Z2 Shaft Taper on a Solid 1 Piece Shaft?

[jeffwinters]

Has anybody tried that? With the taper of the Z2 shaft with it's tip diameter on a solid 1 piece shaft, how did it perform? Of course it's incomparable in terms of performance because of the concept behind those two, but did anyone just out of curiousness tried this?

Many thanks for reading .

 

[McChen]

I think both the McDermott i3 and the Universal Smartshaft TX8 have a similar diameter and taper as the Z2, but are not hollow. From what I've heard both are fairly low deflection, but not like the predator. Never tried them though...

 

[jeffwinters]

thanks McChen for your input, i'm thinking of having my cue trim to that of Z2, just want to know if somebody else have tried it before.

 

[Hierovision]

I know a lot of cuemakers don't like going that skinny. Something about integrity of the shaft or some other nonsense

 

[Flex]

I know a lot of cuemakers don't like going that skinny. Something about integrity of the shaft or some other nonsense

Interesting.

I have an Ed Young shaft that he retapered for me down to 12.59 mm 6 or 8 months ago, I think.

Since that time, I had been using a scotch brite pad, or something like that, to clean the shaft (not too smart I now realize) and was unaware just how much wood those things can take off. Making a long story short, after a while and a few tips later, I notice the shaft plays really sporty. For those who don't know, another cuemaker told me he uses a parabolic taper on his shafts. Gotta say the shaft I have has a very stiff spine. About a month ago I bought a steel rule with a height/depth indicator that's accurate to 1/64 th of an inch. Measured the tip with it, and calculated the tip size: approximately 11.5 mm............... No wonder it moves balls around so easily. Does it play like a Z shaft? Not really, the shaft's not hollowed out up near the tip, and it squirts like crazy. Who cares, it plays lights out.

As for cuemakers not wanting to make shafts like that, perhaps they're worrying about warpage, or who knows, perhaps that the shaft will break.

By the way, I jump balls with ease with this shaft on a full length cue (need 18 inches or a bit more to get over a full ball).

I suppose if I hollowed out the area under the tip for 3 or 4 inches the cue might play more like a Z shaft, but why potentially ruin a shaft I have more than $200 already in? If I really wanted to try retapering a regular shaft to mirror the Z shaft, I'd buy a cheap sneaky pete on eBay and use it to experiment with. Or just go to Wal-Mart and pick up a cheap cue for $15 and have at it.

Try it, you may like it!

Flex

 

[spliced]

I had a schon shaft tapered to 11.5mm with no ferrule, just an indestructable backer and sniper tip. In my opinion, it had the same low deflection characteristics of the Z2 and just as much action on the cueball if not more. Not something i'd want to play with regularly, but fun to mess around and see just how much juice I can put on the q ball.

 

[StevenPWaldon]

I had two shafts custom made. I took a micrometer and measured the Z2 shaft taper, with measurements every half centimeter, and had my cues made to these specs.

The shafts play great. I put down my old 314, and have only been using these shafts. The taper makes it stiffer than a typical thin shaft (I've got several 12 mm tip, 15" pro taper, whippy shafts I compared them again) and because most of the growth in the taper is in the first 5-6" of the shaft, the taper doesn't grow much in the stroking area so it doesn't feel strange through a closed bridge.

Has anybody tried that? With the taper of the Z2 shaft with it's tip diameter on a solid 1 piece shaft, how did it perform? Of course it's incomparable in terms of performance because of the concept behind those two, but did anyone just out of curiousness tried this?

Many thanks for reading .

 

[jeffwinters]

wow, thanks everyone for giving your inputs, i might try it on a cheap cue first as suggested by flex, just want to know the feel of it, it would probably not play like z2 shaft, but it would give me an idea. thanks again.