Warped shaft?
- Thread starter Shaky1
- Start date
the fifty cent question is why did a shaft warp?
If a shaft warped from stress or environmental conditions it can be successfully straightened. If it warped from stress relief, no longer having the pressures on it that were there when it was part of a bigger piece of wood, then it will always tend to warp.
Playing in hot and humid New Orleans one of my favorite shafts warps every summer. I ignore it and it straightens every winter.
Hu
If a shaft warped from stress or environmental conditions it can be successfully straightened. If it warped from stress relief, no longer having the pressures on it that were there when it was part of a bigger piece of wood, then it will always tend to warp.
Playing in hot and humid New Orleans one of my favorite shafts warps every summer. I ignore it and it straightens every winter.
Hu
Why do all the sticks that are hung in racks in a ac pool hall warp? In this high humid area I know players that carry their sticks around in the car that don't warp.
Are not the cheap hall stick seasoned, conditioned and turned in stages as most retail sticks to prevent warping?
Are not the cheap hall stick seasoned, conditioned and turned in stages as most retail sticks to prevent warping?
They warp because of gravity. They are only supported at the top and bottom.
doubt the cheap ones are
A quick oven drying, a doweling machine, and a quick few passes on an NC lathe would be my guess. Even knowing how cheap labor is in some countries I find it amazing that a cue with a maple shaft, joint, and thread wrap(a stretch to call it linen) can be retailed for under ten dollars!
I needed a cue when I didn't have my machinery set up and bought a cheaper semi-custom cue for $135 or so less than ten years ago. The shaft warped almost immediately and soon the insert pulled out of it. That is when I found that the hole for the insert was drilled very oversized where the threads of the insert barely scored the wood instead of having threads in the wood. The insert relied on glue to hold it in. When I made new shafts I pulled the pin from the butt and recentered the pin hole putting in the pin I preferred. That is when I discovered that the length of the original pin threaded into the butt was only about 3/4 to one inch.
There are many places to cut costs and quality in a cue. People selling cheap cues, other than a few beginners and hobby builders, tend to use some or all of them. While the finished product may look a lot like a quality cue when it is new, it doesn't usually take long for cut corners to start revealing themselves.
The other side of the coin, when I needed a shaft for my Meucci on the fly I went to the store back in the eighties or early nineties and looked through about forty Dufferin hinged cues they had on the rack. Found a shaft with nice tight straight grain and bought the cue for forty dollars. The cue actually played very well being a sneaky design. The shaft held up very well also. I used it until I gave away my Moochie while I wasn't playing pool for a decade or two.
Hu
A quick oven drying, a doweling machine, and a quick few passes on an NC lathe would be my guess. Even knowing how cheap labor is in some countries I find it amazing that a cue with a maple shaft, joint, and thread wrap(a stretch to call it linen) can be retailed for under ten dollars!
I needed a cue when I didn't have my machinery set up and bought a cheaper semi-custom cue for $135 or so less than ten years ago. The shaft warped almost immediately and soon the insert pulled out of it. That is when I found that the hole for the insert was drilled very oversized where the threads of the insert barely scored the wood instead of having threads in the wood. The insert relied on glue to hold it in. When I made new shafts I pulled the pin from the butt and recentered the pin hole putting in the pin I preferred. That is when I discovered that the length of the original pin threaded into the butt was only about 3/4 to one inch.
There are many places to cut costs and quality in a cue. People selling cheap cues, other than a few beginners and hobby builders, tend to use some or all of them. While the finished product may look a lot like a quality cue when it is new, it doesn't usually take long for cut corners to start revealing themselves.
The other side of the coin, when I needed a shaft for my Meucci on the fly I went to the store back in the eighties or early nineties and looked through about forty Dufferin hinged cues they had on the rack. Found a shaft with nice tight straight grain and bought the cue for forty dollars. The cue actually played very well being a sneaky design. The shaft held up very well also. I used it until I gave away my Moochie while I wasn't playing pool for a decade or two.
Hu
that is odd
That is odd that it should take a wild hair to warp now. However since it's normal condition is straight odds are pretty good that it will stay straight.
I started ripping a very old cypress 1x, probably over a hundred years old, that was fairly straight. It was from the wall of an old home. before I had cut a foot long rip the 1x1 piece I was cutting off had curled about 90 degrees one way and the rest of the board now had a major warp in the other direction. I would have thought a hundred years or so would have been long enough to normalize the stresses in the wood!
I have to admit, I hate that aspect of wood. I like machining metal and plastics that are going to be the same way I left them the next time I pick them up.
Hu
I have had that cue for about 15 years in the same environment. Never had it warp before! I don't understand why it did now?Osteoporosis? :grin:
Oh, well. It should be OK in a day or two.
That is odd that it should take a wild hair to warp now. However since it's normal condition is straight odds are pretty good that it will stay straight.
I started ripping a very old cypress 1x, probably over a hundred years old, that was fairly straight. It was from the wall of an old home. before I had cut a foot long rip the 1x1 piece I was cutting off had curled about 90 degrees one way and the rest of the board now had a major warp in the other direction. I would have thought a hundred years or so would have been long enough to normalize the stresses in the wood!
I have to admit, I hate that aspect of wood. I like machining metal and plastics that are going to be the same way I left them the next time I pick them up.
Hu