Why do these shafts wobble on one Schon butt, but not on two others?

[Shooter1]

I have three Schons, one SL6 I bought new in 1996 and two SL4's both bought in the last 4 years, both in excellent condition. I have a number of shafts, 4 OEM Schons, 4 Mezz WX700's and 4 Predators, (2 cat shafts and 2 pre-cats).

If you roll the shafts alone, most roll very straight a few may have just the slightest bit of taper roll. If you screw these shafts on the SL6 and one of the SL4's, both cues roll very straight. If you screw these shafts on the other SL4, I'd say 8 of the 12 roll pretty straight but 3 or 4 of them have a very distinct wobble that you can see at the tip.

Why would all these shafts roll pretty true on the SL6 and one SL4, but when on the other SL4, a few of them have a noticeable wobble at the tip? I don't understand this as many of the shafts roll pretty flat on the suspect SL4 but some do not. What is it about this butt that makes some of these shafts not roll flat?

Thanks

 

[fjk]

Try cleaning the joint surfaces well. I experienced the same thing a while back, and it turned out I had something on the butt joint (I couldn't see it or feel it, but when I cleaned it, the wobble went away). Worth a try...

 

[hurricane145]

Try cleaning the joint surfaces well. I experienced the same thing a while back, and it turned out I had something on the butt joint (I couldn't see it or feel it, but when I cleaned it, the wobble went away). Worth a try...

Yes it takes almost nothing on the surface of a joint to cause a wobble when rolled!

 

[ShootingArts]

Cue building is part technical ability, part art. The outer edge of the joint is less than a half inch from the centerline. The tip is roughly 28 inches away. Any imperfection in a joint including a bit of lint stuck to it is magnified over fourteen times by the time we look at motion at the tip.(edit: way over 14 times usually, 28 or more. A bit low on sleep!)

It doesn't take much to show a slight wobble. I wipe down my joint faces with 91-99% alcohol pretty often. The other thing is that I don't fuss as much as I once did about perfection. My main playing shaft warps slightly in the summer, straightens every winter. I have been indexing house cues for about fifty years, I can handle a tiny imperfection! Index the warp on the vertical axis. This has a slight consistency advantage also if using an unspliced wooden shaft.

Hu

 

[iusedtoberich]

The few Schons I’ve touched over the years all had weird joint screws that made them very finicky to aftermarket shafts. I believe they were a bit fatter than standard 5/16-14 joint screws. I’d bet it’s something to do with that.

 

[tg_vegas]

You might try chucking up the joint end and steady resting the butt end and measuring the rounout in the pin on the butt that doesn't roll straight.. Just my two cents.

 

[smoochie]

I have three Schons, one SL6 I bought new in 1996 and two SL4's both bought in the last 4 years, both in excellent condition. I have a number of shafts, 4 OEM Schons, 4 Mezz WX700's and 4 Predators, (2 cat shafts and 2 pre-cats).

If you roll the shafts alone, most roll very straight a few may have just the slightest bit of taper roll. If you screw these shafts on the SL6 and one of the SL4's, both cues roll very straight. If you screw these shafts on the other SL4, I'd say 8 of the 12 roll pretty straight but 3 or 4 of them have a very distinct wobble that you can see at the tip.

Why would all these shafts roll pretty true on the SL6 and one SL4, but when on the other SL4, a few of them have a noticeable wobble at the tip? I don't understand this as many of the shafts roll pretty flat on the suspect SL4 but some do not. What is it about this butt that makes some of these shafts not roll flat?

Thanks

Joint.....issues

 

[Sheldon]

Is the pin longer on the sl4? If it's bottoming out in the insert or bent, the pressure could cause misalignment. If you have a decent cuemaker or repair person you can go to, they can check the face of the cue and true it up if necessary. This is the most likely fix.

 

[td873]

It's almost certainly something on the facing of the joint. Super simple to check. If it's debris, just clean it. If it's fatigued, you might need to reface the joint. A repair guy with a lathe can do that in 30 seconds.

-td

 

[hang-the-9]

I have three Schons, one SL6 I bought new in 1996 and two SL4's both bought in the last 4 years, both in excellent condition. I have a number of shafts, 4 OEM Schons, 4 Mezz WX700's and 4 Predators, (2 cat shafts and 2 pre-cats).

If you roll the shafts alone, most roll very straight a few may have just the slightest bit of taper roll. If you screw these shafts on the SL6 and one of the SL4's, both cues roll very straight. If you screw these shafts on the other SL4, I'd say 8 of the 12 roll pretty straight but 3 or 4 of them have a very distinct wobble that you can see at the tip.

Why would all these shafts roll pretty true on the SL6 and one SL4, but when on the other SL4, a few of them have a noticeable wobble at the tip? I don't understand this as many of the shafts roll pretty flat on the suspect SL4 but some do not. What is it about this butt that makes some of these shafts not roll flat?

Thanks

That is some dedication to the cues, all almost the same model, all with extra shafts and one shaft for each of them so they don't have to be nice and share LOL You are going to make them spoiled brats that won't get along with the other cues. I make my cues share shafts to teach them that they can't always have everything they want, builds character.

 

[Shooter1]

I cleaned the cue joint faces and the shaft joint faces and inspected them all for any debris or imperfections I could see with the naked eye and could see nothing. I wonder if it's partially due to manufacturing tolerances of the joint face and pin placement, and as one noted earlier, maybe the Schon Butts are finicky to aftermarket shafts fitting properly.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Zerksies]

Sounds like an issue with the joint/pin might be off. Try cleaning the pin/ joint first and retest if it's still an issue i would take for repair

 

[MitchAlsup]

Cue building is part technical ability, part art. The outer edge of the joint is less than a half inch from the centerline. The tip is roughly 28 inches away. Any imperfection in a joint including a bit of lint stuck to it is magnified over fourteen times by the time we look at motion at the tip.(edit: way over 14 times usually, 28 or more. A bit low on sleep!)

40-thou (1mm) is easily visible in roll and this equates to about 0.000,5" out of plane somewhere on the connection surfaces.