tip pressing

JayBates

JayBates

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
i like to press elkmaster and triangle tips before i put them on. the typical way would be a vice. when pressing them as you all know they will flatten out and lose their thickness. what about using a piece of metal or phenolic to make a holder so to say. start off with a piece of phenolic that is say joint size or buttcap size and say an inch and a half thick. drill a 14mm hole thru it. use 2 pieces of 1 inch 14mm phenolic rod as slugs. place one piece of phenolic in the hole, then the tip, then the other piece of 14mm phenolic. put this in the vice. the slugs would compress the tip and the bigger phenolic would not allow the tip to mushroom out. has anyone tried doing this? seems like you can get the same results as a pressed tip but not lose some of the tips life? just a little curious,
Jay

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Good Idea

Looks like a good idea, but I just use a couple pieces of old oak (one flat and one with several dips cut in it. I put the tips between them.. put it in the vise and presto they come out pressed and shaped. By the way I have found it helpful to press everything I get that's made by tweeten.
 
thats cool...how many tips can you do at once? i dont use a lathe so i only use single layered tips. only ones worth a damn to me are triangles and elkmasters, IMO.
jay
 
You will still lose a good bit of tip height with your tube and rod method. You may not lose as much height, but I don't think the difference will be much if you are actually able to achieve the consistant hardness through out the tip. Don't concave out the end of the rod as this only maintains the same problem of the middle of the tip not being as hard as the edge. So compressing with a concaved press hardens the whole tip up, but still leaves the middle softer than the outside and mushrooming will continue. Let us know how the tube and rod works out.
 
> I have found that the vise itself plays a role. Too small and it's hard to get enough torque on it before things want to come apart or not line up right on the vise itself. Too big of a vise and you can destroy the tip with too much pressure. I found this out by going to a machine shop to buy carbide inserts,and using a Kurt Anglelock milling vise to press one. I got it pressed down absolutely flat,but it came apart when installing. I now use a small toolmaker's vise,and it works perfect. Tommy D.
 
I just use a cheap toolmaker's vice also. I have thought about a tube and rod before, all tough I don't think It is new. Seems like in a thread posted in the past a few people mentioned It. I thought someone mentioned making a jig like this. maybe It was Blud, I'm not sure It's been a while. I thought about making one, but haven't tried thus far.

For Me I just compress the middle with most tips I press. If they flatten out and get thinner, then I figure alot of tips would do the same thing on the cue by the time It has been naturally compressed. The main difference for me is cutting out some of the time It takes, and cutting down how many times the sides of the tip needs trimmed once on the cue. I make a milk duds from other tips sometimes, but don't install elkmasters unless someone specifically requests one.


Greg
 
i press all my tips also. you loose height but it doesnt mushroom much and you dont go through that goofy first week or so where it hits funny
 
Here is a picture of my pressing setup. I stack alternating tips and flat/concave phenolic layers. I use a 4" bench vise to squeeze the stack. The tip in the picture is a compressed Elk Master.

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