Willard's or small lathe?

[td873]

I was just reading a couple of post's regarding tip and shaft maintenance, and noticed that a few people have their own toys. I posted the following in "Ask the Cue Maker", but wanted to get all the exposure and feedback possible.

I was considering a lathe for my own shaft/tip maintenance, but a portable lathe is about twice as much as the Willard's tipper. If I was just doing my own tips, I think the Willard's would do.

Anyone recommend getting the Willard's instead of a portable lathe?

Any opinion about a small lathe being overkill for simple maintenance (most likely won't do anyone else's stuff)?

I suppose I could just get a Willard's for tips, and then take my shafts to a repairman for maintenance...

-td

 

[DoomCue]

I was just reading a couple of post's regarding tip and shaft maintenance, and noticed that a few people have their own toys. I posted the following in "Ask the Cue Maker", but wanted to get all the exposure and feedback possible.

I was considering a lathe for my own shaft/tip maintenance, but a portable lathe is about twice as much as the Willard's tipper. If I was just doing my own tips, I think the Willard's would do.

Anyone recommend getting the Willard's instead of a portable lathe?

Any opinion about a small lathe being overkill for simple maintenance (most likely won't do anyone else's stuff)?

I suppose I could just get a Willard's for tips, and then take my shafts to a repairman for maintenance...

-td

One of the nice things about a lathe is that you can use it for other things besides tips and shafts. The Willard's system is fairly single-purpose. If you do woodworking, the lathe might be the way to go. What kind of shaft maintenance are you looking to do?

-djb

 

[JimS]

I have a Williards I got on eBay for only $200...an unusual occurrance. Although it works great I would not buy a new one just for installing my own tips. It's not hard to learn to install tips by hand, you just need some junk cues to practice on.

If I were to spend a few hundred dollars to have a machine to put on tips I'd get a small lathe and have fun doing other stuff with it. I think a lathe would make a great toy and I'm REAL tempted to get one.

 

[kokopuffs]

I'm really tempted to get a small lathe instead of the Willards because of the former's diverse capabilities. It's really useful for gunsmithing applications as well.