?

Nah, diamond dust is the ticket here ! Of course your cube may go missing along with the brown manilla envelope from under the table

There are many suppliers of abrasives, and of course lots of abrasive materials (aren't they all to some degree or another). Make a few calls, ask for some samples, and get busy at the kitchen table. I do not see any need for a million dollar research lab in order to try some new 'chalk' formulations.

It would be interesting to see the effect of different abrasive 'chalks' on the wear rate of cue balls and tips. I also think that diamond dust on a tip would scuff up the finish of a phenolic pool ball, seriously changing it's friction charactoristics.

You may have a materials problem with the shaft specs of 'stiff' and 'narrow', thankfully you didn't ask for 'cheap'. This is an exercise I've often though to undertake, calculate the stiffness/weight of various materials in various configurations. Did you have any specific shaft material in mind Colin ?

Dave

 

[Snapshot9]

I believe

that the XBreaker tip (patented) is suppose to 'attract' chalk to it ....

 

[Colin Colenso]

Nah, diamond dust is the ticket here ! Of course your cube may go missing along with the brown manilla envelope from under the table

There are many suppliers of abrasives, and of course lots of abrasive materials (aren't they all to some degree or another). Make a few calls, ask for some samples, and get busy at the kitchen table. I do not see any need for a million dollar research lab in order to try some new 'chalk' formulations.

It would be interesting to see the effect of different abrasive 'chalks' on the wear rate of cue balls and tips. I also think that diamond dust on a tip would scuff up the finish of a phenolic pool ball, seriously changing it's friction charactoristics.

You may have a materials problem with the shaft specs of 'stiff' and 'narrow', thankfully you didn't ask for 'cheap'. This is an exercise I've often though to undertake, calculate the stiffness/weight of various materials in various configurations. Did you have any specific shaft material in mind Colin ?

Dave

Good points Dave!

A few replies / thoughts.

Diamond dust might work ok, but I think what we need is surface characteristics, not purely super hard abrasives. Even a diamond can be polished so that it is slippery.

Magnetite is hard enough, but actually there are many variations of magnetic abrasives that could be used. Here's some info on the advances in magnetic abrasives and their uses: http://www.manufacturingcenter.com/tooling/archives/0900/0900abrs.asp

If needle like abrasive particles, perhaps 0.1-0..1mm long and 0.001-0.0001mm wide could be made to stand on end on the tip surface, particularly the edge, then the miscue zone could be extended by half a tip width, and squirt could be significantly reduced if some of my ideas are correct.

This would need a magnetised tip or ferrule to cause the needles to stand up, in position to grip to the CB and the tip leather, and lock the two surfaces together effectively on impact.

Regarding shaft materials, I'm not up to the latest materials science developments but there could be some very strong, stiff, light weight materials. My first thoughts are kevlar and perhaps a non-stick surface like teflon, but there are many options. Some super-light composite materials at the tip end area could prove effective too.

btw: I was introduced to CK Cues' Impact 254 , which has a very stiff laminated shaft combined with a muliti-polymer core matrix for lowered end-mass.

btw2: A simple way to test some chalks would be to crush up some standard blocks, mix in some quality abrasives with a little water, dry them in an oven overnight and try them out. That might at least indicate if an other abrasives have good potential.

btw3: These abrasive methods may wear out balls a lot faster, but when compared to sports like golf, tennis, badminton, cricket, we billiard players get a pretty amazing life expectancy out of our balls. The hacks can keep playing with crayon chalk, cardboard tips and 10 year old balls ;-)