Where to get a cue top sander?

[snookerloopy32]

The reason i find them useful is for 2 things...saves time and gets the ferule totally flush..and second its also useful when tipping..fit tip..leave to dry ...then use it to knock the tip down to the required height..some like it low and some high..then have a flat surface on the tip for when turning the cue upside down and trimming edges..especially useful when fitting harder tips too!
ok might seem like a lazy option but its pretty useful.
The problem with using metal files is u cant guarentee that the ferule is 100% flush,as i do lots of ferule work by hand its pretty much a needed item,think il just go and get the 18 quid one and be done with it lol

[hotpot]

Have you ever tried trimming the bottom of the tip to get the desired height . I always do this not only to save time but it requires no bedding in and the tip doesnt need hardly any shaping as its a nice dome shape already .

Just done this with a pro granite on a new cue Today .

[snookerloopy32]

I tend not to trim the bottom,i lightly sand the bottom and fit it,i have a pro granite on my pool cue which iv left quite high...feels just right,if i leave too low then feels a bit too hard..
might try it and see how it goes though...

[Mr O]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SNOOKER-POOL-B...item3eee23e031

ye like this

[poolqjunkie]

The reason i find them useful is for 2 things...saves time and gets the ferule totally flush..and second its also useful when tipping..fit tip..leave to dry ...then use it to knock the tip down to the required height..some like it low and some high..then have a flat surface on the tip for when turning the cue upside down and trimming edges..especially useful when fitting harder tips too!
ok might seem like a lazy option but its pretty useful.
The problem with using metal files is u cant guarentee that the ferule is 100% flush,as i do lots of ferule work by hand its pretty much a needed item,think il just go and get the 18 quid one and be done with it lol

It is not the best tool to get the ferrule totally flush. I will go as far as saying it cannot get the ferrule 100% flush most of the times. (I am assuming when you said to get the ferrule flush you meant to have the top of the ferrule and tenon flat perpendicular to the shaft.)
Also, I would not recommend using the sander to take the top of the tip down.

[barracuda911]

Regarding the cue top sander...
I see from the picture of it attached to a cue, that it is attached to a 9ball pool cue. I mention this because they are generally non tapered at that point where that sander is attached.
Would you not have trouble with it attached to the tapered shaft of a snooker or uk 8ball pool cue?
I would imagine it would be at a slight lean and therefore wouldn;t sand the ferrule at the right angle?

[snookerloopy32]

Having used one i understand what you mean with the taper being different,if its clamped as close as possible to the top of the cue it makes little difference,i always checked after by holiding the cue upright and turning it round to check for levelness

[huy]

i shaped my tip based on the illustrations in MW website and Andrew's re-tipping guide. works a treat i'd tell you.

[totlxtc]

Small file, 220 grade aluminium oxide paper, scalpel, gel superglue and some fine papers is all you need. I did used to do tips on the lathe, but to be honest i can do them in the time it takes to get the cue on the lathe. You do not need these sort of gimmicks and fancy tools

EDIT: This stuff i have found great as it does not leave deposits in the tip and works quicky. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Abranet-75x125...item3ef39f7067

[tbones147]

tipping a cue

Hi,

I work in a snooker club, so as you can imagine I tip a lot of cues.
Now I have found a really quick solution to help me with tipping. Instead of turning the cue upside down and with a sharp knife cutting it flush to the ferrule, how about using a pencil sharpener - works a treat. just be careful not to nip the ferrule.

Makes my life so much easier, give a nice clean finish as well.
Just do it slowly at first until you get the hang of it.
Only thing you have to be careful of is nipping the ferrule.

good luck

[snookerloopy32]

Theres a store local to me that does lots of grades of paper and a fine finishing sponge which is great for polishing ferules and using on maple/pear shafts comes up a treat after cleaning the shaft,if i added up the amount iv got in my tool box,let me think...i will add a pic later
By the way i bought the ebay linked item cuetop sander and was cheaper than the 18 pounds that ukpool wanted and that wasnt including postage total came to 22 pounds!

Never tried a pencil sharpener,novel idea might give a go later

[tbones147]

pencil sharpener

Works best with 10mm tips and under, just get the normal 2 barrel pencil sharpener (little silver ones).

For the 11mm club cues, I have to cut the edges roughly with a knife, as they are too big to fit in the sharpener. Don't go for the massive pencil sharpeners, as the angles are too steep on them and you will nip the ferrule.

[poolqjunkie]

I only need less than one minute to get it on my tipping lathe because my chuck is built like a quick release on this lathe just for ferrule and tipping. I can slide my cue(even one piece) through a rest end already built in with a collet and then just turn three to four times to tighten up both chucks at the same time.

Can anyone finish a good tipping job by hand in less a minute? May be, but I have never seen it yet.

I like to use the lathe to make sure the surface is really flat when I am working on a cue I did not make. Some people have known to do funny things to their cues.

Also, I am not too fond of cutting the tip upward with a knife. I can do it that way and may be no one can tell the difference. But still the layers are being cut against the direction of which they were compressed and I am just not too comfortable with that.

With doing it on the lathe I am basically cutting it sideway and it is done in seconds.

Sometimes when I look at tips cut by hand I can tell the difference because the side of the tip--altough may be all flush with the ferrule-- is not always forming a complete straight line with the ferrule as you slowly turn the tip and look at it from the side.

Some people try to fix this by sanding down the ferrule a bit--again I am not really comfortable doing that.

So, I built my little lathe to do my tips and ferrules and I never look back.

Not saying my way is the best but it is just what I choose to do.

[hotpot]

Whilst we,re on the subject of ferrules , tips etc , i would like to know if there is a foolproof way of puuting a tip on smack centre .

I know there are gadgets that slide over the cue but i guess they are ok if your fitting a tip flush , like 10 mm tip on 10 mm ferrule .

What if your fitting a 10 mm tip on a 9-9.5 mm cue and dont want to trim the tip flush , but want an overhang on the tip .

[poolqjunkie]

Whilst we,re on the subject of ferrules , tips etc , i would like to know if there is a foolproof way of puuting a tip on smack centre .

I know there are gadgets that slide over the cue but i guess they are ok if your fitting a tip flush , like 10 mm tip on 10 mm ferrule .

What if your fitting a 10 mm tip on a 9-9.5 mm cue and dont want to trim the tip flush , but want an overhang on the tip .

This is something I can do again on my lathe.
I have a concave live center that I can put on my live center.
So, I put the shaft in the chuck, and I put the tip on a live concave center. Since they are both in line--no matter how big the tip is--once I slide my live center to the ferrule it will be centered--with even overhanging on all sides.
The key is that the live center has to be calibrated to be in line with the headstock. And you need to have a concave life center with the curvature more or less that of a regular tip.
This trick is very useful when a customer wants a mushroom tip. Save a lot of time and yield a much more precise result than doing it by hand.

On second thought you can do it by hand as well. I suppose you can try to map out and draw a small circle of the ferrule right in the middle on the back of a tip first, before you glue the tip on. When you glue the tip on, you just make sure the ferrule goes right into the little circle drawn in the back of the tip.
You just cut out a small circle the size of your ferrule, then place it on the back of the tip until it looks centered and then draw it on the back of the tip before you glue it.
There are also rulers with little circles already cut out that you can buy--so you can find say a 10mm circle and just draw it on what you believe to be the center of the back of your tip and then follow that line when you glue the tip on.