cue making lathes

[alcotty321]

on my first cue , i shaped the bottom of the cue to its aboslut roundest even finished it with fine grained sandpaper so it was like a fished cue without splices , then mesure up the cues desired splice hieght 18-22 inch watever i got some maskin tape and put it around the cue at this hieght , plane down from the tape do not touch the tape , i had no problem with the splices thought it was easyish , its just when you throw the cue it comes back to me hah hah

[jim evans]

making cues

i have found making 3/4 butts out of 35 mm square shaping it down and gluing the spliced wood back to make it square again then turning had success like that they come out fairly even just bought some ebony and purpleheart wood to have another go

[alcotty321]

what type lathe do you have jim , the sussed out alot of the makers have matal lathes , held by a massive chuckwhich is passed through the headstock secured by a live cetre there is just no movement , i think thats the trouble with mine , and i cant bore

[jim evans]

cue making

i have 3 now 1 i can get a full lenght cue in 62inch the others are only 36 inch but i can get a 42 3/4 cue in with a push it goes 6 inch into the chuck part then i have a steady to old it ,the other 1 just using for butts and bowls and made a cue rack to to old a few few of my 130 odd cues

[alcotty321]

why do you have 130 cues mate ? im selling my record coronet n03 , got bored of bowls pens vases ect , where you from

[jim evans]

making cues

been playing snooker for 20 odd yrs started collecting old cues about 3 yrs ago got about 110 of them got about 20 odd playing cues got interested in making my own about 6months ago found a bloke in sheffield were i live that made cues self taught and got him to clean up some of my old ones, bought some wood asked him to make me a few andfollowed some of is advice and so on now hooked on making a cue what looks something like some of these cues you see on here with fancy splicing hopefully

[alcotty321]

andrew travis ?

[jim evans]

cue maker

hi alcotty no its not andy its a bloke called ron grayson got 6 cues or more he's made i think there good,ive been in touch with andy about sorting some of my old cues but not got round to it yet,we have a few cue docs in sheffield but something you make yourself is different

[YDJ]

tried same method of planing blanks down difficult to do,then tried turning one out of 1 1/2 inch blank bounced too much i think i will have to plane blank down to somesort of round before i btry that again even though i now have a centre steady but its all trial and error,

It is possible to turn a 1 piece shaft in a lathe without the bouncing/vibration or using a steady.
It is all a matter of getting the correct speeds and feeds. It also requires you to use a router mounted to the lathe tool post. The type of cutter makes a difference.
It is better if you mount the blank between centres, and not held in the chuck at one end and a centre the other.

[Stick]

If you do not have a lathe it can still be done by hand if I understand it corectly. On one webpage I read ( I think it was on Riley history) it showed a photo of craftsman making cues with the caption "not a lathe in sight"

How did they do it - a straight-edge plane and continously turning the stock, mounting it in a type of jig and working from there?

Can you not also use a hand-held router with a semi-circle bit to help speed things along and achieve a round profile quicker?

[danam1]

If you do not have a lathe it can still be done by hand if I understand it corectly. On one webpage I read ( I think it was on Riley history) it showed a photo of craftsman making cues with the caption "not a lathe in sight"

How did they do it - a straight-edge plane and continously turning the stock, mounting it in a type of jig and working from there?

Can you not also use a hand-held router with a semi-circle bit to help speed things along and achieve a round profile quicker?

What a good idea!! didnt think of that

Danny

[jim evans]

cue making

using a router is all right once you have got it down to wedge shape i then take corners of and get an octogon shape and then start planing again,why isit when your planing maple that your with the grain and next against the grain sort of rough and smooth planing anybody

[danam1]

[QUOTE=jim evans;520530]using a router is all right once you have got it down to wedge shape i then take corners of and get an octogon shape and then start planing again,why isit when your planing maple that your with the grain and next against the grain sort of rough and smooth planing anybody[/QUOTE]

Its the same with all wood ( grained ). If you look at an ash shaft you can see better.
When you are working on the shevron side you are affectively against the grain. When you work on the long straight grains you are with the grain.
I should imagine it is the same with maple but less obvious, as you cant see the grain so well. ( dont take this as gospel, i'm shore Dan or pooljunkie will put me right! )

Danny