Why you don't let just any joker work on your cue!

greyghost

greyghost

Coast to Coast
Silver Member
I can't ever say it enough.....be careful who works on your cues, especially if you know they have no experience in working around them, building them, repairing them etc....

I went up to the pool hall last night and was given 2 shafts to go put tips on, when i came back in with the repaired shafts another friend of mine brings me his shaft.

He had given it to a hack artist at the pool hall that charged him $30 for a tip....he took a chunk out of the shaft right under the ferrule, the tip looks like he shaped it with a chain saw....and the shaft is now hourglass shaped at the tip of the shaft and ferrule....it was 13mm and is now 12mm at the tip and an inch back of the ferrule its back at 13mm...

Now I have to turn down homeboys shaft somewhat.....I know the pic isnt the best but you can get the idea of what he got for $30....now he has to pay more for me to fix the mess his "friend" created.....

its just a shame that something that should have cost him $10/$20 bucks is going to cost him alot more just for a dam lousy tip job.....

careful guys/girls who you send your equipment to....

i did tips for 10 years by hand with the most minimal equipment/tools and not once did such a gaffed up job like that....i don't think its an equipment issue or anything like that, its taking your time and having some pride to do something correctly and not half ass/ hap hazardly.

-Grey Ghost-
 

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Wow that shaft got butchered! I only trust one guy to do work on my cues. This is exactly why. I would have made the guy buy me a new shaft.
 
I have replaced tips on shafts that my friends bring to me. I charge them whatever the cost of the tip is. Sometimes they are also required to buy me a "Crown and Coke", but that's if I'm in the mood for one (which I usually am :wink:). I use a homemade lathe to do my tip repairs. I have become very proficient at installing tips and take great pride in the fact that when I'm done, it looks as good as a professional job. I get a lot of compliments. I will however, admit to the fact that while I was learning the art of tip repair, I did what can be described as "less than stellar" work on a couple of my own shafts (cheapo's). As they say, ya gotta learn how to crawl before you can walk. I would NEVER have attempted to do someone else's shaft without first believing in myself AND my work.

Maniac
 
I have a short list of people I let work on my cues.

Joe Blackburn
Steve Lomax
Dave Barrenbruggy
and myself...

I have had bad work done before not fun.
 
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Maniac said:
I have replaced tips on shafts that my friends bring to me. I charge them whatever the cost of the tip is. Sometimes they are also required to buy me a "Crown and Coke", but that's if I'm in the mood for one (which I usually am :wink:). I use a homemade lathe to do my tip repairs. I have become very proficient at installing tips and take great pride in the fact that when I'm done, it looks as good as a professional job. I get a lot of compliments. I will however, admit to the fact that while I was learning the art of tip repair, I did what can be described as "less than stellar" work on a couple of my own shafts (cheapo's). As they say, ya gotta learn how to crawl before you can walk. I would NEVER have attempted to do someone else's shaft without first believing in myself AND my work.

Maniac
Click to expand...
u got a pic of that homemade lathe
 
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When you do work like that you have to charge $30. $10 for the tip install, $10 for heath ins. and $10 for life ins.

Larry
 
Years ago I worked part time in a pool room in New Jersey. We had a huge metal lathe in the back room. There was no where around to get a tip put on unless you wanted to wait for the owner to take his once a month trip to see Gus. He would gather up shafts for Gus to re tip.
So just after Gus passed I practiced on a few crap shafts to get the hang of it and Barry gave me some pointers and I got pretty good at it. This was a pool room with a handful of Gus's cues, a couple of Richard Blacks. 1 Balabusha, a few Schons and other assorted fairly expensive cues. So the bottom line here is I had to take my time and do the best job I could. I certainly didn't want to destroy the many Ivory ferrules that I worked on.
 
Hey Ghost,
I don't appreciate you coming on the forum and trying to ruin me. I intentionally to a hunk out of the shaft to reduce deflection. I used a Norwegian laser guided lathe. I then injected musk from a chilean mountain yaks scrotum in the tip. That is probably the best hitting shaft on the planet right now thanks to me. You should get all the facts before you come on here and blow somebody up.
 
That's why I mailed mine to Chuck Starkey instead of driving 10 minutes away to have them put on by a local guy.
 
greyghost said:
I can't ever say it enough.....be careful who works on your cues, especially if you know they have no experience in working around them, building them, repairing them etc....

I went up to the pool hall last night and was given 2 shafts to go put tips on, when i came back in with the repaired shafts another friend of mine brings me his shaft.

He had given it to a hack artist at the pool hall that charged him $30 for a tip....he took a chunk out of the shaft right under the ferrule, the tip looks like he shaped it with a chain saw....and the shaft is now hourglass shaped at the tip of the shaft and ferrule....it was 13mm and is now 12mm at the tip and an inch back of the ferrule its back at 13mm...

Now I have to turn down homeboys shaft somewhat.....I know the pic isnt the best but you can get the idea of what he got for $30....now he has to pay more for me to fix the mess his "friend" created.....

its just a shame that something that should have cost him $10/$20 bucks is going to cost him alot more just for a dam lousy tip job.....

careful guys/girls who you send your equipment to....

i did tips for 10 years by hand with the most minimal equipment/tools and not once did such a gaffed up job like that....i don't think its an equipment issue or anything like that, its taking your time and having some pride to do something correctly and not half ass/ hap hazardly.

-Grey Ghost-
Click to expand...

