to smooth a shaft...

Halfjack87

Halfjack87

In Training
Silver Member
I've never used shaft paper or sandpaper on a shaft.

Recently I've purchased 2 cues, and received a set of house cues. One of the cues I bought was turned down to 12mm and that cue is a smooth as glass to the touch - noticeably smoother than any of the other shafts.

How do I do that? What's the best methods/products? How do I get that glass-smooth finish on my other shafts? Is this possibly a coating of some sort?

Thanks in advance!
 
Halfjack87 said:
I've never used shaft paper or sandpaper on a shaft.

Recently I've purchased 2 cues, and received a set of house cues. One of the cues I bought was turned down to 12mm and that cue is a smooth as glass to the touch - noticeably smoother than any of the other shafts.

How do I do that? What's the best methods/products? How do I get that glass-smooth finish on my other shafts? Is this possibly a coating of some sort?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...


A lathe, and good wood sealer, then burnishing it with leather and ultra fine paper to knock the fuzz off after sealing.

This is not a "by hand" job.
 
Micro-Mesh makes a woodworking kit with sandpaper running from 1500 grit all the way up to 12000 grit. Run your shaft through that range it will be smooth and stay there. I think it was about $40.00 for the kit.
 
Good discussion here regarding wax for cue shafts.

I use rubbing alcohol to clean, then very fine grit sandpaper (1500) followed by burnishing with a piece of leather and then sealing with the wax. Leaves the shaft silky smooth and keeps chalk residue from getting into the wood.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=394833

Hope that helps


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I think I've tried every suggestion from every thread here and elsewhere over the last 9 months including waxes, etc.

Here is what works best for me, i don't have a lathe - this is what I do to my LD shafts:

1) Magic eraser slightly damp with denatured alcohol
2) Green size of Q-wiz
3) Burnish with brown side of Q-wiz
4) 1 drop of BioSilk hair therapy rubbed in with my fingers
5) Burnish lightly with a clean paper towel

This cleans it, and makes it silky smooth. I play on dirty bar tables a lot, so I generally do this once every 2 weeks or so, and in between just hit it with the Q-wiz.

b
 
Steam the shaft to raise any dents and it will also push put a lot of crud build up. There are videos on Utube showing how to steam a shaft.

Then get a pin to insert into the end of the shaft and the other in a drill motor.

Clamp the drill motor to a long board with hose clamps, muffler clamp etc. at the far end place some kind of a steady rest to support the end of the shaft. A piece of plastic pipe lined with felt secured to a block of wood could work. You need to devise something that will hold the end to keep it from whipping and not damage the ferrule.

With this make shift lathe smooth the shaft with fine sand paper and then burnish with a piece of leather. A variable speed drill work the best as you don't need to spin it supper fast.

🎱
 
First you should use isopropol alcohol to clean the stick.

Then you will want you use some special sandpaper. You can get 10 sheets of both 2500 and 6000 grit sandpaper on ebay for 23$ total, that is including shipping. These are the 8 1/2 x 11 sheets. It will take 2-4 weeks to arrive. If you order 1 sheet of each it will probably be about 5$, its up to you how much to buy, but there is a bulk discount.

I am not affiliated with the seller at all, I hope posting this link is OK

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Sheets-9-x-11-Wet-Dry-SANDPAPER-80-7000-GRIT-/151822715689?hash=item235956cb29:m:mSb8FUgQNgqi8axcGyJN81g&item=151822715689&var=&vxp=mtr


Cut them into 9 rectangles. Use 1 rectangle of 2500 grit on the cue. Rotate the cue slightly with each pass. The only place that the sandpaper will be taking anything off is where your fingers press. You will want to press every unused part of the sandpaper into the cue, so just adjust it every few seconds until the whole piece is used. Then do the same thing with the 6000 grit. Until you get good at it a decent way to make sure you do it evenly is put a little piece of tape on the cue somewhere where you will not be sanding and stop when you do a full rotation. I usually get two full rotations from each rectangle.

You hand most amateurs some good sandpaper and they immediately go right next to the ferrule and sand the last few inches of the cue. Your hand almost never touches there, with some exceptions. You need to focus on sanding about 3-4 inches from the tip to about 14 inches from the tip. If you have a long bridge you may need to sand more. If you have a short bridge you may need to sand less and closer to the tip.

High grit sandpaper will take off very little wood and you will get the glassy smooth feeling that you want.

It's easy, fast and foolproof. GL
 
Rub shaft with a dry Magic Eraser... Wipe down shaft with smooth cloth.
Just a touch of wax if needed to fill wood pores.. Rub shaft until smooth.

.
 
I use a lathe for the sealing and to make it way easier. I've heard a few ppl use Molinari cue wax which is done without a lathe. Some say that stuff is too slick. I haven't given that stuff a try yet so I can't really give an opinion
 
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First, thanks to Ideologist, that makes perfect sense, no doubt you're right, whoever turned my shaft down also gave it a nicer finish than out of the box, but had the right equipment to do so.

Secondly, I like the turn this thread has taken - lots of good suggestions to consider. I do have a few old cues with (only) sentimental value which need a lot of chalk removed, so the cleaning tips are at least as welcome as the smoothing tips.

Look forward to additional comments!
 
Are you backing your technic with cash out of your pocket

TheBook said:
Steam the shaft to raise any dents and it will also push put a lot of crud build up. There are videos on Utube showing how to steam a shaft.

Then get a pin to insert into the end of the shaft and the other in a drill motor.

Clamp the drill motor to a long board with hose clamps, muffler clamp etc. at the far end place some kind of a steady rest to support the end of the shaft. A piece of plastic pipe lined with felt secured to a block of wood could work. You need to devise something that will hold the end to keep it from whipping and not damage the ferrule.

With this make shift lathe smooth the shaft with fine sand paper and then burnish with a piece of leather. A variable speed drill work the best as you don't need to spin it supper fast.

��
Click to expand...

That's right, all you guys with laminated LD shafts, just use STEAM .



Most known glues and epoxies break down around 220 degree F tops,
 
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mortuarymike-nv said:
That's right, all you guys with laminated LD shafts, just use STEAM .



Most known glues and epoxies break down around 220 degree F tops,
Click to expand...

You could of not said anything other than quoted him saying steam and used that picture.

It would have said it all and still made me belly laugh.
 
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