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The Piper

The Piper

Get Ugly...
Silver Member
I have a really cheap manual lathe. Nothing special. just something that my friend and are have access to and playing around with. It spins wood basically. But now comes the question of tapering a cue. How do you taper you're cues? Anyone taper one by hand? Any thoughts on how to do it by hand?
 
When you say a manual lathe, what do you mean?
Pedal powered or watermill powered ?
 
He means... lathe has a motor... manual being the tools.. Wood turning tools.

we are working (me and piper) on our own cue. It is coming along pretty well acctually.. much better than we suspected... the taper has us a little puzzled. Piper doesnt feel that eyeballing it is good enough...neither do I.

We know that they make cue lathes for a reason..but its a fun project. Nice time killer too.

Has anyone else ever made a cue with a lathe, drill, gorilla glue and a prayer? lol
 
Offset a live center in the tailstock for the butt and mount a router on the compound.
 
Just brainstorming...Lay a shaft down on a board and trace the curve of the taper with a pencil as accurately as possible, cut it out carefully with a saw, maybe sand it smooth down to your pencil line and figure out some way to mount it square and adjacent to your lathe and use it as a guide for your cutting tools?

Chris Hightower should be able to give you an idea or two.
Kelly
 
Kelly_Guy said:
Just brainstorming...Lay a shaft down on a board and trace the curve of the taper with a pencil as accurately as possible, cut it out carefully with a saw, maybe sand it smooth down to your pencil line and figure out some way to mount it square and adjacent to your lathe and use it as a guide for your cutting tools?

Chris Hightower should be able to give you an idea or two.
Kelly
Click to expand...
Trying to taper a shaft or butt is very dangerous without the proper equipment and training. DO NOT try with a single pointed tool - the wood will spring back into the tool; break in half and possibly hit you and cause very serious injury.

Don't you know if it was easy everybody would be doing it!
 
That reminds me of back in Jr. College in one of the metal shops where the lathes were used, kids would forget to remove the wrench after tighting the chuck and turn it on. :D

People ducking.......
 
Jeff said:
That reminds me of back in Jr. College in one of the metal shops where the lathes were used, kids would forget to remove the wrench after tighting the chuck and turn it on. :D

People ducking.......
Click to expand...
Not as bad as when they forgot the one on top of the mill.:eek:
 
Arnot Wadsworth said:
Trying to taper a shaft or butt is very dangerous without the proper equipment and training. DO NOT try with a single pointed tool - the wood will spring back into the tool; break in half and possibly hit you and cause very serious injury.

Don't you know if it was easy everybody would be doing it!
Click to expand...


Thanks for the advise, but we have a full array of turning tools, including gouges.
 
likeabankkid said:
Thanks for the advise, but we have a full array of turning tools, including gouges.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you got all you need.
Lathe, wood, tools.
Go for it.
Then when someone else askes about making a cue on a wood lathe you can help them with your experience.

My two cents worth is that you will learn more by doing than by asking questions about what you can and can not do.
There comes a time in every project when you got to stop talking about it and put the metal to the wood.

How about taking some photos as you progress and sharing your project with everyone here.
 
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I'm no expert on wood lathe use...but one way to taper on a wood lathe is:

1. Turn the wood round a bit bigger than the size you need.
2. Mark lines every few inches, lets say 4 inches apart along the length of the wood.
3. Determine the diameter of the finished shaft, plus enough material for sanding at each pencil location.

4. Set a pair of dividers to the diameter for one particular location.
5. Use a parting tool at that one location and keep cutting until you get to that diameter.

6. Do this at every pencil location.
7. Switch to a roughing gouge and eyeball between each cut you made with the parting tool. Don't cut below the parting tool cuts. They will keep the wood at the profile you want.

8. Switch to a skew to make a finish cut on the whole piece.

9. Sand.


NOW, this would probably work great for a baseball bat, because it is "fat". But for a pool cue, you are going to probably have ton's of problems because the wood is so thin compared to its length. You will probably get tons of chatter.
 
The Piper said:
I have a really cheap manual lathe. Nothing special. just something that my friend and are have access to and playing around with. It spins wood basically. But now comes the question of tapering a cue. How do you taper you're cues? Anyone taper one by hand? Any thoughts on how to do it by hand?
Click to expand...

I'll give you the quick answer...NO!!! Even if you successfully getting the wood turned, to a satisfactory taper, your work has just started. THE most important part about making a Q is that the joint screw, HAS GOT TO BE DEAD CENTER, in the end of the butt. Likewise the same with the threaded hole in the end of the shaft. THIS CANNOT BE DONE WITH A DRILL. The pieces have to be centered in a lathe, that will allow you to pass the butt or shaft THROUGH the headstock & be held perfectly parallel with the bed of the lathe. If you send me your e-mail address I can send you a pic of such a lathe...JER
 
BLACKHEARTCUES said:
I'll give you the quick answer...NO!!! Even if you successfully getting the wood turned, to a satisfactory taper, your work has just started. THE most important part about making a Q is that the joint screw, HAS GOT TO BE DEAD CENTER, in the end of the butt. Likewise the same with the threaded hole in the end of the shaft. THIS CANNOT BE DONE WITH A DRILL. The pieces have to be centered in a lathe, that will allow you to pass the butt or shaft THROUGH the headstock & be held perfectly parallel with the bed of the lathe. If you send me your e-mail address I can send you a pic of such a lathe...JER
Click to expand...
 
Cue

I thought the man at Star Cue Co in Miami used wood lathes many years ago. A friend once told me his dad would trace the taper on a piece of card board and sit or hang it right behind the piece he was turning, but I dont remember what size pieces he was turning.
 
the good news is:

yes, you can build a solid, good playing cue using only a wood lathe.

the not-so-good news is:

first you need to:

be an experienced cue maker<at least>
be pd clever using a wood lathe
do some serious modifications to the lathe

it doesn't sound like you are quite up to speed on any of the above

as for the tapering question
look to a book or video on "Spindle Turnning" on the wood lathe

Dale
 
Kelly_Guy said:
Just brainstorming...Lay a shaft down on a board and trace the curve of the taper with a pencil as accurately as possible, cut it out carefully with a saw, maybe sand it smooth down to your pencil line and figure out some way to mount it square and adjacent to your lathe and use it as a guide for your cutting tools?

Chris Hightower should be able to give you an idea or two.
Kelly
Click to expand...
I have a friend who builds only snooker cues. He builds them with a "lathe" he built out of a drill and some wood. It is amazing what he can turn out with this equipment. He uses a master line as described above mounted behind the shaft and does all his cutting by hand. He fine tunes the taper with sandpaper.
 
Four ways

cuemaker03 said:
Get Chris hightowers book on cue making. If you still want to build a cue after that than you will have a huge head start. If nothing else it will give you a rough idea of what is really involved in cuemaking. I will give you a hint, it is not a wood lathe.
Click to expand...

1. Find a local woodturner, who know how to make taper wooden spindle for furniture.

2. Become friend with a owner of a machine shop.

3. Be an apprentice to a cuemaker.

4. Go to a cuebuilding school - http://www.cuemaker.com and build a cue there.
 
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