I think some inexperienced people see working on cues as easy money and they don't know the value of what they are working on. Just cut off a piece of leather and glue a new piece on, right.

Many years ago I tried to get 2 tips put on one Saturday morning. The first guy I went to replaced the 2 tips and since he was a friend I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but the job didn't suit me at all. I paid him $30 for his second class work and went across town to another cue maker/repair man. I asked him if he would put 2 tips on for me and I didn't mention that i'd just had it done. He was in his office and he told me that he had a helper in his shop and that he'd do it for me. Well I walked into the shop and met a young guy who i'd never seen before and he put the tips on for me for $20 this time and I must say he did better than the first fellow did, but it still didn't suit me.

I decided right then that I was going to buy a machine and learn to do this work myself. I contacted Chris Hightower and bought a Cuesmith lathe with a video tape on cue repairs. Next I ordered 10 house cues to practice on, cutting them in half, installing joints for S/P cues, and fine tuning the shafts (ferrules/tips) etc. I made some mistakes in the beginning, but I learned many tricks to help me do cue repairs. I got the chance to work in a friend of mine's cue shop who builds cues and I learned a lot from him to further my repair knowledge and i'm confident that i'd never butcher a player's shaft like the one in this thread.

Working on cues takes a lot more than just buying a cue lathe. It takes knowledge and experience and confidence that you can work on someone's $200 or more shaft and not screw it up. I feel for the poor guy you are talking about in this thread because he paid someone $30 to ruin his shaft.

My advice is to make sure whoever works on your cue knows what they are doing to save you some $$$ and heart ache.

James
 
A while back the owner of the pool room I frequented bought a lathe and immediately though having no experience, started asking if anyone needed work done.

This guy had trouble walking he was so uncoordinated. The very first shaft he worked on he snapped somehow. Then the next day an unsuspecting customer gave him a shaft to clean. He broke out the Scotchguard and holding it too tight, it promptly melted into the shaft over the entire length of the shaft to the point of no return.

Two or three days later, he discovered that he hadnt set the lathe up right and all the shafts he worked on had been wobbling as they spun. A couple of days later he gave up and the the thing gathered dust from there out.
 
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Yep

Thats the reason went out and bought myself a Hightower Deluxe as well. Cue building can be a fun hobby - and it sure is nice to be able to clean your shafts and put on tips (which has paid for the lathe - just putting on tips).
 
repair work

My son has a cue I gave him several years ago. He is 6'6 and needed a longer shaft or cue. A guy in Shreveport told him he would make him a longer shaft. He made it out of ash which I guess is ok I don't know. The main thing is when he got to the joint the shaft collar was a little smaller so he turned the joint down a few thousands at a 45 degree angle to makeit match the shaft. I told my son he needed to slap the shit out of the guy and tell him he needed to pay to have someone put a new joint on the cue. But he didn't so now he has a cue with a crappy looking joint.
I traded for a Mike Erwin that is 60 inches long for his birthday so now he will have a great cue and I am going to tell him not to let anyone in shreveport but Billy Schick work on it.
Knifemaker
 
mnorwood said:
Hey Ghost,
I don't appreciate you coming on the forum and trying to ruin me. I intentionally to a hunk out of the shaft to reduce deflection. I used a Norwegian laser guided lathe. I then injected musk from a chilean mountain yaks scrotum in the tip. That is probably the best hitting shaft on the planet right now thanks to me. You should get all the facts before you come on here and blow somebody up.
Click to expand...

well dude its your fault you used the Norwegian laser.....

now i gotta wait for my flux capacitor to be installed in my Delorean to fix the issue




Can you believe it marty....he actually thought the norwegians knew about lasers!
 

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Tip Replacement

greyghost said:
I can't ever say it enough.....be careful who works on your cues, especially if you know they have no experience in working around them, building them, repairing them etc....

I went up to the pool hall last night and was given 2 shafts to go put tips on, when i came back in with the repaired shafts another friend of mine brings me his shaft.

He had given it to a hack artist at the pool hall that charged him $30 for a tip....he took a chunk out of the shaft right under the ferrule, the tip looks like he shaped it with a chain saw....and the shaft is now hourglass shaped at the tip of the shaft and ferrule....it was 13mm and is now 12mm at the tip and an inch back of the ferrule its back at 13mm...

Now I have to turn down homeboys shaft somewhat.....I know the pic isnt the best but you can get the idea of what he got for $30....now he has to pay more for me to fix the mess his "friend" created.....

its just a shame that something that should have cost him $10/$20 bucks is going to cost him alot more just for a dam lousy tip job.....

careful guys/girls who you send your equipment to....

i did tips for 10 years by hand with the most minimal equipment/tools and not once did such a gaffed up job like that....i don't think its an equipment issue or anything like that, its taking your time and having some pride to do something correctly and not half ass/ hap hazardly.

-Grey Ghost-
Click to expand...

I especially like the way he domed the tip, and who cares about the ferrule.

Is that a milk dud?
 
I had a tip put on my cheap cue at Universal Billiards. I gave it to them as 13 mm shaft that needed an Everest tip. After over one week (guy said 1 day) I got a 11.5 mm shaft with a PoS tip and a yellow ferrule. I asked WTF they did and the guy said he had to replace the ferrule because it had a microscopic crack and that I owed him around $50 for fixing it. I just shook my head, gave him $20 for the ass tip and played with that ruined shaft for 6 more months.
 
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