I've sanded 2 shafts down in the last 3 months. While I'm not a cue builder, it really wasn't all that difficult as I am a very long-time woodworker and wood turner. I have a Mid America cue lathe, and used this to do it, and although I had their upgraded motor, I really wished I had the 1/2 or 3/4hp motor to do this. First shaft I reduced down was a stock Schon 29" as I had 3 of them that I wasn't using and figured it would be fun to try. Wouldn't really hurt if it didn't work out, as I was actually using Jacoby Ultra 30" shafts on my Schons. Cut the cue ferrule down to about 12.7 from the stock 13mm, then sanded the shaft and ferrule to 12.65mm to get the taper that I thought I wanted. Really wasn't that hard, took my time with very good non loading sandpaper, and measured every three inches with calipers, also kept a storyboard with measurements right behind the shaft as I went and measured often. I was careful not to let the shaft heat up, Also, as to the peaks and valleys mentioned by Joey, that's great advice but already had thought about that. I have misc sanding blocks I have made with some 1/8" craft foam for cushion laying around in my shop, and I think I used about a 4" or 5" one to even out the sanding. That shaft hits great, but still really crisp like Schon shafts do. Next shaft was a Schon 30" that I picked up a great deal on from Seyberts. I had picked up a DZ cue just before this with a 30" shaft that I really liked at about 12.8mm, but wanted to make this Schon shaft about 12.6mm, so I measured the DZ shaft and adjusted accordingly. I really like that Schon 30" shaft after retapering, but did put it on the lathe one more time to slightly elongate the taper. So my advice for first time users would be to 1st, have an idea of what dimensions you would like to end up with and stop slightly short your 1st try, 2nd use really good sandpaper, 3rd I found a sanding block necessary as good as it looked when sanding down, the second you use a sanding block you will realize that it was needed, and 4th measure every 3" first, and measure as you go.
